A 12-year-old kid is sitting trackside at the Caribbean Motor Racing Championship, amazed by the sights and sounds of monstrous DTM race cars, fully built Evos, and howling rotaries, hoping he can take part in such an event one day. Ten years later, that kid is teaching a European Porsche Cup driver about car balance and trail braking, improving his times without a dollar spent on car parts. That kid is me, Dominic Charles.
As an admittedly unknown quantity to most, I recently entered local racing after many years of kart racing abroad. With 10+ years of sim racing experience for various professional esports teams and even achieving the title of “Caribbean Sim Racing Champion”, no one expected much of me, especially with the stigma I’ve faced of “he just plays games online” by those who don’t personally know me. In the face of all this, I made the decision (with some assistance) to leap straight into Autocross. After winning my first event in a less-than-ideal car and announcing my availability as a racing coach, I expected some push-back from other established names in the sport. Yet, even with very polarised public views towards me, I received enough support to solidify this decision.
So, why did I do it? Simply put, I believe that the standard of motorsport can be raised within the Caribbean especially after speaking to various professional racing drivers and seeing the level of racing that other countries are able to achieve. I am also tired of seeing the archaic but traditional method of going faster: “To gain a second, I need to spend 10k on parts”. This should not be the case. Throwing money and horsepower at a car until it wins makes no sense when you could gain a second per lap via a couple of small corrections. I intend to show people that their cars are more than capable of doing the desired tasks once the right driving technique is applied. The first step towards this is to share my knowledge and experience in the most effective manner possible. So naturally, I have taken it upon myself to become a racing coach.
So the next question is, how exactly do I help? I believe that understanding how a car functions and why you do certain things in racing is the first step to gaining pace. I provide drivers with thorough explanations regarding the car’s dynamics and every single decision made while driving as well as how the car reacts to any inputs being made. Additionally, I suggest adjustments based on professional knowledge shared with me by international motorsport mechanics and drivers (as well as my own findings), along with personalized driving line adjustments and input corrections. While these sound like minor changes, the idea behind them is to take the driver error out of a car’s perceived performance and ensure that each driver learns techniques and information that saves them time on the track as well as increases their ability to handle a car, even on the road.
Lastly, you must be wondering, what makes anything I say credible? The results speak for themselves. Any driver I have coached thus far has shown great improvement and increased understanding of both their platform and their own driving decisions. Just to name a few, Daniel Persad, Matthew Phillips, Shiv Gopeechand, and drivers from other islands (Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados) currently in circuit racing have made huge strides in their driving technique and pace since our sessions have begun. With Autocross championship titles, Gridkhana podiums, Spec Miata Series points, and GP1 and 2 Circuit wins, my clients have made me proud to see their improvement, especially considering their zeal to become better drivers rather than build faster cars.
I must also highlight that this entire venture is a learning opportunity for myself as I too gain knowledge and experience from helping others and dealing with various situations on and off the track. One of the main reasons for doing this is to grow myself as a driver and individual as I enter more racing events in the future, provided I am not completely booked out for the day. I will take this opportunity to thank my families at PRS Performance, Calypso Racing Community, and everyone else who supported me so far, along with all the drivers who I have raced against both locally and away, for pushing me to be as capable as I am today.
I look forward to sharing my knowledge and building better drivers in the future.
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