Motor sport is one of the most popular and successful sports in Britain. There are over 750 registered motor clubs who organise over 4,000 events every year. Club membership nationally is in excess of 200,000, over 30,000 of whom are competition licence holders, and the number of active competitors in all forms of motorsport is probably at least 100,000.

Anyone over the age of 8 can drive competitively, and there are opportunities for even severely disabled drivers. Many forms of motor sport can be tackled with completely standard road cars, while others permit only very limited modifications. Actually, you don’t even need a car to compete; several types of motor sport require each car to carry a passenger, often as an active participant. If you prefer not to compete at all, there are opportunities to marshal, to help with organising, or simply to spectate.

And finally, you can seek permanent employment in motor sport. Great Britain is the very centre of the motor sport world: three-quarters of the world’s single-seat racing car production is British-built, and 80% of Formula 1 World Championship races in the past decade have been won by British-built cars. The motor sport industry employs around 38,500 people nationwide, has a turnover value of over £1.5 billion, and is responsible for around £930 million of Britain’s export earnings each year. This is indeed an industry of which we can all be justly proud.

Motor sport is as old as the car itself, and stems from the basic human instinct to compete; if you give two boys bicycles, they’ll be racing each other within minutes! International and professional motor sport attracts a lot of media coverage: Formula 1, Formula 3, Formula 3000, Touring Cars, Sports and GT Cars, International Rallying etc. But thousands of ordinary people across the country take part each weekend in competitive motor sport that receives virtually no coverage. This is National and Club level motor sport - Classic & Sporting Car Trials; Production Car Trials; Autotests; Navigation Rallies (NavX); and the high-speed events: Sprints; Hillclimbs; Drag Racing; Stage Rallying; Off Road and Rallycross.

One of the main aims of Bristol Motor Club is to promote affordable motor sport at club level, so we are not involved in Drag Racing, Stage Rallying, Off Road and Rallycross events. This introduction will therefore concentrate on the events that we do promote – the low-speed events, plus Sprints and Hillclimbs.

This is a form of motorsport new to this country. As SOLO, it was pioneered in the UK by Bristol Motor Club in 2002, and was a big success. The inspiration came from the sport of this name in the USA, where it is also known as Slalom. The success of its UK debut was repeated in May 2003 but then we lost our venue and there has been a complete hiatus since then. In 2007 however, Solo is back, now at Weston Airfield.

It is a contest of driving skill that falls somewhere between an Autotest and a Sprint. Cars run one at a time against the clock on a short course that lays emphasis on car handling and agility rather than speed or power. No reversing is involved, and speeds and hazards do not exceed those encountered in normal driving on the road. By avoiding the need for rescue units and medical crews the overall cost can be kept low.

The discipline is also very economical with officials, because the competitors marshal the course themselves. This is a fundamental culture change in the UK, and is achieved by dividing competitors into three groups. At any one time, one group will be marshalling the course, one will be preparing to compete, whilst the third is actually competing. When they’ve had their runs, it’s ‘all change’. You have to marshal the course at least once for your timed runs to count. It means that everyone has an equal amount of work and play.

The event is only open to road-legal cars that are taxed, insured and MOTd. Car preparation is limited to removing loose objects from inside, and any clip-on wheel trims. For insurance reasons you need to produce your club membership card, but neither a competition - nor even an RTA - licence is required.

The test routes are marked by cones with numbered marker posts, which you pass in ascending order.  In addition, horizontal bright-yellow cones are used to point the way. The intention is to make the event a test of driving skill rather than of memory. You will incur penalties if you go wrong or hit the markers, but the main aim is to complete the test course smoothly and quickly - times are recorded by hand-held stopwatch to 0.1 sec. accuracy.

But isn’t it all very expensive?

The answer is – well – yes, and not necessarily.

