First Steps

Having decided on sprinting, I had to work put how to get started. Fortunately typing "sprinting nottingham" into Google yielded the Nottingham Sports Car Club.

The NSCC website provided a very helpful guide to getting started, summarised as follows:

1. Join the club (£30) and register for the championship
2. Get the relevant licence from the Motor Sports Association (Non-Race National B - £34)
3. Purchase the necessary safety equipment
4. Make a few minor modifications to your car
5. Fill out an entry form for your first event and send off the fee (about £70 for each event)

So far, I've done steps 1, 2, 5 and a bit of 4.

Number 1 was easy - there's a form on the NSCC website. The only slightly tricky bit was working out what class I would be competing in. A quick read of the championship regulations, plus a squint at the results from the previous rounds revealed that a standard Elise competes in class 2E.

The licence application was a little trickier, mainly due to the slightly random nature of the MSA website, which seems to assume that you already know a lot about motorsport so doesn't really bother to help you. Fortunately the NSCC beginner's guide pointed me in the right direction and I was able to get to the relevant form. Along with your competition licence, you also receive a copy of the hallowed MSA Blue Book which contains all of the technical regulations you need to know about. Sadly, I haven't received mine yet so I'm still in the dark.

I'll cover my next steps in a later installment...