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The Better Days Foundation: Wheels of Change

The Better Days Foundation

The Better Days Foundation is a Florida-based, non-profit environmental 501c3 organization. They are dedicated to promoting environmental sustainability with the goal of saving our planet. Their mission revolves around two core objectives:

  • Inspire, empower, educate
  • Community-driven beach clean-ups

Their motto, ‘Be The Spark,’ underscores their belief in empowering individuals to drive positive change. On their website, they talk about their events, which focus on educational activities to positively effect change and prevent further damage to the world around us.

Wheels of Change

The Wheels of Change is a YouTube series where The Better Days founder, Garret Nathan travels to seven cities in seven days to help seven different charities.

As stated on their website:

“What happens when a guy with no skills buys a cheap car online, fixes… at least attempts to fix it and take it on a 800+ mile 7 Day Road Trip throughout Florida doing 7 Charitable acts in 7 Days with 7 Incredible Foundations. To say thank you to these Amazing Foundations we will take them on a thrilling Gas Powered experience of a lifetime.”

The Better Days Foundation: Wheels of Change

Road trip schedule:

  • April 12th:
    Location – Raising Cane’s in Palm Beach
    Charity – The Better Days Foundation
    Event – fundraiser and a drive to the car show
  • April 13th:
    Location – Orlando
    Charity – A Gift for Teaching
    Event – TBC
  • April 14th:
    Location – Daytona
    Charity – United Way
    Event – Nascar experience (TBC)
  • April 15th:
    Location – Gainesville
    Charity – The Ronald McDonald House
    Event – evasive manoeuvres course with the Sheriff’s department
  • April 16th:
    Location – Tallahassee
    Charity – Big Brothers Big Sisters
    Event – training with the Sheriff’s department, track time (TBC)
  • April 17th:
    Location – Tampa
    Charity – Wheels of Success
    Event – TBC
  • April 18th:
    Location – Key West
    Charity – TBC
    Event – exotic car jet boats (TBC)

If you would like to support The Better Days Foundation, either by donating or getting involved in clean-up events, you can find all the information you need on their website.

The Fastest Sector X Better Days Foundation

Here at The Fastest Sector, Formula One is our focus. But we have a community of motorsport fans who love all types of cars. We wanted to support The Better Days Foundation with their Wheels of Change charity drive because it is an excellent cause, combining a love of motorsport with making a difference in the world.

Written by Hannah.

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Why is Suzuka Special?

Suzuka International Racing Course. 53 laps around the 5.807 km track. 307.471 km covered by the drivers who make it to the chequered flag. The Japanese track is not one great historic circuit like Monaco or Monza. Suzuka made its first appearance in the F1 calendar in 1987 and became instantly iconic with its high-speed twists, technical corners, and figure-of-eight shape. 

Source: Grand Prix Grand Tours

The track was built in 1962 under the direction of Soichiro Honda who sought to turn his company, Honda, into an automotive powerhouse. After deciding Honda needed its own test track, Dutchman John Hugenholtz, designed the now iconic ‘crossover’ track. His original design had the track crossing each other 3 separate times however this was later revised to just 1.

Suzuka is an unpredictable circuit for a number of reasons, rain can fall heavy, fast, and unexpectedly adding a fresh challenge to an already taxing track. Although many of the drivers are fans of the track it has been home to a number of high-speed dangerous accidents. The track has a safety cat probability of 50% with a virtual safety car probability of 33% which has been based on the last 6 races in Japan.

Source: GP Fans

Lewis Hamilton is the driver who currently holds the lap record after he set a 1m 30.983s lap in his Mercedes in 2019. It is Michael Schumacher who hold the record for most pole positions at the circuit with 8 as well as most wins at the circuit with 6. Max Verstappen took the win at the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix, earning him his second Drivers World Championship. After the struggles of Singapore for Verstappen last week, Suzuka will not play host to a championship winner this year.

Suzuka is such a special race in the calendar is because of the amazing fans that attend and the atmosphere that is created. Many fans participate in Formula 1 dress up, singing, and riding the Ferris wheel! There is a selection of incredible food and a number of great places to sit. Suzuka is defiantly a race every F1 fan should aim to visit!

Source: MotorSport Magazine

Which race would you most like to attend? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

Written by Cesca

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The F2 to IndyCar Pipeline: Junior Stars Shine in the States

Every year 22 drivers take the stage as members of the F2 championship with a similar set of ambitions: to win and get the attention of the powers that be in F1.

The growing issue with these ambitions is that they are becoming less likely to pan out. With driver careers lasting longer than ever, the amount of open seats remains lower than the amount of talent available to fill them. Of the last 4 F2 champions, only 2 are currently active drivers in F1 and neither one made it immediately after winning their respective championship, and while 50% isn’t staggering, that is only a fraction of the drivers that graduated F2 without reaching the next level.

Source: The Straits Times

This inability to find a seat in F1 has caused the young talents of junior formulas to branch out to other series around the world, some find themselves behind the wheel of prototypes in WEC or in FE, but today we focus on one pipeline that is growing in popularity, the IndyCar pipeline.