Certainly in F1, racing at the highest level, the sky’s the limit and millions are spent each year. But you can go Circuit Racing at much more modest cost, for example the 750MC runs affordable club racing events, at around £110, but preparation – and repair! – costs are likely to be significant.

But the following disciplines are much more affordable:

• Speed Events, hillclimbs and sprints, have entry fees in the range £50 to £80, and as we’ll see later, you don’t need a special car.
• Production Car Trials - the simplest form of trialling, where the entry fee is roughly £10.
• Autotests - driving tests at moderate speed around a marked course in a car park, at a cost of around £10;
• Marshalling, which will cost you nothing. Indeed, you usually get rewarded with a lunch voucher, or canned drinks during the day, and at most meetings there’s a Marshals’ Draw. Bristol Motor Club issues vouchers to its members each time they marshal, and these vouchers may be used as part payment for another club event, or towards club teeshirts etc.

We’ve given you an idea of the range of activities the Bristol Motor Club is involved in. If you want to get started in motor sport, at any level, your first step is to join a recognised club. Why? Because almost all motor sport in the UK is regulated by the Motor Sports Association (which used to be the RAC). Clubs such as the Bristol Motor Club are affiliated to, or recognised by, the MSA, and are thus licensed to organise motor sport events. To take part in such events, competitors must have a club membership card, indeed, for many UK motor sport events, that is all you need – you don’t need a competition licence. Regulation of motor sport in this way ensures that events are run to the same rules across the country, and are covered by the same insurance.

But there are personal benefits in belonging to a club. The regular meetings and social events go on all year round and get people together even when there are no events to take part in. Our regular Club Night is held on the first Tuesday of every month. (See the Club Night page for venue details). Meeting with other members lets you benefit from a wealth of experience and will provide help and encouragement as you take your first steps in competitive motor sport.

The club magazine Driving Mirror is issued every month and posted to your home. It contains news and comments from club members, articles by club members, fixture list, event results, championship positions, adverts etc.

And if you feel that the organisers are doing it all wrong, then you might like to join the committee and play a part in running the club yourself!

[Back to top]

You are probably reading this because you enjoy the sound, smell and excitement of fast cars, and you want to get involved in motor sport. But involvement generally costs money, except for Marshalling, the one activity in motor sport that costs virtually nothing.

Many people find marshalling a worthwhile and absorbing activity in its own right. By marshalling you can participate fully in the running of events and, in the case of sprints run on MoD airfields, it’s the only way you can get to spectate. And you can get close to the action, and have access to the paddock, where you can chat to drivers and their crews, and inspect the cars at close quarters. In addition, you earn the respect of those taking part, and gain satisfaction from knowing that the sport cannot function without people like you. There are fringe benefits too, like a free lunch and a chance to win a prize in the Marshals’ draw!

The only qualification you need to go Marshalling is enthusiasm, the more the better! All you need to do is to turn up at an event and make yourself known to the Chief Marshal. You will be allocated to a post with experienced marshals, who will explain all you need to know about flagging, communications, and incident management.

After a few events, when you’ve developed a taste for this activity, you will probably feel that you could benefit from some formal training. Marshals’ Training days are held at venues across the region throughout the year. You can gain certificates demonstrating your competence which enable you to offer your services anywhere in the country.

Marshalling doesn’t just mean standing by a track at a sprint or hillclimb with a flag and a fire extinguisher– it could mean organising competitors in the paddock, startline duties, even manning the radio in race control. It also covers timing an Autotest or scoring a Trial.

Event Organisers and Officials are always much in demand, and you can move into this field by organising a small event, e.g. an Autotest, under guidance from a committee member. You might want to join the organising team for a major speed event, then if you want to progress up to Clerk of the Course level, you can be nominated for a probationary licence and follow a modular training programme.

There is a national shortage of Licensed Scrutineers. The minimum age for a Trainee Scrutineer is 16 years, and promotion to Scrutineer is by on-the-job training, experience and recommendation. Timekeepers are also licensed by the MSA, which has a group of Timekeeping Training Co-ordinators, who will arrange a training programme for Assistant or Trainee Timekeepers.

