ARDS National B non-renewal question

[McSam]

Hi all,

I passed my ARDS tests at Silverstone in 2008 when I was 16, as although I would never have had the money to race, it seemed the natural next thing to do! So for 2008, I had National B Race, but thereafter I didn't renew it as it wasn't worth paying £50 a year for a licence I couldn't afford to put to any use. Question is, is there an expiry on my exam passes and/or a maximum number of years I can fail to renew the licence before I need to take the exams again?

Thanks in advance

[noneedtolift]

Was in a similar position as you - I think it's five years of non-renewal before it totally expires and you have to repass the test/medical. All info on the msa website.

[McSam]

Hmm, so I'd need to renew it next year. It doesn't matter, I presume, that I'm not putting races onto it - so long as I keep it renewed, it'll be maintained?

I'm struggling to find that info on the MSA website, though, do you have a link handy?

[AWRacing]

Its in the blue book, electronic copy is on msa site.
I cant quite understand why you paid out a couple of hundred quid to get your licence knowin full well you'd not use it, was it to have bragging rights over your mates? Please dont take that as an attack on you, i just find it weird why anyone would get a licence and not use it

[dapearson]

I'm pretty sure the NatB has an expiry if you don't use it and that once you get to NatA it effectively never expires.

As said above though, check the blue book.

(and yes i find it odd that you did your licence without any use for it!)

[Graham]

You don't need to do a any races to keep a Nat a or b going just renew every couple of years.

If you don't renew with a Nat b eventually you have to do the written test and if a really long time the ards.

Iirc if you've held a Nat a you can always get a Nat b.

I know plenty of people who take the ards then don't race for a few years. Once you've got the licence as long as you renew you can just jump in a car when you have the cash

[spyderman8]

URL to the current Blue Book:
http://msauk.org/site/cms/contentCategoryView.asp?...

Direct link to the relevant section:
http://msauk.org/uploadedfiles/msa_forms/bluebooks...

...see Section 8.1 onwards on page 125.

Edited by spyderman8 on Tuesday 24th April 20:24

[djroadboy]

If you haven't got 6 signatures on your license and you don't renew for 3 years then you have to take your ARDS again. If you've got your signatures and got past the novice stage you can let it lapse then renew just by doing the written test (considerably cheaper).

HTH

Dan

[McSam]

Thanks for the info, and especially the link - I'm gonna take a read through now.

AWRacing said:

Its in the blue book, electronic copy is on msa site.
I cant quite understand why you paid out a couple of hundred quid to get your licence knowin full well you'd not use it, was it to have bragging rights over your mates? Please dont take that as an attack on you, i just find it weird why anyone would get a licence and not use it

Bragging rights didn't even enter into the equation. Not remotely - in fact, I don't think many know I have it and I only put it in my profile after I saw someone else had and thought it would be informative for fellow PHers reading my posts!

I did it because, having learnt to drive at 14 or so and having a passionate interest in cars and especially racing, I'd done Silverstone's Young Drivers' Assessment so was qualified to go on any of their courses. As a 16th birthday present, I did the ARDS course because it I couldn't get a road licence, and I couldn't do any proper circuit driving any other way, so it was the natural thing to do. At the time, £275 for that much professional tuition and track time at a world-famous circuit was fantastic, and obviously the idea of actually being a qualified racing driver if I passed seemed extremely cool at that age.

Clearly, I did pass - quite a few people didn't, actually, around half - but most of all it confirmed for me that I really did want to do this, that I loved it and could be good enough to make it worthwhile

For anyone else's reference, the blue book passage confirms Dan is exactly right here:

djroadboy said:

If you haven't got 6 signatures on your license and you don't renew for 3 years then you have to take your ARDS again. If you've got your signatures and got past the novice stage you can let it lapse then renew just by doing the written test (considerably cheaper).

Thanks, guys!

[AWRacing]

As i said, no offence intended.

Hope you manage to make use of your licence in the future.

[McSam]

All understood thanks - I think graduating first is a good plan, but then we'll see what I can do!