Search the Community

16 year old Damani Marcano visits Spa Francorchamps and tells us what was going through his mind as he approached the legendary Eau Rouge at over 100mph for the first time.What goes through the mind of a 16 year old as they approach Eau Rouge at over 100mph for the first time? Damani Marcano, our resident 16 year old racing driver, finds out. Driving the Legendary Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps was an absolutely amazing experience. I don’t know if I can even put into words how I felt just thinking about it. Driving it was something else! Located in Belgium, it is the home of the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix. And I got to drive the full GP circuit! It’s not the first F1 circuit I’ve driven, Silverstone was the first, but the fact that it was my first ever international track made this special. The weather was the best I have ever experienced during a race weekend. The track had so much grip. Driving the car with that much grip gave me more confidence in the car than I have ever had. One of the reasons why driving Spa is so awesome is because you remember that your favourite F1 drivers of all time have been driving around the same track as you. I feel very lucky to have made it to Spa at all because, for a while, it was looking like I wasn’t going to make it. If you have read about the reliability issues from the start of the season, you’ll know that I didn’t complete several races. Because this is my first year in cars this meant I didn’t have enough race experience to upgrade my racing license. To race at Spa I needed a National ‘A’ MSA license. This meant I needed an extra race weekend in the VAG Trophy to get the license upgrade. My racing budget didn’t cover that. If I raced in the VAG Trophy there’d be no money to race at Spa. If I didn’t race in the VAG Trophy then my license would mean I couldn’t race at Spa. Somehow I had to do it. Local newspapers heard about my situation and immediately published a story. I thought that there would be a company somewhere that would step in. I visited local companies with my brochure. Showed them all my local and national press and media coverage. I even contacted larger companies based in the area. There were several that wanted to help but felt they couldn’t spare the cash. I was really down and confused at the end of this. I thought it was all over. Then, my existing sponsors, The CleverBaggers came through with some extra funding, Team HARD gave us extra support so that it was nearly enough to get me on track and RiverGlide covered the difference. It was going to be tight but it was enough. I was going to Spa! I can’t thank them all enough! Driving through Eau Rouge for the first time was spectacular. This corner is possibly the most legendary corner of any track, anywhere in the world and to know that I've driven it, especially at such a young age, is just crazy. It is something that I thought I would experience much later in my racing career but to think that at only 16 I’ve actually done the same thing as many legends in motorsport is astonishing. I still can’t get used to it! It is such a fast complex of corners through Eau Rouge, it’s hard to go into it without feeling like you should touch the brake just before you start the first left. Thanks to my experience on the simulator at Pro-Sim I felt like I knew the track inside out. The fact that they now have tuned a physics model of my car made me feel like I knew exactly what to expect. It meant that I was able to go into Eau Rouge for the first time fully committed, without touching the brake, just a slight lift of the throttle and the car was able to go into the corner almost at its full potential straight away. That’s when I realised how different it was doing this for real! I don't think anyone can understand how amazing it is until you drive it in real life. On a simulator or video game it seems like a simple corner, but it's so much more than that. The car grips so much as the track begins to go up hill. This means that massive amounts of speed can be carried through the corner. The car compresses down and the rate the hill climbs means you are almost looking into the sky. On my first run through, the car broke traction. I corrected as it slid sideways a little bit too much onto the exit kerb. I lost a little speed there but none of the thrill. Lap after lap I played with carrying more and more speed. There is nothing like it! Spa is definitely the most exciting track I have ever driven in anything and I can't imagine another corner giving me the same amazing feeling as Eau Rouge. Want to drive a car like Damani's? Check out Damani's racing experience track day where you find out for yourself how it feels to take a current Volkswagen Racing Cup car around Brands Hatch! You can follow Damani’s journey here on VWROC via his regular monthly column. Day to day, keep up to date via Twitter (@DKMRacing), Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. To help keep Damani on the grid, you can back him via his crowd funding campaign and via his Patreon page. Click here to view the article

