Events
and confident with the car all before the race and event, are vital. “The rest falls into place as soon as I’m sat on the grid I have full focus on racing!” Once in the race, Jake’s attention turns to winning, but although the focus is on getting over the finish line first, it also has to be fun; he has to enjoy what he is doing to ensure he doesn’t put too much pressure on himself. “I sometimes just go blank and let my body take control of how I feel and what I think. It all happens naturally for me after several years of driving, racing and rallying before I could actually drive a road car. If you force things to happen in your head, that’s sometimes not a great thing. It creates pressure and leads to over driving the car, resulting in mistakes and slower lap times. Everyone has a different approach, but for me this works and motivates me to succeed. My intention is to keep improving and learning all the time.” Jake has been able to climb to the level he is at now through dedication, skill and practice along with fantastic support from a wide network of Motorsport professionals all over the globe. Practicing, however, doesn’t come without its problems, mainly the lack of circuits in the area. But, it’s nothing a laptop and racing simulator can’t solve. “Practicing and training for a race is very difficult and not very accessible either. For me I use a simulator at home and I can download tracks onto my laptop. I can then drive the real track for as long as I need. I always try and get as many correct laps as possible, learning from each one leading up to the event. It started out as a gaming thing, now I use it as a form of practice and integrate it into my training. I’m a strong believer that practice does not make perfect, only perfect practice makes perfect” Although already a huge part of Jake’s life, Rallycross is a sport that he wants to totally immerse himself in. “My ultimate goal is to be in a position where I live and breathe and work in motorsport and be around what I am most passionate about. Racing, coaching, being around cars and driving them makes me happy. If I can make that my life, that would be my ultimate goal.”
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Looking ahead Jake explains: “Ideally I would like to have put steps in place to help other people in motorsport. Teaching and coaching is the dream job and racing at a international level is a goal I’m working really hard to achieve, but I need more support to hit the higher levels in my sport.” Jake is still looking for local and national support to continue his racing career and development and is actively working on improving his coaching and racing qualifications. “As well as graduating from the coveted MSA Academy course, I look so secure the MSA Level 2 in coaching in 2018 as well as learning to drift and instruct. I have been carefully selecting the best test drive and scholarship opportunities and competitions as well as renewing my Speed National A licence and Rally National B Stage licences, to get back behind the wheel at a national level again.” “I aim to prove you don’t need a wealthy or motorsport family background to succeed in the sport. Hard work, dedication and a solid plan, coupled with great support, can get you further than you can imagine. This year has been very tough from a personal point of view, learning a huge amount about the sport and myself, becoming stronger and more well-rounded. A huge crash at Mondello that I wasn’t directly involved in, effectively wiped out my season budget after being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was very lucky to escape unharmed. We all have challenges and obstacles to jump over to get to where we need to be and Motorsport can deliver some really tough lessons at times.” Jake says his focus has always been to do well in Motorsport and reach the highest level. “I have had fantastic local and national support already to date, some of which continues to this very day, that I am incredibly grateful for. As I grow and move up in the motorsport world the costs to train, test and race at a higher level increases, so I am looking for additional support in any way possible. Please do get in touch if you would like to invest in me, my growing brand and support my career and ongoing development.” To find out more visit: www.jaketaylorrallycross.com or check out #thefutureisRX across social media channels.