If you want to run an event – whether motor sport or social – there is no shortage of people with experience who will help and advise you.

[Back to top]

You don’t have to have a car, or even be a driver to enjoy motor sport. Plenty of wives, lovers, partners or friends get enormous pleasure from having a supporting role.

Next to marshalling, perhaps the most obvious example of a role for a non-driver is the person sitting in the passenger seat of a rally car, often called the co-driver. We’ve all seen the view from inside a rally car on TV, and for many this may seem even more daunting than driving! However, the road rallies organised by this club, 12-car Rallies, are much less dynamically aggressive. They are tests of map-reading and observation skills, plus the ability to interpret complex and sometimes obscure navigational instructions. A bit like a Treasure Hunt, but a little more demanding. You take part in a normal road car on public roads, and high speed is out – normal speed limits must be observed. You can learn the skills required at specialist Co-drivers schools.

As mentioned earlier, trials are essentially tests of the ability of cars to climb sections of ground having varying difficulty and gradient. Bristol MC organises three types of trial – Production Car Trials, Sporting Car Trials and Classic Trials – but the common factor is the presence of a passenger, partly for ballast but whose primary job is to bounce like mad in the seat to try to get the tyres to grip. In some events there is even a trophy awarded to ‘Best Bouncer’! In the case of Classic Trials, some map-reading skill is needed to navigate successfully from one off-road section to the next.

Essential qualities required for these non-driver roles are physical fitness (for Classic and Sporting Trials), the ability to concentrate and read a map in a moving car and, most importantly, resistance to car sickness!

Finally, if you have a driving licence but you don’t want to take part in a competitive event yourself, you can perform a valuable service for a young driver. Drivers as young as 14 can take part in Production Car Autotests, or in Production Car Trials if they are15 or 16, as long as they are accompanied by an experienced adult with an RTA licence.

[Back to top]

GETTING STARTED AS A COMPETITOR

Basic Requirements

Safety equipment i.e. a helmet and overalls, are not required for Autotests, PCTs or NavX rallies.

A competition licence is not required for Autotests, PCT’s & NavXs that are organised solely for members of the organising club; you must have a club membership card though.

But you will need some sort of vehicle for all events!

We said earlier that we aim to promote affordable motor sport, so these are the events that you can do in your everyday road car.

• Production Car Trials
• Autotests
• Navigation Rallies (NavX)
• Sprints
• Hillclimbs

So, you can use an ordinary road car for (almost) all the events that we organise. The exceptions are the Classic & Sporting Car Trials, but you can get a taste of driving up muddy slopes, if that’s what you fancy, by having a go at a PCT – in your shopping car.

Some basic preparation will be required. For PCTs and Autotests it would be sensible to remove wheel trims. To compete in sprints and hillclimbs you will need to mark the location of the ignition switch and battery earth terminal, and a ‘timing strut’ to activate the timing beam. Although the rules do not require you to have one, you may find the security of a full harness beneficial at sprint speeds. Regulations are detailed in the "Blue Book" mentioned below.

[Back to top]

Competitors in over 70% of UK motor sport events do not require MSA licences; only club membership cards are necessary. These events include road rallies, autotests, trials and certain cross-country events.

When members of other clubs compete, however, licences are mandatory, chiefly so that protests and disciplinary procedures can be properly conducted.

There are four basic grades of competition licence: Clubman, National B, National A, and International. There are further subdivisions including Race, Non-race, Truck, Kart, Rally Historic etc. For the sort of club events run by Bristol Motor Club the only licences you need to worry about are Clubman and Non-race National ‘B’.

To apply for a Competition licence you need an application form, which you can get either from the club’s Competitions Secretary, or by telephoning the Motor Sports Association. Licences run from January – December each year, and the annual fees (2006 figures) are: Clubman: £16; Non-race National ‘B’: £33.