"Rubbin' is racing" usually means swapping paint, not business cards. In this month's column from Damani Marcano, our 16 year old Volkswagen Racing Cup driver, we get some insight into how much rubbing shoulders a race weekend entails and he speaks of his first 'paint exchanges' with other drivers.Deep down, the only thing that racing drivers really want to do is race. They want to be wheel to wheel with other drivers, they want to be trying to improve their lap times and they want to be on track. But the truth of the matter is that the time spent actually racing during a race weekend is extremely limited. Most of the weekend is spent entertaining sponsors, doing PR, marketing to attract new sponsors and generally interacting with other people. Picking up the pace The most recent round of the Volkswagen Racing Cup was at Silverstone, home of the British Grand Prix. This was my busiest weekend by far even though I had more time between each race than in previous rounds. On the Saturday the only time I was on track was for qualifying at 5pm. You would think that means I would be able to get some extra sleep and arrive at the track in the afternoon... Nope! Having stayed up late on Friday night going through the video footage from Friday practice, I was up early on Saturday. First stop was Whilton Mill kart circuit to promote the Team HARD Award in the LGM kart series, a national kart championship. Luckily, while I was there I got to also catch-up with and watch my old MLC Motorsport team-mates race. After, that I had to get back to Silverstone by mid morning to meet with Chris McCarthy from Karting magazine. Next, I had a photo shoot to get some of the photos needed for an article in Performance VW Magazine. The next thing I knew, TV cameras showed up to interview me for the Channel 4 and Motors TV coverage. Networking never stops Next stop, a visit to the McLaren garage. My racing-simulator instructor, Adrian Quaife-Hobbs from Pro-sim, was standing in for another driver in the British GT. Normally he races in an international series but was hired to cover another driver for the weekend. I took the opportunity to visit him in the British GT garages and to check out the McLaren 650S GT3. After only a short time there I had to rush to a meeting with Volkswagen Racing. They were very pleased with the amount of publicity and exposure I was adding to the series and took a lot of time to give me advice on how to get the next signature I needed to upgrade my racing license in time to race at Spa Francorchamps, Belgium. Finally on track Straight after that it was back to Team HARD to run through on-board camera footage and my notes to remind myself of how I needed to improve for qualifying. Finally I was out on track! This is where I wanted to be! I really enjoyed this session. This was my first time driving the track in the dry, my third ever race weekend in a car and was my best qualifying so far of 17th out of 28 adult, licensed drivers! We had a round up of the day with the team then headed back to the hotel. I felt eager to get back on track. My only time on track all day was during qualifying which was also my first chance to drive Silverstone in the dry! I had two races ahead of me on Sunday, one of them looked like it was going to be a dry race. I really couldn’t wait to put what I learned from Friday and Saturday into practice so spent the evening going through everything I could to be ready for the next day. Early start Sunday was pretty crazy. I had a race in the morning at around 10am then my next race wasn’t until nearly 5:30pm. I got to the track by 8am. Why so early? I had to drive the car to the assembly area ready for the first race at 9:30. Before that, I had to greet Viv & Darren of The Clever Baggers, my latest sponsor. We spent some time talking about ideas for new products for their company and some people I wanted to introduce them to at the track that day. The next thing I knew, my dad was giving me the signal that it was time to go. I was on track again! This time it was wet. I was keen to safely get through the race so I could get one more race-finish closer to upgrading my racing license from a National ‘B’ to a National ‘A’. I absolutely needed this otherwise I would not be able to race at Spa Francorchamps next month. I played it too safe on the start and dropped back, still I managed to then make some nice overtakes to recover a few places before the finish! That was another signature on my license upgrade card! Back from my first race, we had a debrief. We ran through the on-board camera footage and spoke with The Clever Baggers again. After talking to Viv and Darren I spoke to a couple of other people who had stopped by to watch the races and support me such as Jonno Davis who was my mechanic at one point in karting, Chris Turner and Nick Abbott winners of the Twitter competition I ran with BeeLiked.com and finally Alan Dove and Usmaan Mughal from The Driver’s Collective. Getting down to business Once some more meet-and-greets were out of the way I took Viv of The Clever Baggers to meet with directors of Volkswagen Racing and Racing Line to talk about how their products could be good for each other. I just thought it would be great if The Clever Baggers made a connection like this on their first weekend sponsoring me. I sat in on the meeting and tried to chip in where I could. Viv said he was impressed with how I helped keep things focused during the meeting. Rubbin' is racing Suddenly it was time for race two! Now the track was dry. I really wanted to enjoy this one but I still had to take it easy to make sure I finished the race. I needed this one to have a chance at upgrading my license to a National ‘A’ in time for Spa. This was my first time in a proper battle where I was swapping places and paint with other drivers. On the final lap, one driver I'd been battling with all race left a gap and I went for it. He closed the gap and we went through the corner door to door. My wing mirror was folded in and he didn't give an inch... As we came out the other side of the corner, I was in the lead! When we got back I found the yellow from his car all over my 18" rims and we both had a laugh talking