An unseasonally warm and sunny day in Kent earlier this year, and a novice driver is about to take to the track for the first time. But how do you make that transition from armchair fan, to fully paid up member of the jetset, playboy racing driver lifestyle, competeing around the country at some of the worlds best know circuits.

AlfaOwner talked to Peter Dietch ,this novice driver before his first race weekend, to find out what sort of person goes racing, and what it takes to get yourself on the grid.

Competition Licences

The first thing that you need before getting into a racecar is to get a racing licence, there are 4 classes of licence, Clubman, National-B, National-A and International, of course there is also the Super licence for formula 1 but watching F1 on the TV is about as close as most people ever get. Especially with the cost of entry to F1 events these days.

All of these licences are obtained from the Motor Sports Association or MSA which is recognised as the governing body of motor sport in the UK by the world governing body (FIA) Even the basic Clubman licence allows the holder to take part in many events throughout the UK, such as Historic rallys, Autotests and Trials to name a couple. The National B licence however is the licence needed if you want to get a foothold into modern circuit racing. The National A licence is infact an EU wide licence, along with a smattering of other European country, and the International Licence is valid worldwide.

 

Getting Your Licence

Before anything else you need to contact the MSA to get your hands on a 'Go racing' pack, this contains the relevant application form, the MSA Blue Book, which is widely regarded as the racing drivers Bible, as it contains all current safety details and techinal regulations as well as a video which details the application process. Also within this pack are details outlining the ARDS test. The financial side of things is still fairly manageable at this point, a mere £40 for this invaluable pack of racing information.

The next step is to have a medical, this is not optional, and it needs to be carried out by one of the MSA approved doctors, a list of them is handily included in the 'Go Racing' pack. These Doc's will kindly make sure that you are physically fit enough (though not neccessarily insane enough) to be strapped into a car and hurl yourself around a track. For the privelidge of telling you, you aren't about to keel over and die in the near future he will also kindly releave you of between £50 and £100. This medical will cover you until you get to the grand old age of 40 when you will need to have ECG checks every year, or until you have a major off from a track, then you will need to retake the medical.

Now it gets interesting, you need to take a driving and theory test to make sure that you aren't going to be a danger to yourself of anyone else once you get out on track. This test is commonly refered to as the ARDS test. The ARDS test can be taken at a number of UK racing circuits so you shouldn't have to travel too far or wait too long to get yourself tested. Along with checking that you can drive to the standard required you will also need to complete a written test which checks that you know all the safety regulations and amongst other things, the flags that will undoubtably be waved during the course of a race. Be warned however that some circuits seem to be 'Sizeist' if you are tall or a little on the portly side, it may be as well to check with the circuit that you are within their size limits. The ARDS will, depending on which circuit you choose, set you back between £155 and £180 .

So upto this point the minimum you will have spent would be £40 for the racing pack, £50 for the medical, and £155 for the ARDS , a total of £245. But this is by no means the end of the spending.

Pete's Experience.

Peter initially chose Brands Hatch to do his ARDS, unfortunately at 6'3" and a little over 200lbs, he was turned down onthe grounds of being too large and outside of Brands Hatches safety parameters. However Castle Coombe had no suce worries, and so that is where Pete headed earlier on this year to go back to school and hopefully pass the ARDS test.

8:30 in the morning and the first thing to do upon arriving at the circuit is to hand over a completed medical form and standard British driving licence. Once the formalities are taken care of and everyone has arrived, a short classroom session is conducted to outline the day to everyone, and give out some hints and tips to the assembled students. Once the Castle Combe instructors/examiners had made sure that eveyone knew what was going on and how to behave on track, it was out to the track itself.

Assesment of driving skills would be conducted in lowely Ford Focus's (Foci?) on a one on one basis obviously, and at this point they are looking to make sure you are in control of the car at all times rather than how fast you can lap the circuit. This part of the test last approx 30 minutes, at the end of which you are told whether of not you are up to scratch, this time is also a good time to quiz the instructor about not only your driving, but also generic racing techniques and things specific to the circuit you are at. Hopefully at the end of the half hour, you get a satisfying tick in the box that says you have passed. But the stress for the day is not over yet, you need to complete the second half of the ARDS, the written test. This consists of general safety questions which are pretty much common sense, I mean who on earth would strap themselves into a racecar with a cracked crash helmet?? Car dynamics questions, explain under/oversteer and circuit safety, flags etc.20 minutes is more than enough time to go through and over the questions several times and gernerally wind yourself up that you have missed something or made a world class cock-up. This feeling is compounded by the 15 minute wait whilst the tests are marked. However no one need have worried as everyone in the days group had passed the written exam.

A quick congratulation and handshake from the examiner, the handing over of A signed application form and Pete is now officially a racing driver , on paper at least.

With the testing out of the way, the final step in getting a National B licence is to send off the signed application form to the MSA, another £41 Sir if you please. With licence in hand it is now a case of entering a race series. A season racing in the Auto Italia is an upfront £75 (Plus entry fees to the races themselves) then entry to the BRSCC which is a neccessity for most club based racing, thats is another £140 per year plus £15 on off joining fee.

So the running total for getting the paperwork in order is as follows, £245 to to the licence tests, £41 for the licence itself, £75 for the race series, and £155 for the BRSCC, which works out to be £516. And this is just the amount needed to gain the right to sit in a car on the grid. Next you need the car itself, and the safety gear to make sure that you can step out of it in one piece should the worst happen.

 

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