When you get your Competition Licence you will also receive your personal copy of ‘The Blue Book’. This is officially called ‘The MSA Competitors’ Yearbook’, and is regarded as the motor sport bible. Here you will find (usually with some difficulty!) the regulations governing the running of every type of motor sport event, and the rules to be observed by all competitors. As a licence holder you will also receive a copy of Motorsports Now!, a glossy magazine published four times a year by the MSA to keep competitors informed of news in the world of competitive motor sport.

[Back to top]

Once you have joined a club you will have no difficulty finding out about local events coming up, by chatting to the Competitions Secretary or other members at Club Night, or by reading the club magazine. Alternatively you can register for one of the South-West regional championships in any of the branches of motor sport we’ve discussed. You will then automatically be sent the Regs for all the qualifying events in whichever championship you choose.

Regs is short for Regulations, or more correctly Supplementary Regulations (SRs), and refers to a document that is issued prior to any motor sport event. Taking as an example a Sprint or Hillclimb, the Regs will give such information as:

• The invited clubs;
• Who the event is open to;
• What round of the championship it is;
• The class structure;
• The awards structure;
• Cost of entry;
• Officials’ names;
• Schedule for the day, i.e. times for scrutineering, practice runs, lunch, etc;
• Any additional regulations for the car
• The closing date for entries

You should familiarise yourself with the sections in the ‘Blue Book’ that apply to you and your car, and the particular type of event in which you have chosen to compete. It is particularly important to observe the technical and safety criteria.

With the Regs you will receive an application form, which will need details of you, your licence, your club, your car and the class you are eligible for. Send it off as early as you can, some events are heavily over-subscribed and if you delay you may not get an entry. Don’t forget the all-important cheque – as already mentioned, costs will be in the range £5 - £15 for 12-Car Rallies, PCTs and Autotests; £15 - £35 for Sporting and Classic Trials; £50 - £80 for Sprints & Hillclimbs.

There are several things you can do while you’re waiting for your acceptance and Final Instructions to arrive. You’ll need a timing strut to activate the timing beam; the dimensions are in the Blue Book and you should be able to make this yourself. You will also need some numbers to stick on both sides of the car. You can buy these from specialist motor sport suppliers (e.g. Merlin Motorsport at Castle Combe), or make your own out of vinyl tape.

For speed events you will need a helmet and overalls. The Blue Book contains the full details, but a helmet should conform to the standard BS6658-85 Type A or Snell SA95 or SA2000.

Flame-retardant overalls may be manufactured from Nomex III, Proban, or equivalent materials. They must conform to one of the British, European or International standards.

[Back to top]

At any event there must be a Clerk of the Course, a Scrutineer, one or more Stewards and, if required, one or more Timekeepers.

Your first job will be to attend ‘Signing-On’. This not only confirms that you have actually turned up, but also ensures that you are covered by the event insurance. Authorised events are covered by public liability insurance, and the officials are covered for loss or injury caused through their negligence. Individual competitors are not covered for injury or damage; this may be arranged through specialist insurers. Signing-on will usually be conducted by the Secretary of the Meeting, who’s job is to assist the Clerk of the Course and others, and to handle all the associated paperwork.

Your next port of call will be Scrutineering. Here your car will be checked by the Scrutineer to make sure it conforms to the MSA’s safety standards and for compliance with the regulations. He or she will also want to see your overalls and helmet to make sure they are in good condition and meet the required standard. There will also be a noise level test. You will not be allowed to compete without the scrutineer’s approval; at speed events this takes the form of a sticker or ticket to be displayed on the car.

The Clerk of the Course is responsible for the general conduct and control of the event; he may conduct a drivers’ briefing before the event starts, which is often mandatory. The Stewards are independent of the organisation and running of the event, and are there to make sure that all relevant regulations are observed, and to advise or arbitrate in the event of a dispute if required. The Timekeeper’s job is self-explanatory. In addition, there should be a Chief Marshal, who is responsible for recruiting enough marshals to run the event and for allocating them to posts, and a Course Controller, who controls the communications system etc.

