Help Will fund his motorsport dream
I'm Will Redford, I'm 16 and I desperately want to be a professional racing driver. I need to raise £15,000 to be able to race this year and take the first step towards this as a profession.
On the 13th of April I entered the Junior Saloon Car Championship (JSCC) scholarship competition and made it to the top 4 but narrowly missed winning the £30,000 prize of a funded season. During my time there I spoke to a few teams and one by the name of Westbourne Motorsports saw the potential I have. Due to my lack of funds they have put together a program for me and subsidised near half the cost to try and get me out on track. This consists of a few one to one coaching sessions and then from the start of August 5 rounds in the JSCC. This is huge for me to get on track this year and prove myself to potential sponsors so I am able to carry on in 2022. To make this happen I would be paying seven monthly instalments of £1200 starting in May. Opportunities like this are extremely rare and I need the funding to be able to make the most of it while I can.
Unfortunately, I am now too old to apply for both the Ginetta or Junior Saloon Car Championship (JSCC) scholarships next year, so there is some urgency about competing this year.
Every single donation is much appreciated and will get me closer to my goal. Sponsorship with a major brand or company would be the ideal solution so sharing this around may get it to the right people.
If I can't raise the minimum cost in time to start this year the money will instead be put towards finding a seat in 2022. On the other hand if we go over the goal the excess will be used to enter more rounds in the JSCC than just the five or set aside for 2022.
To contact me, feel free to drop me a message on Instagram or Twitter @wcredford, on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/willredford ), or through the contact details on this page.
For more information about me, the JSCC and my plan please read on:
My name is Will. I'm 16, born December 2004 and my dream is to be a professional racing driver. I am a student at Reaseheath College currently studying Motor Vehicle Mechanics, I have a massive passion and a tonne of knowledge for all things cars so this has helped me understand everything on a more technical side. I have been attending Reaseheath for two years now and plan to keep going in the future. The reason for this is that I've been homeschooled since the start of year 7 so it was a place to get my GCSEs sorted as well as study my passion. I used to suffer with massive anxiety to the point of receiving professional help. It started at age 8 and is eventually what drove me out of school. Because I was out of school it allowed me to focus on what I wanted to pursue and for me that was motorsports. I'd always had a passion for racing from watching f1 with my dad at an early age but it properly kicked off when during primary school we built an electric kit car in year 6. From then on it progressed into rental karting, sim racing and studying vehicle mechanics in college and the most recent addition trying to secure a drive in the real world. With the following motorsports gives me I want to be able to bring light to mental health problems and show people that it's okay to feel that way and can get better.
Racing Background
As many of you may know motorsport is insanely expensive, It shouldn't be like this but it's what it has come to. Part of the problem is how hard acquiring sponsorship or funds for people that aren't rich is and that's what has plagued me every step of the way. Getting an opportunity like this of a team covering half the cost is super rare, especially for someone who doesn't have a massive portfolio proving their talent. My family is not rich. We can't afford to spend tens of thousands racing and because of that I don't have a massive background of high level karting. This means it's really hard for me to show proof of my talent but everything I have done I've made the most of. I have a decent amount of experience driving cars with track time in Ginetta juniors and also JSCC saxo's as well as a tonne of laps turned at multiple tracks in rental karts. Anything that I step in I can be quick in after a session or two of adjusting and learning and I think that versatility is essential to a good driver. My racing portfolio mostly consists of sim racing but I have really good showings in the JSCC and Ginetta scholarships as well as rental kart series such as the British Indoor Kart Champs (BIKC)
- JSCC Scholarship
This is probably the most important achievement here as it's the series I'm looking to get into. On April 13th 2021 I narrowly missed out on winning the scholarship by the tiniest of margins. All contestants were judged on 4 different areas:
Fitness, Media, Auto Test, Driving on Track
My performance in everything was top notch. In the media I scored the highest in the history of the scholarship with 19.5/20. Most importantly in the on track driving I was confident and fast, being rated so highly by drivers like: Scott Mcintyre, Charlotte Birch and Adriano Medeiros is amazing and it shows that I am quick in the cars I plan to race in. There are a few drivers that took part in the scholarship that are signed up to compete in the upcoming season and their scores were not good enough for the top 4. I hope this can prove the standard of the drivers I was up against and what an achievement it was to be so close to winning.
