Getting into Motorsport

So you fancy yourself as the next Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel but don't know where to start?

Motor racing like any other sport is accessible to all so long as you know where to go and who to talk to. Like other sports most people get involved because they know people who are already involved. Those who aren't involved don't have the knowledge or confidence to go and look into how to make a start.

I want to say to everyone that it's a very friendly community of people, don't look at Formula One as the example of what real motor sport is like. That's the pinnacle where so much is a stake that they can't be open. National and Club motorsport is totally different. Everyone is open and friendly and do it for the sense of community and for the love of cars. You'll be welcomed with open arms. There's nothing more enjoyable for most club racers than welcoming and helping a new racer get started.

A lot of people will struggle at first with having the confidence to join the track for the first time with all the other more experienced racers. Please don't worry. Motor sport is extremely well run and organised a safety is paramount. You aren't thrown in at the deep end and expected to just get on with it. Before anything else you'll need to apply for a licence which will require you to pass a test. You'll be taken around the circuit by a qualified instructor, shown the ropes then you'll be expected to drive some laps while he accesses you. He'll give you instruction for the first few laps and then you'll have to do some on your own and you are expected to do as you have been instructed. These laps are not about driving particularly quickly, as with everything it's mainly about safety and awareness.

There's then a short video played to you (it also comes in the pack when you apply for the licence) and then you are expected to answer a series of multiple choice questions on the video. Again it's mostly about safety issues, like what flags mean what, and whether you can hit other people during a race, or drive off the circuit etc. It's all very obvious, it's just there to make you think, and make it clear that safety is paramount.

When you get you licence and you go to your first race you'll have a to have a yellow badge with a black cross on the rear of  your car. this tells people in the race that you are a novice. Like L plates on the road. You get to take this novice cross off when you have 6 signatures from the clerk of the course on your licence. Basically the clerk of the course is the man in charge, and it's his responsibility to make sure that everyone is safe and drives in accordance with the rules. Without 6 signatures (1 per race) you can't move on to higher levels of racing.

Like in F1 you'll have a qualifying session before the race, which determines where you start the race, fastest at the front moving to slowest at the back. The first thing to know about qualifying is that you must complete a minimum of 3 flying laps, this is another safety feature to ensure that before the race you have some degree of experience of the track and where it goes. When the race starts you'll be around people who are roughly as fast/slow as you are so you won't have to deal with large speed differentials immediately. If you are about to get lapped by the leaders you'll be shown waving blue flags by the marshalls who are positioned around the track so you know to be careful. There's only one rule when being lapped and that is to stick with your racing line and don't move off of it. It's their responsibility to get passed you, your responsibility to be consistent and do nothing that might surprise them, like moving off line thinking it will help them get through.

Hopefully the above will give you the confidence to know that you'll be looked after until you gain experience.

You'll obviously need a car to race. There's two ways to get a car, buy one, or rent one. There are many teams around who will rent you a car that you can just turn up and race. In fact your heroes in F1 etc will all have gone this route at least later in their careers. The teams look after the car, all you have to do is turn up and race it. But, this costs, as you can imagine this is a business for these teams and car rental, mechanics wages and transport and workshop costs mount up.

Buying a car and running it yourself is most peoples most cost effective way into the sport. Whatever car you can think of somewhere there is a championship for you to race it in. To start with it's not about the speed or the competitiveness of the car that should concern you. You should concern yourself with it being affordable to buy, run and be reliable. Nothing is more expensive in racing than unreliability. There's a lot of wasted costs when cars breakdown.When you are a novice track time in anything is invaluable education. This is where talking to the friendly bunch of racers that you'll find at your local track each weekend comes in handy. If you find a championship and a car that takes your fancy they'll give you an opinion and some things to look at and think about. You'll find a list of racing car clubs by searching Google and they'll all have details of the championships that they run on their websites along with rules and regulations.

Like anything the more you research the more you are likely to come across a car or championship that suits your budget. You can't go racing on no money and a lot of people will quote mega bucks budgets etc. It's true that there are people who spend a lot of money, but, you can if you're clever get started for not a lot. Once you are up and running you can always sell your car and invest that into the next one, so you can trade up without breaking the bank.

I wrote this Blog to help encourage people to understand that Motor sport is open to everyone and is very welcoming to anyone and everyone. If you fancy it, you can get involved.