Amateur Rally Driving/Touring Car

Hi all

I have been really interested in both of these types of motorsport for a while now and I was wondering how to get involved in these and get racing.
I obviously hold a driving license and I am aware that you need a special racing license for rallying at least.
I have been browsing on the official forums such as http://www.wrc.com/ which have been very unhelpful and I can find no local motoring clubs in my area.
I have also been looking at the experience days which are pretty much crap where you pay £100 for 15mins in the rally car on a track.
I have found one decent one but its very expensive http://philprice.co.uk/

Reply 1

prodriven

jmelech

Hi,

Theres a few different ways to get into it. Firstly, find your nearest motor club, they are all listed on www.msauk.org (Uk motorsport governing body).

Go along to a club meeting and speak to some people that are currently competing, this should help you find out what you want to go into. They will also be able to help you out with getting the licencses. Depending whether you want to go into rallying or racing will depend on what type of licence you need to get (ARDS for racing BARS for rallying). To get the licence you will need to do a short driving course and a written exam (about safety, flags etc...). The courses usually take 1/2 a day and cost around £400. Once you've passed the relevant course you can send of to the MSA (motorsport association) and get your competition licence. Only a few places in the UK can do the tests, but they are all listed on the MSA website.

As for driving days, personally I wouldnt bother. When you take you complete your licence course you are nearly always able to extend it to a full day course which gives you 1/2 day tuition and 1/2 day assesment, most places will only charge a little bit extra for the tuition and its well worth it!

Next step is all your racing gear! You'll need fireproof overall, crash helmet, gloves, boots etc.. You really need to budget £1500 for all your safety equipment.

Then you can think about getting a car and getting out competing! But be warned, it gets more expensive. For a club spec car you will be spending around £6k and it can easily cost £1k per event you do by the time you factor in entry cost, tyres, fuel, getting to the venue, damage etc...

Personally, I would recommned the first thing you do is buy a car and do some trackdays. This will give you valuable track time for a fraction of the cost of racing (£150 a day + tyres + fuel) and so is a great way to get into it and have fun!

I've held a race and rally licence since I was 17 and have competed in quite a few events, but the cost of the sport has always held me back unfortunately. To be competitive in a championship such as Formula Ford (club racing really...) takes a budget of nearly £200k :eek:

. Its possible to raise funds for one off races but championships are always incredibly expensive. I've now moved more on to offering driver tuition for new drivers and track day driver training, its not as good as racing but this way I can get paid for it...!

If you want any more info then ask away!

Reply 2

jmelech

wow thanks alot, very helpful info.
It looks like i may have to wait until after uni before i get involved in it looking at the costs but i will try at the nearest motor club

Reply 3

20083

Try stock car racing to get yourself started? Nice n cheap, loadsa fun. Know a couple of people who do that.

Reply 4

jmelech

Stock car racing?
Im not familiar with that, what does it involve?
Is there an official site for it or something like that?

Reply 5

20083

jmelech

Stock car racing?
Im not familiar with that, what does it involve?
Is there an official site for it or something like that?

Hmm, probably. Try this http://www.brisca.com/ but I think it's just about the F1s and F2s

Reply 6

CurlyBen

Are you just interested in stage rallies? Road rallying is a cheaper option, with events like scatters. They can be done in a normal road car as far as I'm aware, though I've not been involved in any (just know a couple of people who are).
Prodriven, have you ever been involved with any of the 750 Motor Club stuff? I think that's relatively cheap as motor sport (or at least some of it is). We've got a 750 Formula car at uni, and our budget for that is about £3k a year, not including event entries (though I don't think we've ever had serious damage at an event). It's not enough, but we manage somehow!

Reply 7

prodriven

CurlyBen

Thats a good call actually! Road rallying (scatters, 12cars, endurance rallying) is a much cheaper form of competition. You only need a 'non race' licence (i.e. you just send off to the msa, pay £30, and get a licence back!) and entries are less than £100 per round (more like £30 for 12car rallies!). For this kind of stuff go down to your local motor club, no doubt they will be regularly running such events.

