creationracing
Member
Registered: 8th Jan 06
Location: Aberdeenshire
User status: Offline
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Hi all,
Following on from the success of our last Autocross event in July, we have another one coming up on August 6th. The venue is once again at Netherley near Stonehaven (details in regs) but the track will be significantly longer and more challenging! Once again there will be a Clubcross running alongside the main event so the Juniors can get a run. All the organisation necessary is in place so the event is confirmed to go ahead if there is sufficient entries, the grid so far includes a Rover SD1 3.5V8 and a Peugeot 205 Mi16 with more interesting machinery expected! The good weather has been rebooked and the barbeque will be fired up so should be another cracking event, if youre interested in spectating, marshalling or competing, please give me a shout.
Cheers,
Roy Kemp
Stonehaven & District Motor Club
Autocross Regs
Clubcross Regs
Entry Form
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Stoneyginger
Premium Member
Registered: 25th Jan 01
Location: Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire
User status: Offline
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was a good day out if you guys can make it then try and pop along 
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creationracing
Member
Registered: 8th Jan 06
Location: Aberdeenshire
User status: Offline
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Good stuff mate, should be another good day out, all the mad rally crowd are back for more, worth coming along to see those guys alone!
Expecting an entry of roughly 20, looks like its going to be a top event!
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K17STY
Member
Registered: 13th Dec 02
Location: West Lothian
User status: Offline
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how race prep does your car have to be to compete?
Prob being blonde sorry
[Edited on 31-07-2006 by K17STY]
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creationracing
Member
Registered: 8th Jan 06
Location: Aberdeenshire
User status: Offline
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Not very! Doesnt even have to be taxed/MoT'd, but roughly MoT standard would be good! You need to isolate the positive terminal on your battery, fit a 1.75L AFFF extinguisher and some mudflaps, tape up or remove your lights and thats it! Cage, harness and race seat are recommended but not required by the rules.
Driver must wear flameproofs, helmet and have motor club membership/MSA competition licence.
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creationracing
Member
Registered: 8th Jan 06
Location: Aberdeenshire
User status: Offline
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Wrote this on another forum, hope it's useful...
Hi all, just a quick at-a-glance step-by-step guide to getting started Autocross. Basically as long as you're 16 years of age, there should be nothing stopping you making a start. If you're under 16 but over 14, you can compete in Clubcross, a sort-of junior Autocross division to get a taste of whats involved. So, how to take the first vital steps...
1. You need to obtain a Motor Sports Association (MSA) Competition Licence of National B grade or above. Under 16s can only apply for a Clubman licence but as this only allows you to enter events run by your own Motor Club (see step 2), you should ensure your club runs Clubcross events first! For anyone applying for a National B licence, the one you're after is the "Speed Non-Race National B Competitors Licence", this costs £33 per year and requires no courses, exams or medical, you send away the application and licence fee, you get the licence back. Easy. You should download the licence notes and application from the MSA website by following the following link....
http://www.msauk.org/site/cms/contentViewArticle.asp?article=2193&category=656
2. You need to become a member of an MSA registered motor club. My local club is Stonehaven & District Motor Club (www.sdmc.org.uk) which costs £15 a year. However you can search out your local club by following this link, again to the MSA site. Pop in your postcode, narrow down the mileage criteria and it should give you the details of some local organisations. Get in touch with them and find out if they hold Autocross events. You may have to look quite hard as Autocross is unfortunately not held UK-wide.
http://www.msauk.org/site/cms/contentChapterViewHosted.asp?chapter=322&Url=%2Fcustom%2Fasp%2Fredirect%2Fdefault%2Easp%3FRedirectTo%3DClubSearch%2Easpx
3. Once you have your licence and club membership, you're ready to compete as far as paperwork is concerned. Apart from a car (obviously), you need to sort yourself out with the required protective gear, i.e. flameproof suit and a helmet. When you received your licence from the MSA you will also have been issued with a copy of the MSA Competitors Handbook, a.k.a. "The Blue Book". Basically this is a list of every rule and regulation applied to motorsport in the UK. In here, you will find a list of the approved BSI numbers for protective gear, so make sure you buy the right stuff. If you're keen to cut costs, you can buy a motorcycle helmet and welders overalls instead of spending a fortune at Demon Tweeks, but again be sure they have the correct approval numbers.
