Last month’s British Touring Car Championship finale was a dramatic event. The title fight went right down to the wire at Brands Hatch and the battling between Jake Hill and Tom Ingram will live long in the memory. But, away from the action on circuit, the event was also memorable in a very different way for those benefiting from the work of the Renaissance Foundation charity.
The London-based organisation supports young carers and young people with chronic health conditions and was invited to get a special behind-the-scenes glimpse of the motorsport world on the Saturday of the BTCC showdown.
Renaissance Foundation’s director of programme Hannah Conway explains the Brands Hatch visit, which was hosted by series sponsor Kwik Fit, was to learn about different careers in motorsport and developing soft skills such as confidence, communication and teamwork. But, most importantly, it was about having fun.
“For a lot of young people that we work with, they may not normally get the opportunity to come out and have a day like this,” she says. “Take them out of London, bring them somewhere new, meeting lots of inspirational people and just giving them a really fun day out.”
There couldn’t have been a better day for Renaissance Foundation to come to Brands, either. Not only did the weather hold up but, with Ingram and Hill entering the weekend equal on points, it ensured the young people were witnessing a pivotal day in deciding the destiny of the title.
Some of those the charity supports were invited to watch various practice, qualifying, and racing sessions taking place. They also went into the garages to meet drivers and engineers, while four were even taken on laps around the track in the safety car.
“A big part of what we’re doing is trying to raise ambitions and getting them to think about what comes next,” Conway explains. “A day like today could inspire them to think ‘this is a career that I might want to explore in the future’ so that’s why we’re here.”
BTCC boss Alan Gow is certainly hopeful the experience could inspire some new recruits into motorsport. “It’s a great foundation,” he says. “It just ticks our boxes as far as bringing people into our sport and our industry. It’s actually also a little bit of a payback for all of the carers and all of the work they do.
“Hopefully what will happen as a result of today is, not only will they become more engaged with motorsport, particularly the BTCC, but I’ve also seen that motorsport can actually probably provide them with a lot of things that they’re looking for in their lives.
“Motorsport is not just a sport, it’s a business. It’s an industry. It’s crying out for talented employees all the time.”
Conway says that alongside learning about careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects, their BTCC visit also provided the young people with the opportunity to learn about careers in other areas of motorsport.
“STEM is becoming more and more popular, but there are [also] for example things like social media, journalism – those are careers that you may not normally automatically connect with motorsport,” she adds.
“And I think it’s nice to know that – say you’re really into social media, and you’re really into motorsport – that’s a career that you can have in the future.
“I think a lot of the time young people don’t know those careers exist, and being able to meet people from a whole range of different careers is really inspiring for them.”
In addition to offering experiences like the BTCC visit, Conway says part of Renaissance Foundation’s work is to raise awareness surrounding young carers.
“It’s a group of young people that’s quite hidden and not a lot of people know what that means,” she says. “It’s basically a young person that has caring responsibilities for someone at home who might have a physical or mental health condition, it could be addiction issues.
"So we’re doing a lot of work around trying to raise awareness of what being a young carer actually is, because it’s still quite a hidden group.”
Further details about Renaissance Foundation and the work it does can be found here
