Time or 'weekend warriors'. Mechanics of any level can also leave their details. Racemech.com wants to reach out to all grades of mechanics/ engineers, hence the working title for the jobs page is "from grass roots to Grandprix". We all started somewhere even top F1 mechanics probably started gophering with a formula Ford team. This jobs page will hopefully make it easier for the young mechanic/engineer to gain that all important first step on the ladder. Going into motorsport is a lifestyle choice in the same way people want to become doctors or nurses. Young men and increasingly young women feel the fascinating pull of the pit lane.

But it's not all about slip angles and torque settings - bolting a car together is probably only 30% of the deal, just as important is the ability to work, live, and travel with your team mates for long periods of time. The real skill is being able to wind people up and play practical jokes whilst withstanding verbal assaults and not letting it get to you. In the long dark evenings after an 18 hour day, this skill combined with plenty of chocolate hobnobs are sometimes the only things to keep you going, but take it too far at your own peril. You have to have banter otherwise, when the pressure's on you'd go mad.

As Racemech.com becomes more established we hope to have guest columnists/pitlane legends regale us with their tales of daring do and how they got into the sport etc. There is an untapped resource of tales and stories which I'm sure the young mechanic or engineer will find fascinating. This feeds into the need to show what the other 70% of the job entails.... it's called fun. To help

promote the student motorsport competition Baja and the e-learning packages there is a need to appeal to youngsters and that is the main reason behind the link up between Racemech.com and SAE-UK. The look and the feel of Racemech is very contemporary, quirky and lighthearted, therefore providing an ideal platform to promote the aims of SAE-UK.

Such competitions as Formula student and the Baja challenge mean a great deal to the competitors so we aim to have an area of the site totally dedicated to these events. Students will be able to download and share photographs with their fellow students and also do their own blog.

2007 aims to be a very busy and rewarding year, there will be regular reports from ourselves as to what the students and ourselves are up to. The site will develop throughout the year as the relationship deepens and the students get more involved. Eventually the forum and the photo downloading will become a major attraction for the colleges as it hopefully develops into a community.

This exciting affiliation came about totally by chance at the Autosport show, but SAE-UK President Dave Smith saw something in what we are trying to do and ran with it. If between us we can make engineering more attractive and encourage youngsters into it then it was indeed a very lucky meeting of two like minded people.

Martyn Gilbert is Car Build Technician at Lola Cars Ltd., and Founder of www.racemech.com