Photoshoot with Paul Grace & Video Diaries

It’s not often I get to stand still for 5 minutes, but a few weeks ago I had a chance to work on a photoshoot with Paul Grace who took some fantastic portrait pictures in a studio. I often find that come a race weekend my hair is far from perfect after hours wearing a helmet and a good percentage of my makeup rubs off on my Nomex balaclava, so it was really fun to be standing in front of a camera looking a little more composed than normal!

I’m thrilled with the pictures and it’s mainly thanks to Paul who is an excellent photographer and worked quickly on the day to get as much out of the time as possible. I think I perhaps take credit for bringing along the wheel as I was driving and thankfully didn’t have to manoeuvre it on London’s public transport.

Some of you may notice a new logo on my helmet and suit and I’ll be posting a more in depth article soon on the new partners I’m working with this season, but I’m really excited to have NGK onboard – representing such a well known brand is an amazing opportunity.

I hope you all caught the first programme in the GoCharlie Hillclimb Project on Motors TV recently, it went out in late February and received a lot of broadcast time, being repeated around 20 times or more. Since the next programme won’t be out until July I’m going to start making regular video diaries which I will be uploading to my Facebook page. The videos that I made last year were a great addition to the blog post & PistonHeads articles as they really helped to capture the feel of the events and give an insight each weekend, so it’s something I’m keen to try and follow on from in 2016. So while AH Video Concept will be filming and producing the programmes for broadcast, I’ll be bringing you a more light-hearted & candid window into the build up, organisation and running of each weekend (along with a some funny bits too!). The first one was a ‘how to video’ as I made a new custom race seat for the car, and this weeks will be looking at the tyre cleaning machine I’ve just made and explaining the hillclimber’s obsession with meticulously preparing tyres.

I’m hugely relieved to say that Herve the race van is now fixed and has a clean bill of health, it feels quite strange driving without the engine management light continually lit but I have to say it’s a nagging weight off my mind. All four injectors needed replacing, along with a few glow plugs (and quite a bit of labour) so I’m grateful to Percy Martin Ltd for helping as part of their ongoing support, I had visions of the problem becoming worse and this could have genuinely spelt disaster, but RH Commercial Vehicles did a belt & braces job so I should be zooming down the autoroutes sans encombre this summer.

For those of you who may be thinking this will remove a degree of nail biting drama from my posts, please don’t worry as I’m sure there will be plenty of excitement to come from the 2016 season! With no fewer than 8 driver entered in class DE/7 of the CFM this season and reigning 2015 champion Antoine Betzel absent for a season of circuit racing, it feels certain that this year will guarantee close racing and a good battle for podium places. Only 8 weeks to go until Hebécrévon and I’m already feeling edgey with anticipation – my first drive of the year will be testing at Curborough on the 24th March so expect a full write up on the new setup & gearing plus some onboard footage!