GiR Foreword By Ernest Page

“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."
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