Hello to everyone on The Checkered Flag! This is the second installment of my blog which is going to run throughout the 2012 season – I hope you enjoy it.
There has been a lot of work being put in the last month by not just myself, but by my partners at BAM Motorsport Group, among others. The season is obviously approaching quickly and I’m relishing the start of the racing season – but I don’t know if I will be there just yet!
You have to do a great deal of admin, managing and marketing to raise a racing budget independently and I have chosen to foster many smaller partners and sponsors which does mean a lot of work. One of the key days in the past month has been our promo event at Waitrose in Salisburyon 18th February – and it is days like these, where everything came together, that the hard work is worth it. The day had been organised for some time and I had been looking forward to giving Waitrose customers an insight into my racing life. I have to thank Trevor Carlin at Carlin Racing for use of the car, and Jeremy Bailey at Fieldfare Trailers for allowing me use of his trailer to transport the 2005 F3 title winning machine.
Come Saturday morning all was prepared (just!) and the day went as smooth as could be – you can see the BBC South Today piece here:
We were even greeted by a bit of luck as Murray Walker had just turned up to do his shopping. He is exactly as he is on camera, a fantastically enthusiastic racing fan – and it was great to meet him at last!
Dan and Murray
Overall it was a fantastic day it helped with the sponsorship situation too. I am truly grateful to everyone who helped out to make it possible! Since then, I have had several meetings regarding sponsorship for the 2012 season and they have been quite successful – however things are work in progress at the moment so I hope to have some news soon!
Recently, we have also achieved a few milestones regarding the www.gofundme.com/danwellsracing page – we surpassed sponsor no.100 – and also the £8,000 mark. I cannot thank everyone enough – for sure without your support I would not have been able to continue our efforts to get on the grid this year. Even though this winter has been one of the hardest of my life, I know that all the hard work will be worth it when we are standing on the top of the podium this year.
My next big focus however is the Adidas Half Marathon for Wings for Life at Silverstone on March 11th – and I am aiming to beat 1hr 40m and you can sponsor my efforts at www.bmycharity.com/danwellsrunning It’s a fantastic charity as all associated costs are covered by Dietrich Mateschitz himself so every pound spent goes towards spinal research. I have stepped up my training program in recent weeks and thanks to one of my sponsors, Parkwood Salisbury (http://www.parkwoodhealthandfitness.co.uk/) – I have been doing personal training sessions in the pool, on the spin bike and the running machine which will see me at my fittest for the start of the new season.
I have also been stepping up my simulator work at home – using my infamous ironing board setup in the living room! If anyone fancies a race on PS3, then add me ‘RacingDriver16’!
That’s all for this second installment of The Checkered Flag blog and I hope that the next blog will have some good news regarding our 2012 racing season. I will also let you know how the marathon went for me, surely with a few pictures of me sweating away at Silverstone! It will definitely be the slowest lap of Silverstone I’ve ever done!
Dan
