What series to do?

[GT Two]

Hello Guys,

I want to do some racing next year.

I dont have a licence but want to get into something. My experience to date is track days and karting.

My options are:

Caterham Academy.... about 25k with car and trailer and ARDS

Clio Cup... I thought was 20k plus VAT but Seems to have changed?

Mini challenge.... can anyone comment on costs for this?

Is there anything else I should look at for a first season?

Im lucky enough to have a sponsor so they will be looking for some exposure etc.

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Lee

[MSP]

Mini Challenge - you could get away with £10k running costs if you're running the car yourself if you have nothing go wrong (they do appear to go through engines & gearboxes), £6or7k entry + vat, and the cost of the car. Of course that doesn't include damge etc

Clio Cup is simple! Buy a car @ £15-20k, pay Grovewood Sport £15k Entry Fee -includes all racing & test day the Friday of the race meeting - (already thats £30k+ & you've yet to race!), pay a team £20k+ to maintain/transport/store the car, then £5-10k on tyres, similar on brakes, more on spares, then insure it or mend what you bend... Pros - all you've got to do is drive it. Cons - it ain't cheap (but then, what is?!) Alternatively run it yourself - can be a very time consuming exercise in the summer months especially if you need to re-shell it...

Caterham - no idea on costs - never done/looked into it.

Anything to look at for a first season? If its one make tin tops you want to race the ST class of the Fiesta championship - very competitive like Mini & Clio but will cost you less. Whatever you budget for you will spend more!!

Edited by MSP on Saturday 22 August 08:52

Edited by MSP on Saturday 22 August 08:53

[924racer]

The new Boxster series should be similar cost wise to those two, thread about it here :
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[carl_w]

I believe the Caterham Supergrads and the RGB championship are cheaper than the Academy.

[Kickstart]

I helped a friend who ran in the Caterham academy a few years ago and he a great time - unless the format has changed it is only a few races together with sprints and hillclimbs.
It is all novices together and once you have done the season the car can be upgraded for other championships. All in all I thought it was a very good entry into motorsport.

From what I recall (except accident damage) all the competitors brought their own car and the old team was the offical caterham operation to look after the cars.

[pw75]

Kickstart said:

I helped a friend who ran in the Caterham academy a few years ago and he a great time - unless the format has changed it is only a few races together with sprints and hillclimbs.
It is all novices together and once you have done the season the car can be upgraded for other championships. All in all I thought it was a very good entry into motorsport.

From what I recall (except accident damage) all the competitors brought their own car and the old team was the offical caterham operation to look after the cars.

I race caterhams although I didn't bother with the academy, just jumped straight in. No team support allowed, tyres last a season, tv coverage and barring damage your costs are pretty much a known entity. If you don't like it, simply flog the car. Second season upgrade to B's or A's and your away.

Depends how much cash your looking to spend, but for a track day warrior, unless your a undiscovered lewis hamilton I can't see many other ways of getting a decent chance of silverware or a championship in your first year.

Me, I said sod it, I want to race against the big boys and went straight into A's!!!! in some ways wish I had done academy although the sprints are pretty much considered by most as an annoyance, but there you go!!


ah, did you say you have a license? if you've raced I'm 99% sure academy won't be an option. Could probably buy a car and do B's though which is only for begineers or academy graduates.

[ruston]

The Elise Trophy is worth considering http://www.elisetrophy.com/LoTRDC

A ready prepared production class car can be bought for around £15k, race entries are some of the cheapest around and most rounds are televised. The series provides support to some high profile meets (A1GP, WTCC) and shares rounds with Lotus Cup Europe giving the option of also racing at various European circuits (Hockenheim, Le Mans, Imola, Spa, etc).

[Zumbruk]

pw75 said:

in some ways wish I had done academy although the sprints are pretty much considered by most as an annoyance,

Probably because the wannabe's can't do it. Two years running at Lydden the Caterham Academy were dragged off by the CotC at lunch time for a shouting at for crashing so much.

[pw75]

lol. they are known to crash.... a bit.

[anonymous-user]

i would quantify just how much exposure your sponsor is seeking and then what they want from the deal first as that has a major effect on the series i would recommend.

[1]

As Pablo said you need to quantify what coverage your sponsor is looking for. The vast majority of championships will give very little tv coverage and wont offer much in the way of hospitatiliy. If they are looking for a decent package then you will be looking at somthing on the BTTC or British GT package, so Clio's or Ginetta's.

Ginetta G20's will cost you £40k
Clio's £70k
Ginetta G50 £100k

Alternatively if your sponsor is not that bothered about "real" tv coverage then I would go with Caterham Academy. It provides you with a unique entry into motorsport and will give you the time and support to consider what you want to do in year 2. Also everyone is in the same boat and you have a great chance of bagging a few trophies.

Elise Trophy is a joke, you cant get an entry, too many classes and too few restrictions. A competitive class C car will cost you anything upto £30k and you could spend well over £50k on a competitive class A winning car. The grid is made up of track day gents who simply want to say they are a "racing driver", people with deep pockets who are hunting trophies and engineers who want to extract the most from the car. Each to their own but not my bag.

