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So You Want a Race Career
Going Racing GuideThis guide is geared UK racing, with the governing body being the Motorsport
Association (MSA). www.msauk.org
If you reside elsewhere I suggest you visit this UK site and listed there should be links for the organising body for you country.
Failing that, follow the link at MSA to the FIA website and they have the links needed. www.fia.com
Getting Started
Order an MSA Getting Started Pack. This outlines all the information and preparation you personally have to take to get your first racing licence.
Do your home work on flags, on track, and off track procedures.
A race meeting is full of timetables and places to be that cannot be missed.
Pass the medical
Attend Association of Racing Driver Schools (ARDS) MSA certified course and take the test for you National B licence. (Assuming circuit racing is for you)
A list of authorised schools is in the pack and also online
Pass the course.
Congratulations now you have the licence
Buy protective racing gear (Helmet, Fireproof clothes, gloves and boots)
Total Budget to this point will be about £1,000.
Now you are ready!
Its worth noting that if you have never been on a circuit before its
invaluable having some tuition at you school before hand 1:1, we all think
we can race, having spent hours on the Playstation, but this time will set the scene and make you transition from couch to car successful having completed some basic training.
It will not guarantee outright speed, this is a combination of ability and experience.
Many of the 18 year old drivers who jump straight into a car and blitz the
grid, usually have 8 to 10 years go cart experience, time well spent.
What to Race?
My own choice was based around the following principles and the conclusion I reached was Formula Ford 1600, racing at Brands Hatch.
The FF1600 cars are plentiful, world class venue within an hour of my home, and the cars never go out of date.
If I want to travel and experience different tracks, there are races all over the UK and Europe to attend should the budget stretch to it.
Also FF1600 have control tyres (wet and dry) that last many racing miles, and no expensive wings to knock off when you go through the gravel. (And you will).
Also the cars have no carbon fibre which makes the chassis and bodywork cheaper to repair.
Budget
Racing is a costly hobby and there are corners that can be cut whilst not compromising your racing or safety.
But what are the real costs?
The cheapest way to do it is run your own car.
Once you are up an running an event costs approx as follows
Based on a 8 weekend season
Per round
Entry Fee £200 - £300
Fuel and other running costs £100
“Investments” (New tyres and bits rebuilds averaged) £50
Average Race Weekend £350 - £450
Engine costs - £1.25 per mile
Mileage per weekend (ex testing) 55
Reasonable season - £3,000.
I race in MSV series and get two races per round so this season I should get 5 weekends and two tests, 2 of the weekends being multi event festivals.
That is approximately 14 races and 5 qualifying, and 2 days testing. Good mileage.
Hire a car and team?
Budget related decision and I hired a FF1600 first to make sure it was the car
for me, at about £750 for a day plus fees, a round £1000 for a day.
Accident damage is NOT included in this and is always the driver’s
responsibility, and irrespective of who hit who.
At £1000 a race my budget would soon expire, and that is without testing.
Seat time is everything, and FF1600’s that are early 90’s late 80’s vintage
generally do not depreciate provided you keep up the service investment.
So if you have the capital to make the initial purchase, it’s ‘free’ to own the car. The rest of the cost is yearly running charges.
So to do this you will have to manage your own car, but know nothing about it!
NOT as daunting as you think with some support from a friendly team (PA Motorsport in my case) and a few friends who are up for it.
On top of the above you will have to insure the car, this is not for track cover but theft, transit and fire, at £215 plus join a club BRSCC is around £125
Remember keep the car race prepared and in good shape and you will get back roughly what you have paid.
I drop the odd race out of the schedule to keep this up, and you may need to make the same decision if money is a little tight. Look after the car.
An OK FF1600 of this era starts at around £5,000 – £6,500 complete (maybe with a small spares package) and in reasonable condition.
You will often see the cars advertised without engines.
This is nothing to be concerned about, in fact it’s often preferable as FF1600 engines are valuable, and the history of an engine is important.
If a car is available without an engine (make sure all the water systems and electrical systems are in so all that is needed is an engine!) then buy a rebuilt engine from a reputable builder.
My own is an Auriga, for around £2,500 and have it put in by PA Motorsport who are at the same location.
Another popular builder is Bold and they will be able to point you in the direction of a team near you.
There are many others. The race entry details will give mention to it.
A team like PA will inspect a car, for a fee, and often can advise on the history of a car if they know of it.
They also know the market and have cars available for sale.
They may be a little more expensive but it does de risk the purchase.
Check out the web site www.pamotorsport.com.
Tell Peter Alexander you got the name from here and he will be delighted to help.
But have your money ready as good cars are snapped up, so make sure you have you licence and gear and are really going to do it before calling.
Race teams are busy places.
Budget position:
So far £7,200 outlay, of which £5,000 is recoverable by selling the car and £400 a race running costs.
You need a trailer £1,250 and about £500 for sundry pit items (Jerry cans spanners etc etc.) if you do not already have them.
