Job 1 - change the air filter

I thought I'd start with an easy one to warm myself up.

First, here's the lovely engine bay of my new car:

The air filter assembly is on the right.

Here's the new filter:

First job is to disconnect the hose to the engine:

Then Remove the screws holding the air flow meter in place:

Then remove the airflow meter to reveal the yucky old filter:

Here's a comparison of the two filters:

And here's the new filter in place:

Then it's just a case of putting it all back together again. Job done!

New Direction...

Sold the Lotus and bought this. Time for some tinkering...

Part 3 - Equipment for the Car

I've already covered car prep in my earlier post here, so I'll be brief... 

Here's the equipment that you will need:

• A timing strut mounted to the front of the car
• A sign in the interior indicating the position of the ignition and how to turn it off
• A clearly marked earth lead in the engine bay
• A race number on each side of the car

For instructions on how to make a timing strut, have a look here.

For information on stickers etc. look here.

And information on race numbers can be found by following the first link in this section.

There, I think I'm done. Time for the final section - race day!

Part 2 - Personal Equipment

Right, so what else do you need to go sprinting? 

When you get your race licence you will also get a copy of the MSA Blue Book which lists all of the requirements for everything to do with motorsport. Section C in the Blue Book concerns safety, but to save you from having to wade through it, here's a summary.

From a personal point of view, the following items are compulsory:

1. Appropriate crash helmet
2. Flame-proof overalls.

That's all you need right now. For 2010 flame-proof gloves will also be required. It does seem a bit strange that you could drive in a pair of wellies filled with petrol if you wanted to, but that's the way it is...

Here's another complicated bit - what helmet's are allowed? It's a fairly restricted list I'm afraid. In order to compete, you will need a helmet with one of the following labels:

These are the only ones that are permitted. You may well have a £500 Arai motorbike lid, but I'm afraid that it won't wash with the scrutineers if it doesn't have one of these labels. Another point to note is that the blue label is only valid until the end of 2009. From 2010, all helmets have to be flame-proof.

The first time you compete, the scrutineer will examine your helmet and, if he is happy, he'll add a little blue sticker to the right hand side, like this:

He will also charge you £1.50 for the service. You may think it's odd that you have to pay for a sticker that indicates that your other sticker is acceptable. I wish I could explain...

Onto overalls. Again there is a fairly restricted list:

• BS6249 part 1 Index A or B (but not part C)
  
• BSEN533
  
• pr EN533:1995 Index 3
  
• FIA 8856-2000
  
• FIA 1986 Standard 
  

So, no karting overalls I'm afraid - they have to be pukka motorsports ones.

And that's really about it. Next section - preparing the car.

Jim's guide to Sprinting 2009 - Part 1

I thought I would be useful to put together a quick guide on how to get involved in Sprinting. To make it easier to digest, I will split this into 4 main sections:

• Doing the paperwork


• Equipment for you


• Equipment for the car


• Your first day at the track

I'm going to devote this section to getting the necessary paperwork done. I'll cover the other sections in subsequent entries. Bear with me 'cos this is going to be a bit long & dry...

Right, let's get started. The tedious bits of paperwork that you will have to get through are:

1. Getting a race licence


2. Joining a club


3. Deciding which class your car will compete in


4. Registering for the championship


5. Entering an event

1 - Getting your Licence

This is a reasonably painless experience and can be done online providing you have an electronic version of a passport style photo. It can all be done through the website of the Motor Sports Association.

The minimum licence that you will require is a "Non-Race National B" which will cost you the grand sum of £37. If you already have a full race licence, this will also be acceptable

You don't need a medical (although you will have to provide details of your GP). Just fill in the form online, choose the appropriate licence type, pay your money and then wait eagerly for the package to plop through your letterbox!

2 - Joining a Club

All sprints are organised by clubs, and you can only participate in a sprint if you are a member of the organising club, or one of the clubs that they invite to the event.

Which club to join depends on how you want to compete. If you are primarily interested in competing locally, then your nearest club will probably be just fine. If you want to compete further afield, then one of the national clubs will give you a better spread of venues to compete at.

The MSA website has a list of clubs, or you can just try Google. It was Google that first got me into the sport by leading me to the Nottingham Sports Car Club and also the Hillclimb & Sprint Association.

The club will organise a championship over a number of rounds throughout the year. Normally the championship is made up of some rounds organised by the club itself, and some rounds organised by other clubs, to which the club is invited. This way, small clubs can run quite extensive championships by getting together with other clubs around the country.

Joining a club will normally cost you somewhere in the region of £40.

So have a look a few websites and then pick the club that runs the most rounds that you fancy. If you should fancy the HSA, you can join online here.

3 - Deciding Which Class your Car Will Compete in

The problem with many areas of motorsport is the fiendish complexity which appears designed to confuse anyone who is looking in from the outside. The class structure is just one of these problematic areas.

