Rally car sliding through gravel at DirtFish Rally School
Before First Gear

A motorsport documentary series

Every racer starts somewhere

Before First Gear travels to motorsport schools across the country — rally, drag, dirt track, formula, stock car, superbike — and sits down with professional racers to trace how they actually made it through the ranks.

Watch the episodesRacer interviews
9
Long-form episodes
50+
Racers interviewed
9
Schools visited
7
Disciplines

Long-form episodes

Full series

Supermoto

SoCal Supermoto School

Dirt bikes on slicks, sliding both ends through a kart track.

Apple Valley, CA

Dirt Track

Kenny Wallace Dirt Racing Experience

Loose surface, big throttle, and the oldest school in American racing.

Clay oval

F2000 Racing

Bertil Roos Racing School

From an advanced 2-day school right into a wheel-to-wheel race.

Pocono, PA

Formula Racing

Skip Barber Racing School

The school that produced a generation of American champions.

Lime Rock Park, CT

Stock Car

NASCAR Racing Experience

3,400 pounds, no power steering, and a wall on your right.

Rockingham, NC

Rally

DirtFish Rally School

Left-foot braking, gravel, and learning to steer with the throttle.

Snoqualmie, WA

Drag Racing

Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School

A dragster, a christmas tree, and roughly eight seconds of work.

Gainesville, FL

Ice Driving

Winter Driving School

French Ice Driving School, fun in the mountains.

Tignes, France

Superbike

California Superbike School

Two wheels, lean angle, and the survival reactions you have to unlearn.

Willow Springs, CA

Racer Interviews & Stories

More than 50 professional car and motorcycle racers interviewed, sharing their stories and paths to the podium. The best moments, insights, and stories have been cut into more than 130 shorts.

Open the shorts playlist
Host talking with a racing instructor at a motorsport school

About the series

Motorsport looks closed off from the outside. Before First Gear goes to the places where it actually opens up — the schools — and puts a camera in the classroom, the paddock and the car.

Each episode pairs a full school experience with an interview: a professional driver or rider walking through the karting, club racing, coaching and money that got them to the top level of the sport.