about our battles in the whole race! I felt totally confident doing this without being a risk to my race finish. This is the kind of racing I love. Close but with total respect for each other. I have to say, it was one of the best races I've had in anything ever. All part of the job Even though it is called a "race weekend", the part of the day that I spent rubbing shoulders on the track was a lot less than the time I spent rubbing shoulders off the track. But, as hectic as everything was between the races, it all was also fun. I will have to admit that there were certain points where I felt under pressure, mainly when I was in the middle of something. It might have been a meeting or a supporter might have stopped to talk to me. I found myself in really interesting conversations and found it very difficult to just walk away. Even though I wanted to stick around and talk, I wanted to race even more. This was my first taste of what the future might involve. Some drivers don’t like all of the things they have to do between each race. I enjoy it. I really like the media side and I hope to do more of that one day. The best part was ending on such a fun race. This was the perfect way to round off a great weekend! Damani's next races are on the 10th - 11th July at Spa Francorchamps, Belgium. To help keep Damani racing, you can support him via his Patreon page, via his GoFundMe campaign or by following him on Twitter (@DKMRacing),Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Click here to view the article

How does a 16 year old schoolboy racer cope with the huge stresses of top-level motorsport? Damani Marcano, youngest driver in the 2015 Volkswagen Racing Cup explains.When RedBull F1 won championship after championship, nobody remembered the first four years they were struggling. In my karting days I got to know their Chief Aerodynamicist at the time, Peter Prodromou, who reminded me of this. He told me that in motorsport most people have tough weekends 90% of the time and great weekends only 10% of the time. Only a few teams have ever had the kind of success that RedBull were having then. He said that RedBull's success was not typical and had come after 4 straight years of tough race weekends and a year that ended in a championship disappointment. Peter has been in motorsport since his days working with Ayrton Senna at McLaren in the early nineties, where he works again now. So, he knows motorsport! The 90% category If you have been following my Volkswagen Racing Cup debut you'll know that my first race weekend and second weekend are in the 90% category. I'd like to tell you what the issue is that's causing the engine to loose power but the team is still working on diagnosing the problem. Volkswagen engines are nearly bullet proof and the team has seen just about everything that can go wrong before, except this – it's not something obvious or easy to find. There are 7 other Team HARD cars on the grid, none of them have a problem like this. I believe in them and know that they will figure it out. They have checked everything from on board diagnostics to the on board camera footage and found nothing wrong with the car or my driving. Next, it's going back on a dyno for a full diagnosis run. As for me, I was very happy with my performance! As soon as things were working, even though I'd had virtually no proper time on the track before the first race, I was able to make up 5 places in the first few laps. The feeling was amazing! I still feel grateful even for that! People keep telling me that this is more than they expected of me this early on, even if I had a full Friday practice and a complete qualifying session. Remember, I'm still too young to drive on the road and I've hardly had any time in any car before now. Something people also kept telling me was how well I handled it all. I was happy and upbeat even though I had to miss out on rounds 5 & 6 held on Sunday. I only really started thinking about it after I saw this amazing comment: “I spent much of Sunday at Rockingham watching the racing with Damani and I have to say he is a very impressive individual. He was so positive and enthusiastic, despite all the setbacks of the weekend. This is a rare virtue even among older more experienced drivers. He is a very grounded, mature and talented young man with a bright future!“ Chris Turner, motorsport blogger at catmanf1.com How you handle it When things go wrong on a race weekend, some drivers might throw their gloves or even their race-helmet onto the floor and kick the car. Generally, that isn't me. That would get me more worked up and in a bad mood. Once you are in a bad mood it can be harder to get out of it so I try to stay calm and positive. If you have another race that day and you can't change your mood then it's going to affect your performance. It doesn't mean when things go wrong it doesn't affect me because clearly it will, but now I find that I can get over it almost instantly and use it in a positive way. If it was a mistake I've made, it's harder but I try to get over it quickly and figure out what I can do to avoid making that mistake again. If it was a mechanical or technical issue, I think: can I drive around it without it being dangerous or causing damage? If I can drive around it I just keep going. Last year in a kart race, a front axel came loose after I was hit really hard by another kart and shunted off. Once I got going again, the kart was vibrating and I had no turn in. I stayed out and used my frustration to motivate me to be extra smooth on every input and I even overtook someone with one of my front wheels wobbling all over the place! I can now bounce back from things