It should be quite simple. In order to ensure that everyone has someone to race against, the field is split up into a number of classes. Broadly speaking you generally have standard production cars, specialised production cars (like Caterhams), modified production cars, modified specialist cars, and then various classes for different types of racing cars.

The problem is that, currently, the class structure is decided by the club running the event and is not consistent across the country. A particular victim of this situation is the humble Lotus Elise.

The problem is that, technically, the Elise is a standard production car. However, it is also a very quick standard production car so if you are competing in a Golf or Clio you are always going to struggle if there's an Elise in the field. As a result, some clubs don't allow the Elises in the standard production classes and force them to run in the mod prod class (usually by inserting a clause in the standard production class regulations that says "Ferrous chassis cars only"). Some of the more broadminded clubs (like the HSA) however feel that if the Elise should be allowed into standard production because that's what it is.

Anyway, I'm waffling. The point I'm trying to make is that before you sign up for a championship you need to read the regulations carefully & make sure you understand what class you'll be running in.

Using the HSA as an example, the class structure is as follows:

CLASS DESCRIPTION
A1 Roadgoing Production Cars up to 1400cc
A2 Roadgoing Production Cars over 1400cc up to 2000cc
A2.1 Roadgoing Mazda MX5s up to 2000cc
A3 Roadgoing Production Cars over 2000cc
B1 Roadgoing Specialist Production Cars up to 1700cc
B2 Roadgoing Specialist Production Cars over 1700cc
C1 Modified Production Cars up to 1400cc
C2 Modified Production Cars over 1400cc up to 2000cc
C3 Modified Production Cars over 2000cc
D Modified Specialist Production Cars
(and then loads of classes for racing cars)

Again, using the Elise as an example - providing it is completely standard and running on normal road tyres it will fit into class A2. However, if you've stripped the interior, put a different engine in it or fitted sticky trackday tyres (like the Yoko A048 or Toyo R888), it'll have to run in class C2.

Interestingly enough, suspension modifications are allowed in A2 providing the suspension layout remains the same. So you can lower the car & fit stiffer springs and dampers & still run in A2.

I think I've said enough on this subject. The long and the short of it is - read the regs carefully & email someone at the club if you're not clear.

4 - Registering for the championship

This bit is quite easy. As well as joining the club, you also have to register for the championship. This is because many clubs will have members who don't actually compete so there is normally a separate form to fill in to actually sign up to compete. Sometimes there is also a separate fee payable to register for the championship.

You can sign up for the HSA championship here.

5 - Entering an event

Hopefully you haven't dozed off yet - we're nearly there. The last bit of paperwork you will have to deal with is the race entry form.

Again, this is slightly complicated by the fact that you will be racing in an events organised by different clubs, so they all do things slightly differently.

Firstly, have a look at the championship dates like the list here. You will see that each round carries details of the organising club. The important thing to remember is that you enter via the organising club, not your own club. So follow the links to the website of the organising club to find an entry form.

The other complicating factor is that you usually can't enter an event until about a month before it happens, but it varies from club-to-club. So you need to keep an eye on the website until entries open. The regulations for the event are usually published with the entry form so you may hear your fellow competitors saying "You can't enter that round yet - the regs aren't out".

Which brings us to another point. Each event comes with its own regulations which you will need to read. Remember to look carefully at the class structure, as you may be in a different class (Especially if you drive an Elise).

Once you have sent off your entry form along with a cheque (normally about £70 - £100), you will normally get a brief confirmation that your entry has been accepted within a week or so (or a note to say that the event is full & you're on a waiting list). About a week before the event you will get your Final Instructions. I will cover these in detail in the "First day at the track" section.

Right, I think I'm done on the paperwork side of things. The next section will cover race equipment...

Sharing the fun

The standard-issue motorsport activity of standing around all day waiting for something interesting to happen can be pretty boring if you are on your own. As a result, I will be joined by a co-driver for my first event to keep me company.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce Mr Farid Ahmed:

Farid is a long-standing karting buddy so I'm happy to trust him with my car. We will both be competing individually, but sharing the Elise. Let's just hope he remembers whose car it is and keeps himself a respectful few tenths behind me!

Car Fettling Part 2

Flushed with the success of my timing-strut manufacture, and with a week to go before my first event, it's time to get the last couple of jobs done.

First off, mark the negative lead of the battery with yellow tape. Well, I couldn't find any yellow tape so I'm hoping that a fetching yellow-and-green-stripe will suffice. To be honest, the battery in an Elise is so hard to get to that I'm not sure this is a massive help. Anyway, I came up with this & hope that it will please the scrutineers:

Secondly, I need to mark the ignition to enable the marshalls to switch it off easily if I am out of commission for any reason. I have gone for a two pronged approach with this:

and this:

Last job before the day itself is to attach the championship stickers:

Then screw in the timing strut to see how it all looks:

Awesome! On the day I will also have to attach the race numbers (MSA regulations say you're not allowed to display them on the road, for some reason) and then, hopefully, I'm done. Obviously, all of the above has to pass muster with the scrutineers, so fingers will definitely be crossed!