By Tom Heeley (MD Optimum)

I have been lucky enough to work with some fantastic characters in motorsport since I went to Budapest and Jerez in 2014 with Cameron Twynham racing Formula 3.

Since then I have worked with Jamie Green racing DTM for more than 10 years and supported him twice at the Spa 24-hour race.

I have also supported motorbike racers like Tommy Searle, Sylvain Guintoli and Davey Todd to name a few.

Racing drivers and riders have a lot of challenges throughout a weekend. It’s not all about the race itself.

There is qualifying, team meetings, data analysis, Q&A sessions, race preparation, food intake and, crucially, hydration management.

This can often be an overwhelming part of their job for people that basically, just want to go out there and go as fast as they can!

Race weekend

Some racers want to put these things to the bottom of their to-do list on a race weekend but performing and preparing well in all of these tasks makes racing and driving less stressful and gives riders a clearer head to perform well.

The preparation for last weekend’s racing at Oulton Park in England actually started four weeks ago when I last supported Will Powell of Team Hard and Motus One at Brands Hatch.

We sat down and started to make plans on how to maximise the weekend, what kit we were missing, what home comforts we needed and how we could design a routine to make sure we were best prepared for pre-race, qualifying and practice.

This process of a timetable for the weekend involved Will’s driver coach and mentor, David Brabham. David has years of experience racing at a high level, including the Le Mans 24hr race and Formula 1 competition proved invaluable to assisting with what is needed.

Treatment session

With those discussions behind us, I arrived to Oulton Park at 7am Saturday, with a treatment session, stretching, coffee and early morning race chat to discuss the plan for the weekend and see what Will felt he needed to start at 7:30am.

A weigh-in was completed early doors to gauge Will’s weight and to understand how much fluids he will lose and need to replace throughout the day. My role for the rest of the day involved sports therapy treatments, dry needling, sports massage, enforcing wind down times and discussing things in and out of Will’s control which can help and hinder performance.

Pace in the car improved throughout the day but not enough to start Race 1 from P28, so an evening debrief with David and Will completed the day and we planned for Sunday.

Sunday started in similar fashion with coffee, treatment and a weigh-in with a plan for how to attack the day. Earlier, in Race 1, things were going well and Will had been in P22 until a shunt and large crash forced his retirement from the race with only a few laps to go.

Good pace

Frustrated and a little beaten-up however, positives could be taken from the progress made in the race and gaining 6 places, showed the race pace was there. A debrief, calmness and plenty of treatment to get Will race ready was needed leading into the 2nd and 3rd races.

Race 2 was a disappointing but Race 3 proved to be similar to race 1 and finishing P21 with improved lap times was a success for the weekend.

I enjoyed the debrief with David Brabham and a few more tweaks will be made to our preparations for Croft (North Yorkshire) in a few weeks time where we race again.

Read more: BLOG: What’s the difference between a physiotherapist and a sports therapist?

Read more: ATHLETE SERVICES: Find out about what Optimum can offer to professional and semi-pro athletes.

Find out more: About Tommy Searle on YouTube