Wow! So, as the title suggests, it’s been ten years since I started this blog. Ten whole years!
It’s been an absolutely incredible journey so far and I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone who’s read anything from one tutorial to the guys that have been subscribed to my email notifications since the very beginning (I know there are a few of you!)
This started out when I was going through a really bad and confused part of my life as a journal. It was originally called Drifting For Mental Health.
I’ve always found writing to be a good way of expressing my thoughts and at that time I needed a way to put a lot of the negative energy I had in my heart into words. By publishing it, it made me take accountability to push myself and to get better.
The drifting part of the title came from my main hobby at the time which was RC drifting. I’d do little reviews of bits I’d got or tutorials on how to prepare a body shell to paint and things like that. Crucially though, I started doing write ups of events and competitions at my local track.
Then I decided to start covering a local full size drift event at Arena Essex called King of the Ring (KOTR). I did battle by battle reports of each of the events which people seemed to enjoy and gave me a bit of traction, which in turn began giving me opportunities to do other things.
I want to say a huge thank you to Adam and Steve who organised KOTR for giving me the opportunity to do media there.
It was around this period that the title changed to Motorsport For Mental Health. Cars are a wonderful hobby that provide you with so many opportunities. It’s also a hobby that can be enjoyed by everyone in lots of different ways.
You can have a shelf with some Hotwheels cars on and have the same passion and enthusiasm for cars as someone who takes their car on a track day every other week, or who has a 1930s Bugatti that’s worth more than the street I live on. It’s a hobby that can be enjoyed in lots of different ways by lots of different people, who are at different stages of their lives with different budgets and means. As I said, I came into it and found a great community which helped me through a dark part of my life and gave me purpose and I hope others can do the same.
Richie Gilbey was a driver at KOTR who has gone on to do some fantastic things. Here’s his car at GoJapan at Brands Hatch in 2020.
Steve ‘Baggsy’ Biagioni was one of the organisers of King of the Ring. At the time he was competing in the British Drift Championship and now competes in Europe. He’s built a massive brand for himself and is doing really well.
This is Chevrolet LS powered, Liberty Walk bodied, R35 GTR demo car at Petrolheadonism Underground this year.
Of course I can’t talk about drifting without mentioning Formula Drift.
I first went out to FD Atlanta (2012) when I was 18, not long before I got really sick in January 2013 (but a few years before this blog was started. I was in that hole for a while!)
Once I hit the wall in January 2013 I couldn’t do much as leave the house without having a panic attack. I really had to build myself up slowly. I started doing this blog in 2015, and I remember the 2016 King of the Ring events being a big deal for me. Arena was a 20 minute drive from my house.
Going back was always my end goal though. If I could get back to Formula D, then in my head I’d have won. Because you guys read these articles I put out, it encouraged me to push my boundaries by going to events further and further afield.
I made it back in 2019. 7 years after my first trip. It was an emotional trip.
2019 was Adam LZ’s first season in FD Pro 2. He’s obviously now one of the top drivers in the Pro series.
Having come crashing back into the reality of living in the U.K, and with a new dream of expanding into the U.S, I sent off media credentials for the 2019 SEMA Show – a huge trade only event in Las Vegas.
For some reason they let me in, and have continued to let me in!
I absolutely love SEMA. The opportunities and connections I’ve made through that event over the past few years have incredible. It’s such a good networking event and good place to grow.
There are always some wild builds there. The best example I can think of was from 2023. It is the MLZ Garage 350Z with twin Honda K24 engines and this crazy wide body.
Going to SEMA also opened my eyes to different types of racing and areas of automotive culture that I hadn’t experienced before, such as land speed racing.
Along with low riders. The attention to detail on these things is absolutely incredible!
Of course, whilst drifting is my roots and will always be a big part of this blog – a lot of you are here from my coverage of historic racing and concours events.
I can’t exactly pinpoint where I started covering historic events and classic cars. I’m very much into history so I suppose automotive history was always going to be part of this website. I’m glad it is, and I’m glad you guys seem to enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoy writing about it.
Duncan Pittaway’s Salvesen coal-fired steam car is a memorable highlight. I’ve seen this at a few events now, and it always captures my imagination as it’s so different!
Another personal highlight in terms of historic motorsport was getting to meet Lord Alexander Hesketh, founder of Hesketh Racing at the 2023 London Concours. He’s as much of a fantastic character as I had hoped he would be and had some phenomenal stories to tell.
I was able to get him to sign a copy of Superbears by James Page, which had just been released, along with the case of a Hesketh 308 Slot Car.
Speaking of Hesketh cars. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing a couple at different events. The blue car is part of the Lyons’ family collection who do loads of different events with their fleet of cars.
The mental health side of the blog has taken a bit of a back seat over the years. I’m thankfully in a really good place at the moment, so I don’t feel the need to write about what’s going on in my head, which is great and I obviously hope it continues.
I would like to publish more on that side of things though. The problem is, is that writing about something I’ve not experienced myself feels… wrong. It’s been sitting here for 10 minutes trying to think of a way to explain it. I have thought about bringing guest writers in to share their experiences, but this is my space so that feels wrong as well haha! If you have any good suggestions please let me know!
Looking to the future, I’d like to diversify further. I think there’s a lot of scope for EV content here. I’ve covered a Formula E event and SEMA Electrified in the past, but I’d like to do more. I think there’s a lot of potential content that I’ve not tapped into regarding EVs.
This is the Nissan Ariya Concept from the London E-Prix (Formula E) in 2022.
Off-roading is another area I’d like to explore more. Getting out into nature is proven to be good for both your physical and mental health, and off-roading is a massive hobby all over the world. Again, it’s something I’ve only ever covered at a surface level.
Steer Smarts Jeep Wrangler ice cream van ‘Mr Freeze’. SEMA 2023.
Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for the past ten years and all the wonderful opportunities we’ve had. I’m really, really excited to see what the next ten years have in store!
Thanks for reading!
There might be one more part of this show left to write about, so if you would like to see more please subscribe to the blog via email (from the box at the bottom of the page).
Follow me on the following social media platforms:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/motorsportformentalhealth/
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/richard-francis-b45025137/
TikTok: @richardfrancismsfmh
Instagram: @motorsport4mentalhealth
Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ-j8broFg4i2rWIBy6W82Q
By Richard Francis.