So consider £8,500 as being a reasonable start up budget and work to that.
Once the car is complete, set up, spanner checked by a professional, you can be sure that you are in a safe car.
For the first time out have a team run you, its approx £150 - £175 a day plus VAT for this support, and money well spent.
Track fees for a test are around £265 including a garage.
Treat the day as training and handover day for yourself and your pit crew (make sure you have more than one mate who will undertake this role just in case they cannot make a weekend or 2.)
You need to be comfortable with the car before taking it to the races.
Single seat racing cars are obviously purpose built and as such are far easier to work on should the worst happen and you crash.
The bodywork comes off easily making the cars easy to work on, and new ones go back on cleanly.
Also there are teams who specialise in your make of car who can source and supply parts and labour to fix it.
Many of the 89 – 95 cars have been fully rebuilt over the years. You will find a few at the top end of the price scale that are total rebuilds and like new. £8,500 is the zone for one of these and around £10,000 – £12,500 for a post 1999.
FF1600’s are very simple in the engine bay, with no modern electronics to speak of other than maybe an ignition box.
This is a positive thing and makes them easy to understand. Formula Vee is the same.
When I started a team did most of the work but over time we now have the set up done yearly at a minimum, or after a ‘drama’.
Then it’s down to us.
It’s actually more fun and I get more out of the experience personally by running my car.
Get the car professionally set up
A FF1600 is robust, but they do need a professional eye over them to get the car fully balanced. Otherwise it’s like a table with different length legs and driving them like that is a nervous and unrewarding experience.
Flat patch and scales(at £2000 a set) are the best way to do this and you can either take the car to a workshop for a full set up, a single days work, or have a mobile engineer visit.
I use both, PA Motorsport for the workshop and fabrication support, and Chassistech for the home visit. http://www.chassistech.co.uk/
Test and Race
Test a couple of times first, and take tuition, to get up to a novice speed.
A couple of tests at the same track will get you close. Lap timing is done by MST (you will need to buy a transponder from them) and the website here will get you to the lap charts from prior rounds of you chosen series and so give you a feel for the pace at the front and the back. www.msttiming.com
Then do the first race.
Expect to come near the middle to back. This may appear defeatist but who cares, run your own race, keep out of trouble, if you get lapped get out of the way, and work on improving you times.
Get a cheap lap timer Roll Centre do a good one, for your car, not as useful as a data logger but really helps in motivating you to push that little bit harder.
Once you are in the middle some where and have £500 to invest Race Logic have a GPS based system that is simple to install, and plenty good enough for a club driver.
PI also do a variety of systems, System 2 being very popular. This is at the more professional end of the budget range.
Sponsorship
I have been “lucky” in this area. My first races were sponsored by CSC and then last year was covered by Hypertech.
I worked for CSC and Hypertech were a supplier to CSC who wanted to increase exposure. Both were leveraged through personal contacts.
A recent survey by BRSCC showed 90% of drivers paid for racing themselves, so most of the sponsorship you see will be family businesses, and not connections like mine. This is the exception at club level.
It is a tough nut to crack, and business want a tangible return, and with sponsors come responsibilities on and off track. In the early days, its one pressure you could do without and concentrate on getting your driving up to standard. That’s the beauty of go carts as a kid.
Never give up on the subject, and maybe one year in 3 someone may contribute to your season but expect to underwrite the bulk of the budget.
Marshalling
These orange suited enthusiasts are the backbone of our sport, are great fun and if you are unfortunate enough to visit the gravel they take the piss without mercy.
Now, if at this point the budget is a little daunting, speak to the BRSCC near to you (there are centres all over the UK) and join this activity. www.brscc.co.uk/
Attached is the link to the marshals club itself so why not go direct.
www.marshals.co.uk/
The benefits are that you are at the heart of the action and participating in the event.
Alternative Series
BRSCC and 750MC have a variety of hot hatch saloon car series and cars can start at as low as £1,250, not sure on the quality of these cars but a quick trip to the 750MC site and www.racecarsdirect.com will give you a feel for what is there. Formula Vee is also a 750MC series and these single seat cars are a little cheaper the buy, and about the same to run.
The series is national so travel will be higher, but the racing is excellent. AHS Mechanical (Alan Harding) http://www.formulavee.co.uk/ can be found here.
Either of these will cut the up front outlay down a bit.
Summary
It is possible, with much energy to go from FF1600 here to Le Mans. Money is needed to do it, but few who drive at the great event, save the true works teams, get paid. Its all people like you and me who either write a cheque or raise the money.
So to start on this road:
Buy with care and get some guidance.
Buy a car you can afford to crash
Keep the first car as simple as possible if you have limited racing and engineering experience. Get to know your way around.
It’s addictive so beware.
If this guide has proved helpful drop me a note the mail address below.
Hope to see you trackside.
Mark.edwards@gb.unisys.com
E Mail Address
markpedwards@markpedwards.co.uk more...
