Missed Apex F1 Podcast presents: Corporate Karting
Hands up if you’re an F1 fan? ✋✋✋Thought so!
Well you’re in for a treat. Karting Track Guides is delighted to announce a partnership with the Missed Apex F1 Podcast, hosted by Richard “Spanners” Ready.
Beyond running what I would describe as a technical, well-researched and informative panel-based podcast, Missed Apex also run sim and kart racing events.
If you’re a business looking to get your team or clients out the office for an adrenaline fuelled activity, a Corporate Missed Apex Karting event might be the secret sauce that you’re looking for. It was at one such event that I met Spanners, not knowing that we would one day be in karting cahoots.
KTG-friend, Brad Philpot, is also a pundit for Missed Apex, appearing on the panel alongside other hosts including Matt Trumpets, Chris Stevens and F1 personalities including Will Buxton, Joe Saward and Antonia Rankin.
Interview with Missed Apex’s “Spanners” on their new karting events
KTG:
Spanners, I’m a big fan of your pod. First question, you often mention the “podcasting shed” where you transmit with the blessing of your better halves. Tell me more.
Spanners:
Oh god! The first episodes of Missed Apex were recorded in a small utility room, no more than 1.2m by 3m. I duct taped table cloths to the walls and piled sofa cushions over the utilities and machines. This had to be assembled and taken down for every stream, so we moved to the shed.
The shed was formerly used to house rabbits. I removed the floating floor and replaced it with a concrete and latex floor with layers of insulation for warmth and mechanical separation from the ground. We then built an timber frame on inside of the shed and hung plasterboard over that frame. The gap to the other wall was stuffed with insulation. I soon discovered that this created an awful sound and wasn’t overly sound proof.
We then added a layer of rubber backed carpet tiles to the walls. The lesson here was that the recording space was more important than the recording equipment. We then added acoustic paneling to about a third of the room and a number of other sound treatments. The shed was now so sound proof we had a singer hitting the top C from Lovin’ You in there and it was not audible for outside.
The lesson here was that the recording space was more important than the recording equipment.
KTG:
That sounds like a feat of engineering. During podcasts, you quite often mention an engineering background. What’s the story? And how would you fix F1 track limits?
Spanners:
In a past life, many many adventures ago, I was a radar engineer in the British Army. I was tasked with the repair and maintenance of anti-aircraft missile systems that included various radar equipment and a missile launcher. I also then had to dabble in hydraulics and mechanical engineering because… there wasn’t anyone else that could do it.
In my 30’s I worked in the defence industry developing the systems of tomorrow. My job was a sort of ‘reality engineer’. Young designers would come up with fantasy designs and it was my job to inform them of the world outside the office. In the end I just used to take them to field units and ships so they could see why CAD drawings don’t always solve the problem.
To solve track limits I would task a working group to conduct a study. Boring, but that’s how engineering works. You don’t come up with an answer and then wedge it in. You understand the requirements and come up with solutions that fit those requirements. There’s a process and if you approach the problem with an open mind the solutions can be a delight
KTG:
What a background. My dad was both Army and Engineer, which is probably why I like how you conduct your podcast. On to the Missed Apex F1 Podcast: What tone and level of expertise do you and your presenters aim to embody?
Spanners:
At Missed Apex we aim to never be talking to ourselves. We are a small part of a larger community that shares a passion for F1. If people want to sit in on the conversation they are welcome to and should feel included and importantly, never excluded. We want everyone to be able to listen without feeling attacked or marginalised. We want families to be able to listen together.
We are a small part of a larger community that shares a passion for F1
KTG:
I love it. Next one: How does Matt Trumpets know so much about tyres?
Spanners:
I can’t be sure he does. I don’t know enough to verify it. But he speaks well and so far we all believe him.
KTG:
If you could choose any driver from the last 30 years, who would be your ideal F1 teammate? And who would you invite round for dinner? And why?
Spanners:
From the past: Damon Hill. He seems nice and I was a huge fan in the 90s.
Present day, K-Mag can come for dinner. He looks like a fellow tired dad. We will drink mead and grumble.
Missed Apex Corporate Karting
KTG:
What’s your relationship with karting?
Spanners:
I genuinely just felt robbed as a child that I had a small taste of it for one summer and then it was forever financially out of reach for the rest of my childhood. I felt like I was OK at it. Now I’m trying to make up for it a bit. I always think of the kid Spanners when I get in a kart and it always feels like a privilege to go. I know I would DEFINITELY have been an F1 driver given the chance. Definitely.
KTG:
I’ve seen you in a kart - you’re good. You have that cool composure about you. Or maybe that’s just the tinted visor ;) How does Missed Apex plan to level up corporate karting?
Spanners:
Recently we went to Brighton Karting for the Missed Apex karting event - you were there! We ran the podcast the in the morning and then MC’d heats and A, B, C finals, before hosting pizza and beer. The team at Brighton Karting said that this was best event they had ever hosted… We took that to heart and Missed Apex Corproate Karting was born.
KTG:
Right, so you aim to embody the spirit of that event for corporates?
Spanners:
Yes, and more:
You get me, the MC
We’ll find the right track for you and your team
We’ll organise heats and final, to make the day super-charged
We can film the day
We can organise coaching
We can help post-race celebrations go with bang
Check out the Missed Apex page on KTG.
KTG:
Which tracks have you had great karting experiences?
Spanners:
Missed Apex has been to many venues including Buckmore Park, Brighton Karting and Ellough Park.
