Amateur racing culture

[Zakir Agazade]

Good day. I would like to get informed about the amateur racing culture, especially in United Kingdom. As far as i know, if you love racing you should buy a car for 1000£-2000£, modify it and race. I think it is expensive and i search for solutions to enable non-rich people to race on weekends with their friends. For me, it is difficult to buy an extra car just for racing purposes + i will have to modify it,to buy braking pads and fluid everytime,to change tires. I think it would be better if cars will be provided by organizations. I have an entrepreneurial idea on creating a company that will provide cars for racing and i think that racing demand for rental cars will be much more higher that for your usage of your own car, especially because you dont want to damage it. I thought that monthly costs would prevail 250 000 GBP per month with 20 cars,racing 8 hours a day. And it makes impossible to provide cars per hour just for 20 GBP. I search for solutions now. Please provide some financial,marketing,technical information about my idea. If you have any solutions i will be glad to hear. Thank you very much.

[Starter]

There is already a thriving race car rental business going in the US. Mostly in amateur spec classes like Miata and Spec racer.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

The cheapest way I've found for competitive racing is online simulators. Iracing.com for example is full of racing drivers who have run out of money for 'real' racing, and is even used by many pro's like Dale Earnhardt, Jnr, Shane van Gisbergen. Even Lewis Hamilton has a profile on there.

[journeyman racer]

As a form of motorsport. You could compete in Motorkhana, Khanacross, Autocross, Super Sprints, in a regular standard car. I don't know if they have a different name for those disciplines in the UK.

[MrJan]

As a form of motorsport. You could compete in Motorkhana, Khanacross, Autocross, Super Sprints, in a regular standard car. I don't know if they have a different name for those disciplines in the UK.

Autocross would be what we'd call sprinting (autocross is another sport that is run on loose surfaces, usually in a field). I do sprinting and hillclimbing and you can basically turn up in a road car (and many people do drive their everyday car) or an all out racer (and anything in between). It's all for fun and I know people that have done it in a diesel VW Lupo (not sure if they're called that outside the UK). An even cheaper way to compete is to enter an autotest or autosolo, small nimble cars are even better here (and in the case of an autosolo the car MUST best roadgoing and driven to the venue).


I have an entrepreneurial idea on creating a company that will provide cars for racing and i think that racing demand for rental cars will be much more higher that for your usage of your own car, especially because you dont want to damage it. I thought that monthly costs would prevail 250 000 GBP per month with 20 cars,racing 8 hours a day. And it makes impossible to provide cars per hour just for 20 GBP. I search for solutions now. Please provide some financial,marketing,technical information about my idea. If you have any solutions i will be glad to hear.

Car hire does already exist in the UK (a lot of people enter rallies using hired vehicles) but the cost of preparing an all out race car means that you're going to pay far more than £20 an hour. Also you can pretty much rely on people only hiring cars for a weekend (and for a limited number of weekends in a year), so for easily 250 days of the year the car is sat in storage not earning anything.

Costs are simply way more than you've stated. This is a link to the options for the VW Fun Cup (which does also include support) http://www.funcup.co.uk/get-on-track/jpr-arrive-and-drive/

You'll find that there are plenty of options already on arrive and drive, from a Ford Fiesta or Pug 205, up to Aston Martins and full blown WRC cars. It's a system that works, and makes people good money, but you need plenty of capital to invest first and you need to charge way more than £20/hr.

[Josh Ullathorne]

Hi guys I am currently doing a dissertation into drivers personalities, If you could all spare me 5 minutes of your time to fill out a short questionnaire id be eternally grateful, all opinions and answers are accepted ad long as they are serious and if you don't have a clue on the answers that not a problem either. Thank you very much for your time, Josh.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OhTN-pVMMbiYO6xAhiiCQkhFJJh1Cig2NAqp16zNKNo/viewform

[MrJan]

Hi guys I am currently doing a dissertation into drivers personalities, If you could all spare me 5 minutes of your time to fill out a short questionnaire id be eternally grateful, all opinions and answers are accepted ad long as they are serious and if you don't have a clue on the answers that not a problem either. Thank you very much for your time, Josh.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OhTN-pVMMbiYO6xAhiiCQkhFJJh1Cig2NAqp16zNKNo/viewform

Hi, had a look at it but not sure if my answers will be too helpful too many of the questions are either too psychology weighted for me or not specific enough. You say at the top that they can relate to any level, but that makes a lot of the questions awkward to answer as a lot of them depend on a number of factors. I think that you need to think about clarifying it to a specific discipline, for example, I think that personality for a BTCC driver is less important than it would be for an endurance driver. Also are the questions specifically relating to the role as a driver (and no more), or should my answers take into account the numerous media responsibilities required from a top level professional?

Not looking to rip into your survey, just think that you might get some more helpful data if you rejig a few of the questions.

[Josh Ullathorne]

Any criticism is happily accepted as it will aid in a better more profound study so for that i thank you, the study is aimed at highlighting the current knowledge of a motorsports related demographic. The knowledge i will present in my study is aimed at identifying core psychological aspect seen throughout humanity, this can be related to motorsports as we all know that to compete you must have a strong well formed psychological background. Hopefully by addressing the main aspects which form personality and highlighting certain psychological perspectives the job of managing drivers can be made easier, this is because this knowledge can help a manager understand certain situations and asses thus predict to some degree how there drivers may react in certain situations.
Once again thank you for your advice and I appreciate you valuable participation.