like this much more quickly. I wasn't always like this. Learning the hard way If things didn't go right in my early kart races I would feel upset and go very quiet. At first I had to have some time to myself to calm down in a quiet space to think over things. If I was on track feeling angry, my driving inputs became aggressive instead of smooth and so I went slower. You still want to be aggressive with your racing like in overtaking moves, just not your driving-inputs because it can make you less precise. If I was feeling down, I just didn't push as hard so I went slower. When you want something really badly and you are working so hard to do well in anything, it can feel like the worst possible thing when it doesn't go the way you expect it to. After a kart-race, any time I took to calm down was time I wasn't working with my mechanic or coach to find that next 10th. The more I let it affect me the less I was getting out of my racing. It was a while ago that I decided that I wasn't going to let that happen. Each time things went wrong I found ways of getting over it faster; each time it got easier and easier to deal with. Now I find I can get over things almost instantly. Now I feel I can use things that go wrong to motivate me to work harder. The more experience you have, the easier things like this get. This is one of the great things about karting and one of the ways I feel most prepared for racing at such a high level as the Volkswagen Racing Cup. The people close to you How the people close to you handle it can make a difference too. When things go wrong and it is a driver-mistake, the worst thing someone can do is to tell you off or give you a hard time. The driver knows what mistake they made, even if they don't admit it at first. The best thing you can do as a driver is tell people how you want them to support you. Even remind them before the weekend if you have to. I'm quite lucky that my dad gets this and before each weekend he used to ask me what would work for me if I needed extra support. Now we don't even need that as I'm pretty good at just getting on with it on my own. It's still nice to have him there though. I always ask him to watch from the pits so I know he is right there for me if I need him. The magic It took a while of karting for me to realise that if I wanted to do well I had to toughen up and not let things get to me. I stopped having expectations about the weekend and just worked as hard as I could at doing my best. The only expectation I had was that I put in 100%. That's when my kart-racing really improved! Somehow, everything about my performance leapt forward. I realised last year, when I was 15, that this is what real life is like too. Racing has changed the way I deal with things. School, revision, exams, friends, family and, so far, the Volkswagen Racing Cup. This is a good thing because my GCSEs have started and my focus for the next 5 weeks has to be on revision and exams. All of these experiences have made me stronger when times are in that 90%. It has also made me appreciate the 10% times! When those times come, it is magic and worth everything it took to get there! Now I just can't wait for the 30th of May! Roll on Silverstone! Bring on the magic 10%! Damani's next races are on the 30th - 31st May at Silverstone. Due to the amount of races now incomplete, he and Team HARD must seek additional sponsor backing to get Damani into a VAG Trophy weekend. This is to get the extra signatures on his racing license to qualify him to race in Belgium at Spa Francorchamps at the start of July. To help keep Damani racing, you can back him from $1/month via his Patreon page or with a one-off contribution via his GoFundMe campaign. You can follow Damani’s journey here on VWROC via his regular monthly column. Day to day, keep up to date via Twitter (@DKMRacing), Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. This is Damani's story: Click here to view the article

What's it like being the youngest driver in the Volkswagen Racing Cup? 16 year old Damani Marcano tells us about his experiences in the paddock during his first ever race weekend.It was amazing that my first race weekend had actually come. I was about to officially be a racing driver in the Volkswagen Racing Cup in the British GT race weekend. My dad and I arrived at the hotel late on the Thursday night before. I really wanted to get to sleep but I was just so excited about the next day it took me ages to close my eyes. When I woke up the next morning, I was really tired from the three and a half hour drive the night before. I can only imagine how tired my dad must have been! As soon as I realised that I was going to be on track on my first race weekend the excitement completely took that away. I was so buzzing to be out there in the car for my first official Friday practice. Jaw dropping When I arrived at Oulton Park I wasn't even thinking about the fact that it was raining or that my first time driving the track in the dry was going to be during qualifying the next morning. I just couldn't wait to see the car! It had only been wrapped by Bossdog Graphics that week and I hadn't seen it yet. I'd only seen the designs and one sneak-peak photo of the finished car. Then I saw it. It was jaw dropping! I can't thank Bossdog enough for the amazing job they did on the car. I was probably just standing there staring at it for ages. See more pictures in Member's Rides. Feeling all grown up Everyone in the team was really welcoming. The atmosphere in the awning was a really nice family atmosphere. Everyone was really encouraging. There are 7 other drivers with a wide range of experience. This is one of the best