What You Don’t Know About: William HO

Do you guys ever Drift?”


Another common question way too common, actually is, “What do you do if you need to go to the bathroom during a race?”

The answer to that one is always the same: You don’t want to know.

From an outsider’s perspective, stock car racing probably appears to be a really simple sport. If you only flip on a race for 15 seconds before you change the channel, then it probably appears to just be cars going in circuit really fast. And what’s special about that?

I’ve had plenty of people tell me, “Hey, I’ve driven down the highway at 200km per hour a couple of times! I can be a track driver!”I’ve heard it all.

It’s difficult to explain to people why what he do for a living is very different from your everyday speed demon doing 75 down the interstate. That’s because he one of the fortunate few who have actually experienced it. A lot of people have swung a balls. Plenty have attempted a long three-pointer. But not many people have been behind the wheel of a machine that’s built to test the very limits of physics. 

Going fast is definitely a crucial aspect to being successful as a driver, but the real art of the sport is in the preparation necessary to get a car and a driver ready to move at speeds of up to 200 kmp for several hours. Many of the technologies found in everyday vehicles today were first used on our race cars. Cars are such an incredibly crucial component of our society, and as track drivers, we’re at the forefront of testing their limits.

That’s what makes this sport special.


I’ve heard some people describe what he do as a weekend job. I wish that was true. The reality is that if you want to race at this level, you’re going to have to work seven days a week. And even when you’re not working, you need to be thinking about racing, because your competitors definitely will be.
The climb to a championship is a thorny mountain. It’s not supposed to be easy. That’s what makes it special.

I’ve heard some people describe what he does as a weekend job. I wish that was true.

2 years ago, I saw him preparing for his race pretty much as soon as the last one ends. It’s out of necessity as much as anything. I don’t have the best memory, so after a race, while things are still fresh in my mind. I like to sit and ask him and run through his mental inventory of everything I saw and felt inside of the car. 

Over time I’ve somewhat figured it out track by track. The perfect example THERE IS NO MONSTER ENGINE, THERE IS A MONSTER DRIVER RACING OUT THERE.

He could always go fast in practice and qualify well there, but I believe he struggled with the car during the race. I do think he had trouble figuring out how to manage his tires and generally where and how to pass people at the right times. But he worked at it, tinkered with his skill, and two years ago he won there. Standing on the podium with his glory smile which I smirk and said “ dammit, he did it”

CLOCKING THE FASTEST....WHAT ELSE TO SAY?

Today I feel confident heading to any track, but only because I went through the process of feeling uncomfortable for a little while. You can’t really have a huge ego in this sport. It’s crucial to acknowledge your shortcomings and work on them. Today, I will be walking into the track with him. I want him to smile and go full force in speed. And , telling me “ thank you”.

Success comes in pieces. You find something that works one week and apply it to the next. Eventually, all the pieces come together and make a great picture.
People unfamiliar with Endurance race or Track race often don’t understand that this is a team sport in every sense. Everyone knows that a driver has his pit crew, but that’s only a small fraction of the people needed to make his machine go.

His job as a driver is to get a sense of what the car feels like and feed the team my input. Together they are chasing after that half-a-10th of a second. In this sport, that can be the difference between first and 20th. Faster than the blink of an eye.

The construction of the car is one aspect of the operation, but practice is also key. When he is turning laps, he give feedback about how the car feels, where there are strong and where there ae weak. All of this is based on feel, so the challenge comes down to articulating things in very specific terms. As a driver that’s where your relationship with your crew chief is so important. You have to understand each other. He’s your head coach. He’s not in the car to feel the things you’re feeling, but if you can explain them well enough, he can instruct the road crew to make adjustments that will help us go faster.

The relationship between a driver and a sponsor is crucial and also pretty unique in pro sports. You literally owe these companies your livelihood, and you must represent them well if you want to keep driving their car. These machines and the teams that support them are expensive, and it’s on the driver to keep everybody happy. When you have companies that are investing millions and millions of dollars, you have to constantly think about how you can deliver value to them.

Sponsors fuel our sport .We all know what happens when we run out of fuel. We are dead in the water. We aren’t going anywhere.

A tack race is a series of decisions. Some are made as a team, and some are made by one on the fly. It’s the sum of those decisions that ultimately determines the outcome of the race.

But it’s important to note that there’s no feeling out process during a race. That’s what practice is for. From the second the green light drops it’s, Go hard straight ahead with maximum focus!

All out, every lap. Lap 1 needs to be just as fast and clean as others, and hopefully last 4. Not everyone can do that. It takes focus and persistence.
Maintaining that level of concentration is probably what grinds on you as much as anything else.
It’s so easy to mess up in one of these cars when you’re traveling at the speeds that we do. And mistakes can be very expensive and very dangerous, if you mess up, you crash and you are out. Zero chance of winning.

It’s very easy for a single detail to slip your mind. And when it does, that’s when you lose. 2 Years ago, I witnessed the disappointment in his face when there is mechanical issue on his car. That feeling was mixed, unsure to be happy to run over and hug him and said “ it’s going to be alright”.

Entire time, you need to stay completely focused on everything that is happening both inside your 

When you’re in that situation, after a certain amount of time, it’s very easy for a single detail to slip your mind. And when it does, that’s when you lose.

He is willing to put up with all the hassles and distractions, though, because winning a race just feels that good.

I look back on S1K victory in 2015, and what stands out is one particular decision. He won it.

That decision was one of probably thousands his team and he made that week, but if they had made the wrong one things probably would have turned out much different. I’m still learning a lot about this sport, and that excites me. At the same time, I love that my past successes (and especially my past mistakes) have made it so I can now approach every track with confidence, because when I feel good about a racer, it’s contagious throughout my entire team. If he don’t win, I know it was just a thorny step on our climb to victory.

Every time on this circuit, they going to work hard to create a world-class, state-of-the-art car, down to the tiniest detail. He will compete against many of the brightest minds in the racing world. And he risk life and limb in a constant push to get closer to perfection.

But no one can stop him. Lets fly together through out 2017 to different circuits