[journeyman racer]

Autocross would be what we'd call sprinting (autocross is another sport that is run on loose surfaces, usually in a field). .

This is motorkhana (My car is the opening shot. 0:42. 0:51 :o :uhoh: )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4AfdSnXk6s

Khanacross

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecYW8tyB9YA

Autocross

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BSf9oh5hUs

Couldn't find a good Super Sprints video.

[Starter]

This is motorkhana (My car is the opening shot. 0:42. 0:51 :o :uhoh: )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4AfdSnXk6s

Khanacross

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecYW8tyB9YA

Autocross

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BSf9oh5hUs

Couldn't find a good Super Sprints video.
Interesting the different terminology for the same thing. Here in the states what you call Autocross we call RallyCross and our Autocross (also called Solo) is a run through a coned parking lot.

[janvanvurpa]

Interesting the different terminology for the same thing. Here in the states what you call Autocross we call RallyCross and our Autocross (also called Solo) is a run through a coned parking lot.

It is not the same thing..
Both SCCA derived "Otter-cross" and "Grass-o-cross" are slower and flatter and "more restrained" the the Pommie things with similar names.
Both emphasise the ability to do them in a bog standard road car or SUV or Mini-van with road tires. That also explains the classing structure with over 30 classes so, like anything in America, everybody is a "winner" just for showing up even if there is only 1 car in the class that day..

[Starter]

It is not the same thing..
Both SCCA derived "Otter-cross" and "Grass-o-cross" are slower and flatter and "more restrained" the the Pommie things with similar names.
Both emphasise the ability to do them in a bog standard road car or SUV or Mini-van with road tires. That also explains the classing structure with over 30 classes so, like anything in America, everybody is a "winner" just for showing up even if there is only 1 car in the class that day..
I guess you're not familiar with all of the US types. While there are plenty of Autocross (Solo) classes, most are street driven and street legal cars. There are a number of those classes that allow special Solo or racing tires. There are also several classes for racing cars and "modifieds" It's a fairly flat course because its a parking lot. This is the most popular participant form of motor sport in the us (with the possible exception of drag racing) with the SCCA national championships in Nebraska last year having over 500 entrants from all around the country.

.RallyCross, on the other hand, consists of just six classes, three two wheel drive and three four wheel drive. A majority of the RallyCross cars are also street legal and many are driven to the events. These courses are off pavement and can have a good amount of elevation change.

It's true that top speeds in both would rarely exceed sixty to sixty five MPH.

[journeyman racer]

Interesting the different terminology for the same thing. Here in the states what you call Autocross we call RallyCross and our Autocross (also called Solo) is a run through a coned parking lot.
Then what I think you call Autocross/Solo is what we'd call Motorkhana. The video I linked was done in a paddock. But half the time, our meetings are held in car parks.

[airshifter]

I guess you're not familiar with all of the US types. While there are plenty of Autocross (Solo) classes, most are street driven and street legal cars. There are a number of those classes that allow special Solo or racing tires. There are also several classes for racing cars and "modifieds" It's a fairly flat course because its a parking lot. This is the most popular participant form of motor sport in the us (with the possible exception of drag racing) with the SCCA national championships in Nebraska last year having over 500 entrants from all around the country.

.RallyCross, on the other hand, consists of just six classes, three two wheel drive and three four wheel drive. A majority of the RallyCross cars are also street legal and many are driven to the events. These courses are off pavement and can have a good amount of elevation change.

It's true that top speeds in both would rarely exceed sixty to sixty five MPH.


SCCA Solo (US Autocross) is indeed much more in depth and competitive than most people think. If you show up in an active region in a bone stock Miata with no prep at all, you better be ready to get your butt handed to you unless you can drive your tail off. Even then, setting up the car within class legalities is key.

And though many Solo events take place in big wide open parking lots and such, there is no requirement other than top speeds vs runoff areas. Quite a few big tracks have hosted Solo events, often using just sections of the track with modifications to it. The main idea is an emphasis on handling, setup, and driver skill sets, so the tracks are always changed so that nobody has the "local track" advantage.

Anyone that thinks SCCA Solo is designed so that everyone is a winner has surely never been to an event in a competitive region. I've seen some slower classed cars make runs that I didn't think were possible in a car that simple that is thought of as a commuter. Some of the drivers in that form of racing are dead serious and know a car very well.

[MrJan]

So how do you guys differentiate between your RallyCross and proper rallycross (like the FIA championship or Global RallyX)? Over here rallycross is a race event, not a time trial like you seem to be suggesting.

These two are what we'd call a sprint, one on an airfield and the other at a karting track (venues are so limited that we have to take what we can find)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjwzL-QUzmk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxfpgIyZn4o

This is probably my favourite event, the hillclimb at Wiscombe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75LD4rNjUfw

And this is an autosolo (although it's a bit of a slow one because of the limits on space)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF8svr3V94E

And this is what we call an autotest, which involves reversing through gates and an amazing memory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rhz19ZrpZg