With all the official stuff out of the way, you can now concentrate on enjoying yourself. Talk to and learn from all the other competitors around you, remembering that they were all complete novices once, and when your class is called you’ll be ready to venture out onto the track for the first time…

[Back to top]

After you’ve done a few events you will probably become aware of the limitations of your road car, and begin to develop some ambitions for the future. Having met and talked to other members you may have a clearer idea of your ideal competition car.

The pages of magazines like Cars & Car Conversions are filled with advertisements for all sorts of modifications, and pictures of modified cars. Modifications for road use are very different from modifications to competition cars.

Broadly speaking, you can divide mods into three main groups:

‘Go-Faster’ mods – e.g more engine power, gearbox and drive ratio changes

Handling mods – e.g tyres, suspension, bodywork lightening etc.

Safety mods – e.g. roll bar or cage, fire extinguisher system etc.

Bear in mind that added complication can reduce reliability, so it pays to keep things simple. It’s also important to keep a balance between these elements – there’s no point in your engine producing 300 bhp if your steering & suspension can’t handle it, for example.

There is not space in this brief introduction to go into the complexities of car modifications, but by talking to experienced club members and reading relevant magazines you will gain enough information to enable you to spend your money wisely.

[Back to top]

Once you’ve had a taste of competitive driving you might want to progress to circuit racing. Thanks largely to television, the world of Formula 1 Grand Prix racing is familiar to most enthusiasts and represents the ultimate aim of many young people entering the sport. However, Formula 1 is by no means the only form of competition available. Each year, over 200 race meetings are held in the UK, providing opportunities for a wide variety of cars from road-going saloons to expensive single-seaters, and offering keenly-contested championships based on regions, individual circuits, makes of car, or type of car.

Although motor racing can never be truly cheap, racing at club level is the backbone of the sport in this country and need not be prohibitively expensive. In fact, it is still possible to race competitively in a car that you have driven to the circuit.

• You must be at least 16 years old.
• Before you can apply for a Race Licence, you must do the following:

1. Purchase a "Go Racing" starter pack from the MSA. This costs £49 and includes a VHS video, a copy of the Competitors’ Yearbook, the necessary application form, plus various other useful items.
2. If over 18, obtain a medical certificate (the form is in the ‘Go Racing’ pack).
3. Complete a one-day MSA course for novice drivers, run only by members of the Association of Racing Drivers Schools (ARDS). (Castle Combe is one such school).

When you have obtained a Competition Licence, you will require the following:

• Car with added safety equipment (rollcage, fire extinguishers, fireproofing, etc)
• Crash helmet and flame-resistant overalls

[Back to top]

Sources of further information

Tel: 01753 765000 Fax: +44 (0) 1753 682938

- for specific information or advice; or check the MSA website where there is a very useful 'Getting Started' section. There are also email addresses for particular disciplines; these are listed under their respective headings on the following pages.

Specialist - e.g. one-make - clubs can be found by contacting the MSA, or you can check Cars & Car Conversions magazine, which carries a small but comprehensive list of Clubs. (But NOTE that not all of these are recognised by the MSA).

Books and Magazines: Motorsport News (was Motoring News) and Autosport have club motor sport sections, and carry reports of smaller events. Motor Sport is perhaps the longest-established and most traditional of all these publications. CCC runs various championships, and is a good source for technical info and classified ads, including parts.

The following schools are members of the Association of Hillclimb and Sprint Schools (AHASS) and are registered with the MSA. Passing a course at an AHASS school is equivalent to two upgrading signatures on the MSA Competition Licence.

For specific information on Trials:

For specific information on Autotests:

Autotests at the MSA

Speed Events at the MSA