- Ginetta Scholarship
I competed in the Ginetta scholarship in December of 2020 and whilst it wasn't near the success of the JSCC counterpart there were still a lot of positive things to take away. I was scored highly in fitness and driving even with it being my first time in a race car and also pouring rain. The media is what went wrong for me and I hope that the proof of me going from an awful media score in this scholarship to a near perfect score in the JSCC one only a few months later can show that when I find a weakness I throw everything at it to make sure it doesn't happen again.
- Karting
Rental karting is what I've been stuck to due to lack of funds but I've made the most of every opportunity. I am the Warrington Sprint Series champion finishing in the top 3 of every single race meeting. I qualified through to regionals of the 2020 British Indoor Kart Champs but Covid delayed those until the end of May. I'm consistently beating drivers way lighter and smaller than me in races which gives them a massive advantage in speed. Every track I have been to I've been able to set leader board times even after only 1 or 2 sessions, This is only more proof of skill at being quick to learn and adapt.
- Sim Racing
Sim racing is where I have really been making a name for myself this past year. I've been competing in iRacing against some of the best real world and also sim drivers there are. I currently sit at around 5.5k irating, This is in the top 1000 out of over 140000 players. I have multiple world records and time trial records in cars like the Skip Barber, MX5 and Dallara F3. I've been competing in some of the top broadcasted leagues and winning races in all manner of different cars. I have been noticed and picked up by an esports team to represent them in races. I've done a little coaching for money to help people reach their potential and I've grown a YouTube channel to over 175 subscribers with around 600 views per video.
With the limited opportunities I've had I hope it's enough to prove why I deserve a shot in the real world and for any specifics on anything mentioned here shoot me a message so I can go into detail with you.
What is the JSCC?
I keep going on about the JSCC but what actually is it? The Junior Saloon Car Championship is probably the best junior championship out there. The cars are cheap and fast, The competition is fair and strong but most importantly it's super cost effective compared to something like Ginetta juniors.
JSCC races will be live streamed on the BARCs social media and YouTube channels as well as appear on the BARCs own tv show broadcasted on Freeview. The JSCC also recently appeared on Top Gear to millions of viewers on the BBC. As well as this they have a massive following on social media which they are constantly promoting drivers and teams on which is a great place for exposure.
It's the perfect place for me to start and find my feet and will hopefully lead to bigger things in the future. For more information visit https://www.juniorsaloons.co.uk/
What is my plan?
I plan to compete in the five rounds of the 2021 JSCC and prove myself to sponsors to secure funding for 2022 and onwards. I will be giving everything I have to push for good results as it's crucial to prove I have the potential. Formula racing is not a realistic goal for me because of the money it takes so instead I will be taking the route of either GT or touring car racing. An ideal ladder would be something like:
JSCC -> Ginetta GT5 -> Ginetta SuperCup / GTA -> British GT and then onwards and upwards through the European GT series.
Along the way I want to document my whole journey releasing high quality videos to YouTube to hopefully grow an audience and have another place to advertise my potential sponsors.
Where is the money going?
£15,000 is a lot of money so where is it going? After the scholarship Westbourne came to me with a proposal, one to one coaching and 5 rounds in the JSCC. Normally this would cost near £16,000 but Westbourne have offered to cover nearly half of this for me so it would be £8400 before entry fees. Once entry fees, race gear and my ARDS test have been covered the total cost would be £14,000, I'm asking for £1000 more than that to help cover travel and accommodation as well as any damage suffered from races.
If the goal isn't met the funds would instead be going to finding a drive in 2022.
Final Thoughts
I want to thank family who have helped with funds to get me to this point. Also if you have read this far, thank you. I hope you can see the potential in me that Westbourne Motorsport and I believe is there. Racing and Motorsports is my dream and I know I can make it to the top. All I need is a little faith and that first push over the start line to get going. Any donation helps massively and even if you can't do that just sharing it around so it hopefully gets to the right people is highly appreciated. Let's make this happen.
