By Peter Hill

Taking up motor racing can often be an emotional impulse rather than a decision.

The word “decision” carries connotations of consideration, options, and rationality. Although these should precede a move into the sport, I suspect that most of us simply had a dream, and before we knew it, we had a car and a shiny new race helmet.

As the author states, this book wasn’t written to discourage dreams. What it does is reveal the options and the practicalities. It provides food for thought and consideration that will help newcomers to the sport make sensible choices. It could well save you from an expensive mistake.

As Martins states at the end of the book: “Getting into Racing was written to help newcomers understand the realities of motorsport before committing significant money and energy to the sport.”
​
Pierre Martins is the South African racer, test driver, performance evaluator, coach and instructor who wrote the recently reviewed Supersede Control.

As the subtitle informs us, this is a beginner’s guide to circuit racing. It’s a hefty tome of some 395 pages. But as with his previous book, it is easy to read and reference, with wide spacing between sentences and large print, making it easy to absorb the book’s message and ideas.

The book’s primary audience is people contemplating entering motorsport, and I, having been around the track more than few times, found many practical ideas and tips that will be helpful to amateurs already competing.

The book comprises six parts, with a total of 25 chapters. Parts 1 and 2 cover some of the practicalities of costs, time, risks and fitness. Part 3 lays out the various types of events, categories, and track car options.

I found the chapter “Electric Cars & the Future” particularly interesting, revealing the different challenges involved in driving an EV quickly: managing the battery and energy consumption, dealing with the weight, and monitoring battery temperatures. And, questions like: If you intend to drive your EV at a track day, will there be charging infrastructure at the track?

The later sections include: people and relationships, the buy or build question, safety equipment and the mental approach to competition. There’s advice about using your everyday car for track work. There are tips for those who plan to buy a racing car, plus tips around purchasing safety equipment and budgeting for your season.

There was the risk that this could have been very dry reading, but the author has avoided that by interweaving stories of his personal experiences and those of other amateur drivers. As he has raced motorbikes, karts and track cars, he has a wealth of experience and knowledge. He has made mistakes and has seen others make mistakes, and he shares these so that his readers can avoid repeating them.

This book is full of practical, down-to-earth advice. For example, we’ve all been tempted to throw money and time at car upgrades while chasing faster times. Martins doesn’t beat around the bush: “Sometimes the best upgrade is inside the driver’s head. Track time remains one of the best investments you can make.”

As he did in his previous book, the author has provided clear paragraph headings and concise summaries at the end of each section. Black-and-white photos and sketches complement the text. Spending $35 on Getting into Racing will be a sound investment. It could save you many, many times that amount.

The book is printed on demand by INGRAMSPARK in the country of order.
​
Copyright 2026 Peter Hill
(speedreaders.info)

Greetings Pierre,

I’ve been reading Get Into Racing.

The book combines practicality and theory beautifully with progressive storytelling. 

Very insightful for someone  who’s just started out like me.

Regards,
​Aahil.

​Howzit Pierre, 

I buckled down and read your 2nd book this weekend. 

Congratulations on yet another successful one! From beginning to end, you had my full attention and I battled to put the book down and take breaks. 

There is so much for me to relate to in this book. I’ve been involved in racing for years and have never raced in my life before. Everything that you write about is true. Racing is not about the car only, but about the friendships we build through the sport and the enjoyment doing what we like to do. 

While we met in Superkarts, it has always been awesome to keep in touch with you through the years. I will never forget your write up sort of race reports you wrote back in the Superkart days. Man, they were true adventures! Especially the Phakisa and coastal race reports. 

I look forward to your 3rd book. You cannot stop now. 

Cheers, 
Raoul

“How do I get into racing?”

This has to be one of the most commonly asked questions in all of motorsport, right up there with, “What tyre pressures do you run?”

It's a valid question, but ask it often enough, and you'll get a variety of answers, depending on who you ask.

My own journey started on the Cape Flats.

Like Pierre, I learned the ropes behind the wheel long before I should have, borrowing - without permission - my sister's car and treating quiet suburban roads as my personal racetrack. 

We weren't poor, but we certainly weren't wealthy enough to go racing. Yet racing and cars was all I could think about. As soon as I started earning money, I bought a daily driver and turned it into a drift car.

First mistake.

Later, I was spotted by a local motorsport development programme. I won the competition, secured sponsorship from and then managed to burn that bridge properly.