CurlyBen

Prodriven, have you ever been involved with any of the 750 Motor Club stuff? I think that's relatively cheap as motor sport (or at least some of it is). We've got a 750 Formula car at uni, and our budget for that is about £3k a year, not including event entries (though I don't think we've ever had serious damage at an event). It's not enough, but we manage somehow!

Only ever the bike sports class... It is by far some of the cheapest racing in the UK, and thats impressive you can do a season on £3k! Those cars are small engined aren't they (<1.0l) so I bet tyre where and fuel usage is very low? Probably another £2k for a seasons registration and entry makes it a very cheap season of racing (relatively anyway..!). Trouble is by the time you start factoring in getting the car to all the events, the cost of the weekend (accomodation, food, helpers etc) it can quickly spiral out of control. I reckon you would need a budget of £7-8k for an individual to run (i.e. someone without the facilities and experties of a university!).

Reply 8

CurlyBen

You might not think it's so impressive if you saw the state of our car :biggrin:

We're trying to sort it though, it's going to be off the track for the rest of the season and when it's back together it should look fairly respectable, provided we can get the funding for a one off overhaul! They use Fiat FIRE 1108s, so they can be picked up under £100 and there's pretty little you can really do to them. I certainly wouldn't suggest that £3k is enough to spend on the car for a season, but we've got several pretty talented guys and some useful contacts and we manage.

Reply 9

jmelech

stage rallies really, i prefer the whole off road idea on gravel
ive also been looking at 4x4 racing which seems quite fun

all of which costs money though :frown:

Reply 10

Sir Galahad

Is there not a uni Motorsport club? My brother joined one, although they just spend all their time in the pub!

Reply 11

jmelech

good point...

I checked and they have but their site for the club isnt working
(I starting at Lancaster this september btw)

Reply 12

petrolhead

jmelech

Stock car racing?
Im not familiar with that, what does it involve?
Is there an official site for it or something like that?

Stock car racing's probably your best bet. I've been involved in it (watching or racing) since I was very young so if want to know any more pm me. Your local tracks would be Belle Vue in Manchester, Hednesford just north of Birmingham, Warton near Preston and Buxton in Derbyshire. Let me know if you want to know more. The brisca site given above won't be any use as you need a budget of about £20k for that formula, but there are much much cheaper formulas where you can be racing for only a few hundred quid.

Or join your uni motorsport society. I've been racing Club 100 karts with the Nottingham Uni motorsport society this year and that's not too dear. Look at the BUKC website for details. (www.bukc.com)

Reply 13

Tim1990

There is another way to get into Rally Driving if you think you have the moves! Earlier this year I went on a driving experience in Northampton which sometimes offers sponsorship to the driver of the day. Unfortunately I wasn't the driver of the day but it was great fun none the less!

My voucher was through www.trackdays.co.uk it was called the Rally Quest, Good luck !

Tim

Reply 14

nashj009

once you get involved in rally are there no amatuer/semi pro competitions you can get involved in to make money or anything?

Reply 15

username234673

See last week's Top Gear. Rally cross sounds right up your street and it didn't cost them a fortune.

Reply 16

dhutch

Have a look at the GoMotorsport site, its a fairly recent initiative by the MSA to get people involved in motorsport.

I would love to have a go myself, and to get hold of a car and enter some events, but other options include finding someone who wants a navigator.

http://www.gomotorsport.net/

Daniel

Reply 17

Gunney

You should check out Dave Jenkins Motorsport.Hi guys,I’ve got a fantastic rallying team that has just launched in Wales!Check out Weir Rallying UK on social media.Supported by HJ Weir and WeCoTec two British businessesSWeir Rallying UK is a newly formed British rallying team made up of Team Principal Rob Weir (Father) , Co-driver Ross Weir (son) and Driver Rallying champion ...Currently just hit 17K views

Reply 18

Sexyladypud123

Hi there! That sounds like a better solution the one day track day,so do you have to have all the gear for the one day or can you just hire it out please