4. Now the expensive part, buying a car! I can't really offer too much practical advice as to what to get as you will all have your own preference as to machinery, but something small, cheap and easily fixable like a Nova 1400 SRi, Fiesta XR2i, Peugeot 205GTi would all be excellent starter cars, as building, preparing and repairing them wont cost the earth. You can however enter just about any car in an Autocross event, front, rear, or 4 wheel drve are all fine, it depends on what class you want to compete in. I would recommend fuel injection as a bumpy course can cause carbed engines to get a bit spluttery and hesitant, especially on small engines. On the other hand, ECUs and electrical connections aren't exacty keen on vibrations either so a car with mechanical fuel injection would be a good move. You dont need something that's taxed and MoT'd for Autocross, but it will need to be roughly to MoT standards as cars will be checked for safety prior to every event. Basically, something cheap, not too rotten and something you can get bits for easily. And for the drift crowd reading this, you dont need a rear-drive car with a welded up diff to go sideways, pedal a front-drive car fast enough and you'll be on opposite lock plenty!
5. Now comes the fun, preparation and modifying! According to the rules you do not actually need a race seat, roll cage or competition harness but they are definitely recommended. Even if you dont have an accident, a good seat and harness are a good move as a challenging Autocross track would almost certainly have you out of your seat as the track gets more rutted.
As for the regulations, you need to carry a minimum of a 1.75L AFFF Foam extinguisher, handheld is fine. You also need to mark your ignition switch with "ON/OFF" stickers and insulate your positive battery terminal. You also need mudflaps of a certain size, details in the Blue Book. And thats about all the rules require you to do, the rest is up to you. Thats the beauty of Autocross compared to ther motorsports, you spend as much or as little as you like! I would however recommend you have a cut-out switch that can be activated by pull-cable outside the car, and a good sumpguard as there will be stones bouncing about everywhere! As for set-up, low and stiff at the back, slightly higher and softer at the front sems to work for handling, but traction can suffer a little. A pair of knobby tyres on the front, good road tyres on the rear seems to work as well. No idea about setting up a rear-drive car I'm afraid! Other than that, just strip out as much weight as possible, run brake and fuel lines through the inside, tape up or remove any lights, common sense stuff like that.
6. And as your hard work comes to an end, you'll probably want to start competing! Not much to it really, if your cars still road legal (people do compete in their daily drivers!) you drive it to the event, if not, you trailer it. You will probably need to send in an entry form prior to an event to get an entry, not all clubs allow people to join on the day. Entry fee for our events is £35. So turn up, about £15 of fuel should see you through the day, bring a few choice spares (balljoints take a battering, fanbelt, spare struts if you have) and a couple of spare tyres, a tarpaulin and some tools. And a barbeque and a blow-up sofa of course! And thats about all you'll need to get through the day. You usually get one practise run of 3 laps, you need to complete 1 lap in order to be allowed to compete. Then you should have anywhere upwads of 3 timed runs of 4 laps in the main event, your best run throught the day being counted for the final results. Some clubs take an average of all your runs, your best two etc, the system varies. 2 cars start at the same time, usually in different classes as cars race against the clock as opposed to racing for actual position, but some competitive jostling does usually take place. Autocross is a non contact formula but overtaking is tricky, so damaged quarterpanels are quite common!
For more infomation, it's worth registering on the forum on www.aneccc-autox.co.uk , these guys run a championship the the North of England, all of whom are well clued and very helpful, and will be happy to answer any questions you may want to ask. Alternatively, drop me an email on creationracing@hotmail.com
Cheers guys, hopefully see some of you at one of my events one of these days!
Roy K.
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