Boxster Cup is a great concept but I wont take off, cars are to expensive, tyres are to expensive and no manufacture support. It will end up just attracting the trophy hunters with deep pockets.

CSL Cup - Same as Boxster cup

Mini's - Dont really know much about them other than the fact that their entry fees are pretty high, circa £6k IIRC.

The other option is to start in one of the budget series such as Ma5da Racing or PBMW. For £6-£8k you could get yourself a very competitive car and spend a max of £10k pa running it, including testing! The mazdas even have TV coverage. You will have just as much fun as you would spending 10 times the cash.

So in conclusion you have a fair few options but if I had my time over I would start with Academy.

Edited by 1 on Sunday 23 August 17:09

[ruston]

1 said:

Elise Trophy is a joke, you cant get an entry, too many classes and too few restrictions. A competitive class C car will cost you anything upto £30k and you could spend well over £50k on a competitive class A winning car. The grid is made up of track day gents who simply want to say they are a "racing driver", people with deep pockets who are hunting trophies and engineers who want to extract the most from the car. Each to their own but not my bag.

The series has become a victim of its own popularity but this is being addressed with double grids being added at some rounds. There are three classes, not as many as some series; production, modified and 2-11. The 'trackday gents' include Martin Donnelly and Andy Walsh (former Benneton F1 test driver) plus plenty of other experienced racers.

[1]

ruston said:

1 said:

Elise Trophy is a joke, you cant get an entry, too many classes and too few restrictions. A competitive class C car will cost you anything upto £30k and you could spend well over £50k on a competitive class A winning car. The grid is made up of track day gents who simply want to say they are a "racing driver", people with deep pockets who are hunting trophies and engineers who want to extract the most from the car. Each to their own but not my bag.

The series has become a victim of its own popularity but this is being addressed with double grids being added at some rounds. There are three classes, not as many as some series; production, modified and 2-11. The 'trackday gents' include Martin Donnelly and Andy Walsh (former Benneton F1 test driver) plus plenty of other experienced racers.

Sorry I should have added "the vast majority" of drivers. I thought Donnelly was on a freebie, resident guest driver etc, not sure about Walsh.

Either way you put the vast majority of Elise Trophy drivers in a true single make series and they would struggle to be competitive. I think it's closer to cheque book racing than a single make series.

[clubracing]

In every series there are people with more money doing better than people with more talent, and in club racing everyone is really just 'trophy hunting'. You can't single out the elise trophy for that.

To the OP, +1 for the caterham acadamy.

[1]

clubracing said:

In every series there are people with more money doing better than people with more talent, and in club racing everyone is really just 'trophy hunting'. You can't single out the elise trophy for that.

To the OP, +1 for the caterham acadamy.

We all know that budget plays a part in every form of motorsport. However I disagree with your point that everyone in club racing is trophy hunting. How do you explain people who make up the numbers in a true single make championships such as Clio's? On any given grid of 30+ drivers there are only really 10 who will have any chance of getting on the podium. With the budget they are spending any of those drivers could go and win every weekend in any number of other championships such as Welsh Sports & Saloons but they choose to test their skills against people in the same machinery where the playing field is relativity equal.

I still stand by my point that Elise Trophey is not a true single make championship.

[clubracing]

OK I get your point now. What I meant was that people in club racing know they wont become a professional driver and earn lots of money, the main goal is to enjoy themselves and hopefully win some races and trophies. The people who make up the numbers in the clios are not necessarily 'better' than the 'trophy hunters'. Just that perhaps for them being able to say they're a racing driver means being involved with a championship that has TV coverage, lots of spectators and a big team looking after the car rather than winning trophies. There are other equally close championships they could race in to test their skills.

[cytefx]

you could also look at the BMW Kumho (www.bmwrdc.com), they have close racing, depending on the class you enter, think it can be done for about 10K a year, and thats 18 races (9 double headers)

and they also have cars you can rent, so if you want to try first there is the option.

[1]

clubracing said:

OK I get your point now. What I meant was that people in club racing know they wont become a professional driver and earn lots of money, the main goal is to enjoy themselves and hopefully win some races and trophies. The people who make up the numbers in the clios are not necessarily 'better' than the 'trophy hunters'. Just that perhaps for them being able to say they're a racing driver means being involved with a championship that has TV coverage, lots of spectators and a big team looking after the car rather than winning trophies. There are other equally close championships they could race in to test their skills.

Fair point but there aren't that many true single make championships that are properly regulated and policed. In fact if you exclude single seater's I'd struggle to name much more than half a dozen.

[V8 GRF]

What about Legends? They look fun and I've seen complete cars, ready to go for £10k.

http://www.legendsracinguk.com/ukhome.html

ETA Just re-read your initial post and a bonus is it's a televised series so plenty of exposure there.
The TVR Tuscan challenge is televised as well.

Edited by V8 GRF on Tuesday 25th August 10:47

[Obiwonkeyblokey]

www.tvrchampionship.com

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/forum.asp?h=0&a...

cheap, 3 classes, RWD and tv coverage.

eta - beer and BBQs

Edited by Obiwonkeyblokey on Wednesday 26th August 09:16

Edited by Obiwonkeyblokey on Wednesday 26th August 09:16