Second mistake.

Thankfully, we reconciled.

My racing career spluttered along, all the while costing me a failed business and a few friendships along the way.  Eventually, this miserable mistress we call motorsport seemed to shun me - or so I thought. I was left frustrated and convinced the sport hadn't given me what I was owed. 

I walked away for nearly a decade.

My biggest mistake.

“Relationships matter. People matter.” - Claudio Piazza-Musso.

I often joke with Coach Claudio that if I'd had a coach when I was younger, I'd probably be racing in some exotic location my parents couldn't pronounce.

The same applies to this book.

Had I read something like Getting Into Racing a few decades ago, things may well have turned out differently.

There are many truisms in motorsport, most of them designed to keep you safe while travelling at high speed or show you how to achieve more speed. This book may well be one of the largest collections of motorsport truisms you'll ever read; However, it applies to the off-track experience too. Something often left out of racing books.

The beginning of your racing journey will be filled with challenges, setbacks and lessons. In these pages, Pierre guides aspiring racers along a path that can help them avoid many of the mistakes others have already made.

Life is too short to make every mistake yourself.
Sometimes it's wiser to learn from somebody else's.

Pierre doesn't simply provide the gateway to the addiction - the "how to" of getting started.  He also provides the antidote: perspective.

Since my return to the sport, and with the help of my coach, we've enjoyed a remarkable run. Three championships in succession and multiple event victories later, I now run a sponsored race team and have built a career around motoring and motorsport.

At the time of writing, I am 47 years old and have no intention of slowing down anytime soon.

Racing cars remains my favourite outdoor pastime, and I hope that, like me, you will have the opportunity to enjoy this incredible sport without having to repeat the same mistakes many of us made before you.

See you at the track.

Ernest Page

Ernest is a South African motoring journalist, TV presenter on DSTV's Channel 189 - Ignition TV, a  precision driver, race car driver and driver coach.

"Two of my greatest passions are improving my driving, and helping others do the same."
​

By Peter Hill

​This book is decades too late!

For me.

Where was Pierre Martins and Supersede Control when I first pulled on a helmet and buckled myself into my Triumph Spitfire, imagining I was Jim Clark but driving more like Jimmy the Chimpanzee?

Pierre Martins is a South African who has been involved in motorsport for more than 30 years. He has raced motorcycles, Superkarts and cars, recording countless wins and podium finishes. He works as a test driver, performance evaluator, coach and instructor.

And he is a thinker. He has thought long and hard about the dynamics in play when racing a vehicle. This book is the result of all that thought and his years of experience.

At the beginning of his book, Martins lays out the elements of what he calls The Supersede Control Model. He states that Supersede Control is a framework for governing performance under pressure.

His six interdependent layers are:

Perceptual Authority – See early
Environment Modelling – Read the conditions
Load Governance – Balance the platform
Input Velocity Management – Control the rate at which inputs are applied
Physiological Regulation – Stabilising the nervous system under pressure
Slip Authority – Operating on the edge of grip without escalation

Each of these layers is explained, described, and dissected in the following ten chapters. But, by interweaving real racing stories and relating his and others’ experiences, Martins makes the theoretical real, and the book enjoyable.

If you have ever driven in competition, or plan to, this book will make you think. You won’t read it once, then put it down; you will refer to it for years to come as you use it to improve your competition driving. I have been lucky enough to share track time with professional racing drivers who have shown me how to tackle a particular track in a particular car. They have shown me where to brake, where to turn, and where to accelerate. They showed me how. This book made me think about, then understand, why a car does what it does.

One of the stories Martins uses is a fascinating observation made by his ballet-dancer wife. When he was discussing movement—anticipation, balance and sequencing while driving—she immediately saw and explained the similarity to her dancing. It’s an interesting and useful comparison that helps the reader understand a racing vehicle’s slip envelope.

This book is not text-heavy. Sentences are widely spaced as Martins emphasises key points. There are clear paragraph headings and concise summaries at the end of each section. The text is complemented by black-and-white photos and diagrams.

Supersede Control should probably be in your racing bag (it’s a compact 6 x 9″) with your overalls, gloves and helmet, and used just as often. More books are planned.
​
Copyright 2026 Peter Hill
(speedreaders.info)

CLICK HERE to see this review on the Speedreaders website