From a press release:

Superside opens the door to new entrants

Often attending a first World Championship meeting or even trying to get an impression about what a world championship is all about, can be a huge hurdle for teams. Not only is the whole environment foreign, but also a number of questions or problems can plague new entrants.

To combat these problems, Superside has launched a three-pronged plan of attack.

“Welcome Packs” will be posted (mailed) prior to the event to all teams entered. These contain content information on how to get to the event, where to park, how to get tickets, the location of services such as technical and race control, answering questions before teams leave home.

Superside General Manager, Gary Francis comments: “These welcome packs might seem quite trivial but often teams who haven’t been in a championship year before or who are attending as non permanent entrants need a lot of information that hasn’t been previously prepared. Our welcome packs are now a regular feature of each race meeting. These will direct the teams to tracks, to the paddock itself, bring them up to date on news concerning the event and highlight issues of importance before each race meeting.”

To assist new teams and budding hopefuls, Superside has introduced two different mentoring programs for the teams to enjoy and take full advantage of also.

First time entrants to the championship, will be assigned a permanent or top team for the entire race meeting. Having mentors from the permanent paddock to look after new teams will provide assurance for technical questions. Questions about set-up, general guidance about the circuit, what to expect or how to get around the track faster will greatly assist first time non permanent entrants, get to grips a lot faster.

“Many of the new teams find the entire paddock environment quite imposing and often are not sure where to go to get help on sometimes quite simple matters. Factor this with a paddock full of the heroes of this sport and for new comers it can become quite unnerving. The purpose of this mentoring program is to support first time entrants to the championship, with the goal ultimately of helping them achieve the best race result possible, first time up!” explained Francis.

“This structure of mentoring program will now be introduced in Monza where Bill Philip Racing will be mentored by liveonscreen.com. Both parties are keen to see the Superside mentoring program enhance the overall professionalism of the Superside experience. Superside will be monitoring this trial carefully and bringing forward progress news during the Monza event”.

As a second phase in the mentoring program and maybe even more importantly, Superside has made an offer to all permanent teams in the championship. Encouraging them to foster more growth in the sport outside of the world championship.

Permanent teams are now supported to bring new potentials in to the World Championship paddock. Superside will issue three-day and hospitality passes to “stars of tomorrow” coming to the events with the permanent teams.

We wish to open up the World Championship in a new way” said Gary Francis.

“The championship should be a place that young teams can come and gain some experience. By opening up the paddock in this manner we are hoping that young riders and passengers will take the opportunity to contact the permanent teams to experience the World Championship events. This should have two spin-off effects”, says Francis.

“Firstly young teams can come and experience the entire race weekend, taking in all of the feelings and atmosphere of the championship and secondly team managers can use this mentoring program as a way of looking for fresh young talent to groom towards the World Championship.”

“The excellent part about mentoring young riders and passengers in this way”, says Francis, “is that existing teams can look into their country’s competitor pool and bring talent from many different languages and countries to the championship. We now have teams from the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland, Italy, Germany, France, Holland, and Austria. Using existing teams therefore helps to bridge the gap a lot more quickly than we could ever do”.

Look forward to the young guns of tomorrow at the next round in Monza.