IndyCar is quickly growing into a premier open-wheel series, the close quarters racing and diverse track layouts make it appealing to drivers from all around the world wanting to try something new, and recently more junior Formula and F1 alumni have migrated to the IndyCar scene.

Source: Autosport.com

Drivers like Grosjean and Ericsson were both full timers in F1 that have seen success in IndyCar with Ericsson winning the Indy 500 in 2022 and Grosjean achieving multiple road course podiums. Young F1 prospects like Callum Ilott and Christian Lundgaard have also made the move to IndyCar and have found solid results despite being in less accomplished teams.

With most F1 drivers transitioning to IndyCar seeing success, more prospects or even veterans on the way out may look to the series as a way to revitalize their careers, making IndyCar a series to watch even more now than ever.

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IndyCar: America’s Take on Open Wheel Racing

Photo by Collin Hanson on Pexels.com

Formula One is widely regarded as the pinnacle of motorsports for it technical open wheel approach to racing, but it is far from the only open wheel racing series.

The NTT IndyCar Series or if you aren’t a fan of long windedness, IndyCar is the United States’ take on open wheel racing. Founded in 1905, IndyCar is one of the oldest racing series still active today and despite being a grandfather in the racing world, it is still proving to be among the most exciting.

Source: Autosport.com

IndyCar despite being open wheeled, is a staunch contrast from F1. For one, it is not a constructor series. Unlike F1 where 10 teams build cars that are all vastly different, IndyCar uses a Dallara based chassis similar to F2 giving teams with more funding less freedom to build unbeatable cars (Looking at you Red Bull). This ability to give everyone the same starting point allows for more competition in the field while also not being completely random because teams are allowed to make modifications on certain parts of the cars and engines giving limited benefits to teams with more money.

Another way IndyCar is different to F1 is the style of tracks they run. F1 currently runs mainly on mainstay racing circuits like Monza, and Silverstone with only a handful of street circuits like Monaco and Azerbaijan, but IndyCar is more diverse in its track choices doing far more street circuits and a few mainstay tracks but they also go to an F1 stans worst nightmare… ovals. IndyCar break the golden rule of purists rulebooks and race on tracks without right tuns. Most people only know IndyCar for an oval race as well, with the Indy 500 being the most attended single day sporting venue in the world, millions around the world watch these open wheeled death traps go around the 2.5 mile squared oval at speeds exceeding 230mph for 250 laps in what I can safely say is the most exciting race in the world.

Source: PlanetF1.com

The Indy 500 has it all, from close battles to drama and all the way to showmanship. If you aren’t an IndyCar fan, you still know about the Indy 500 you have seen a clip of a car going around the biggest turn you’ve ever seen going speeds you can’t fathom and for 250 laps you are glued to your screen because at any moment some drama can take place whether its a huge crash in the middle of the field or if its a car running out of fuel in the lead forcing them to make a decision that could decide if they finish 1st or finish 40th, that is what makes IndyCar special, its that uncertainty that makes it impossible to look away, its the insane speeds while they go 3 wide into a corner allowing absolutely no room for error, that is why I watch and that’s why I think you should watch too.

Written by Andrew Monson

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Why NASCAR is More Than Just Hillbilly’s Turning Left

FILE PHOTO: Nov 7, 2021; Avondale, Arizona, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Chase Elliot (9) during Cup Series Championship at Phoenix Raceway. / Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports/File Photo

We’ve got something different for you in terms of motorsport this week: NASCAR

As an American motorsport fan, I grew up around the world of NASCAR and to the naked eye it can just appear to be a bunch of guys going left really fast, but here is why it’s so much more.

  1. They race more than ovals.

NASCAR has recently expanded its horizons in terms of the tracks they run on with races like COTA and Watkins Glen being staples of the calendar and the newly announced race through the streets of Chicago. These races on non-traditional tracks show that these guys can in fact turn right despite the usual stereotype.

2. Even on ovals the racing is more than it seems.

Despite the simple layout of an oval, the racing is far more complex. Picture this: you are on a 2 lane motorway with 39 other cars, simple so far, right? Now imagine you are all separated by less than 20 cm from bumper to bumper, it’s getting a little harder now, isn’t it? Now, imagine you are all travelling at speeds exceeding 180 mph and there’s a steep banking coming up and you need to maintain speed without colliding with the cars around you while two different radios scream in your ear. Now you’re beginning to see why it’s more than just a left turn. Do all of this for 100+ laps while trying to overtake with no braking zones.

Source: Autosport.com

3. Ovals come in all shapes and sizes

Not every left turn is created equally, on the NASCAR calendar the oval races range in size from .25 miles to 2.7 miles with everything in between. These different sized ovals make the strategy of every race different, on the bigger ovals, you can pack race which means drafting with a “pack” to build momentum and stay at speed while conserving fuel, and at the smaller ovals its all about outbreaking your rivals and picking up speed out of the corner all while trying to keep your car out of a wall which are right on the side allowing for no mistakes.

In reality, I can’t make you watch NASCAR, but I greatly encourage you to at least give it a shot, you might find it to be an action packed, competitive Sunday activity to put on when Verstappen is 7 minutes ahead.

Source: 2022 Getty Images

Written by Andrew Monson

We hope you enjoyed something different on the blog this time! Let us know if you would like to see more of this.