How to start racing
There is absolutely
no reason not to have a go at racing.... as long as the following
points are true:
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You have spare money
or have managed to talk your way into sponsorship |
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You're not scared of the odd crash
- you WILL crash |
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You know a good engineer who will
be there for every race .... |
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.... or you have friends who will
support you and help out if you do mechanics yourself
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.... or you just turn up and make
friends straight away - most people in club racing will
help you out |
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You are competitve and love riding
fast |
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You have tried a few track days and
at least one race school |
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Before
you can take part in any racing you must obtain a race licence
from the ACU (Auto Cycle Union), costing around £25 per
year . You must take an eye test and belong to a bike racing club
to get a race licence. Normally you must have a race licence before
you can join a club so its a bit of a catch 22 - but in practice
what happens is you obtain an application form for your ACU licence
from the ACU or the racing club, complete it, get an eye test
and send it all off to the racing club with their club membership
application. The club will forward your ACU application to the
ACU for you.
Visit the ACU
website to find your nearest club and find out more. Give
the club a call and/or go along to one of their meetings to get
yourself introduced. |
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| There are different levels
of ACU licence - Novice, Intermediate Novice, Clubman, National,
International, UEM. For your first year of racing, most will
apply for an Intermediate Novice for which you must have a
full motorcycle road licence and enables you to race any capacity
machine. A Novice licence requires no road licence but restricts
you to 600cc. As a Novice (or Intermediate Novice) licence
holder, you must race wearing an orange bib. These are available
for an extra £5 when you apply for your licence. You
may drop the orange bib after you have completed at least
1 race at 10 seperate meetings at 3 or more different circuits.
At this point you can upgrade your licence to Clubman status.
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club you join is down to preference and where you want to race.
The two main short circuit racing clubs are the British
MotorCycle Racing Club (BMCRC or BEMSEE) and The
New Era Motorcyle Club. BEMSEE are the biggest, offer the
most meetings and race at circuits mainly in the South of the
Country (Brands Hatch, Snetterton, Lydden, etc). New Era race
mainly in the North (Cadwell Park, Mallory Park, etc). The cost
of joining a club is usually around £25 per year. You then
pay for each meeting you choose to enter - usually a few weeks
before the meeting. |
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Racing
Tips from Deb Cartwright, Bemsee Supersport 400 Racer:
The main reason for my choice to do 400s is because the BMCRC
(Bemsee) run a rookie championship, which means you can only
enter if you’ve never raced before. That puts you in
the same boat as everyone else out there. Your 1st start,
1st time into the 1st corner 1st finish, you all feel pretty
similar I imagine. Bricking it!!! For me it worked very well
as it allowed me to progress and improve hugely. I managed
to get a few pots along the way too, which is only ever a
good thing.
The other reason for doing 400s is because it is a lot cheaper
than say the 600s. I started 2003 year on a £1500 bike,
which was plenty for the rookies. As I got better, I felt
the need for a quicker better handling bike, but I learned
to ride and more importantly race on that cheap bike.
There are other classes in Bemsee which are there for tight
budgets, like the Minitwins.
How often and where? This year Bemsee have run only 1 championship.
For SS400 this contains 20 rounds, I’m competing in
the open and the clubman too which means I have 17 race weekends
this year. That is rather a lot and it is all time consuming.
Last year they ran 2 separate championships. One of 10 rounds
and the other of 20, so you had the choice. I’m not
sure what the format is going to be for next year.
Bemsee go to a variety of tracks, Brands, Cadwell, Croft,
Silverstone, Lydden, Snetterton, Pembrey, Le Croix, (yup France). |
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