things for me because it gives me a way to progress. If you try to learn from the top drivers too soon you are trying to run before you can walk. Instead I can start by learning from the next driver up from me, hopefully working my way up the ladder. The drivers' briefing was a lot like a karting drivers briefing except I was surrounded by adults instead of mostly kids and teenagers like me. Everyone treated me like an equal. I felt instantly more grown up. I know it sounds weird to say that but remember I'm still only 16 and at school. Those engine problems My Friday test was cut short by some serious engine problems. Even though I was frustrated by this I still didn't want to go back to the hotel. There were all the other classes to watch. The Volkswagen Racing Cup is part of the British GT race weekends so there were Aston Martins, Ferraris & McLarens as well as Formula 3 and Formula 4 cars to watch. They looked and sounded amazing. I also wanted to watch my team mates to see what I could learn from them on track. I needed an engine change on Friday which gave me 40kg of ballast as a penalty. My engine problems lasted all weekend (which you can read all about here). I still managed to do a lot better than everyone expected. My first dry session ended up being in race 1 after everyone else had 20 minutes of practice during the qualifying session. Even with the 40kg of ballast I was faster than a few other drivers and my pace was similar to drivers as high as 15th (out of 28). When I had the car underneath me I was able to progress very quickly and I was very happy with my performance over the weekend. Cars & Stars One of the amazing things of the British GT race weekends is you get to see all of the cars you normally idolise on the internet. In the car park was a display of super cars from rare & exclusive Lamborghinis & Ferraris to vintage cars like the De Tomaso Pantera. Randomly, in the paddock was a Bugatti Veyron. Then there's the British GT cars themselves. From Ferrari 458 GT3s to McLaren 650s GT3 cars and many more with the most insane racing bodywork. The thing that blew me away the most was how everyone treated me. It was surreal. Before the weekend even started I was sent a custom #20 @DKMRacing Team HARD hat by Red Core Urban Wear with more clothing on its way. During the weekend photographers were pointing their cameras at me all day taking my picture. Racing fans were constantly taking photos of the car and me. One young boy was having his photo taken with the car and Dwayne, one of my engineers, asked if he wanted to meet the driver. Dwayne called me over and the young boy's parents were shocked. "You're the driver?!" they said. They asked Dwayne how old I was and when he said 16 they were shocked. It was quite funny because every time someone found out I was the driver it was like they didn't believe it. People kept saying "how old are you again?!" I've never experienced anything like it before. The whole experience of the paddock at a car race weekend is completely different to karting. At a kart race weekend you show up, get on with your racing and go home. At Oulton Park I felt like a mini-celebrity, like a proper racing driver. It was unreal! It was quite nice at first but then it was a bit distracting sometimes. I can't imagine what it's like for racing drivers who are really famous. Excited, Encouraged & Positive After the weekend was over and we were heading home I couldn't stop thinking about everything that happened. I was thinking about how I could improve for next time. I was thinking about how awesome it was when I had the car working at its best underneath me. I said before that I was going into the weekend with no expectations but if I did have any it would have been based on a 16 year old who has had only a few hours in a car. I was really pleased that I was able to show that my pace was better than that and get my first overtakes. I'm really excited to see how that improves over the season. Story continues below... Without a doubt, the time I spent on the simulators at the and at definitely gave me a head-start. But it's different when you are actually flying around a corner at nearly 100mph with a solid wall and a season ending repair bill waiting for you if you make a mistake. With all the problems of the weekend I probably should have felt deflated. But I wasn't. Team HARD did such an amazing job trying to get to the bottom of the issues and out of 8 cars there were only a couple of us who had problems. These cars aren't production cars. They were once but when you read the specs on them you realise how little is left of the original car. The team worked so hard over the whole weekend and we all stayed positive right until the end of the day on Monday. Now I'm going to take these positive feelings forward to my next race weekend at Rockingham. Hopefully I'll have a chance to see what I can really do. You can watch highlights of rounds 1,2 & 3 of the 2015 Volkswagen Racing Cup on Motors TV from 18th April to 23rd April and again on Channel 4 on 26th April. Check your preferred TV Guide for broadcast times. Rounds 4, 5 & 6 at Rockingham will be shown as part of the live coverage of the British GT Championships on Motors TV on the weekend of 2nd - 3rd May. You can follow Damani’s journey here on VWROC via his regular monthly column. Day to day, keep up to date via Twitter (@DKMRacing), Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. To help keep Damani on the grid, you can back him via his crowd funding campaign and via his Patreon page. Above photo and on-track photo by Jakob Ebrey courtesy of the Volkswagen Racing Cup. Click here to view the article