So, you want to go historic racing? Julian Balme was bitten by the competition bug 30 years ago… and still loves it. Here he explains how you can get involved, too. Photography Charlie Wooding.
Get on the right track. Julian Balme explains how to join the grid in historic motorsport events.
I’m not going to lie to you. There is no such thing as cheap motorsport – historic or otherwise – just varying scales of expense. Once you have accepted that harsh reality, though, and plundered various financial institutions, it’s easier to find yourself in a race with an old car than you might imagine. Sure, it’s safe to say that you won’t be lining up alongside the great and the good at the Revival anytime soon, but there are other, less glamorous playgrounds for classics beyond Lord March’s automotive Shangri-La.
Some have roots that date back to before the war (see side panel), but I will always have a soft spot for the Historic Sports Car Club, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2016.
Judging by the lack of spectators at its own meetings, though, you might believe that they bear no relation to those punter-popular behemoths held at Silverstone and Goodwood. Yet, without the likes of the 750 Motor Club and the HSCC, it’s safe to say that neither of those spectaculars would be what they are today. Since the HSCC’s formation in 1966, under the stewardship of Guy Griffiths and Betty Haig, historic racing has changed out of all recognition. Once the habitat of bumbling home mechanics looking to exercise their redundant racing or sports cars beyond a trip to the pub or the occasional show in a field, it is now a multi-million-pound industry.
During all that time, the HSCC has remained constant, providing a full calendar of fixtures throughout the season all across the country and, like countless historic hotshoes before and since, it was on those nursery slopes that I cut my teeth as a would-be racing driver. Having attended a number of its meetings as a voyeur, I joined the club more than 30 years ago and immediately fell for the group called the Post Historic Roadsports Championship. Catering for roadgoing production sports cars built between 1948 and 1970, it featured all the machinery that I was infatuated with and, despite a change in title to Historic Road Sports, it carries on to this day.
It was, and still is, the perfect series for a novice to take the plunge, the majority of the eligible vehicles being plentiful and, back then at least, relatively cheap. Apart from the perennial Elans, Turners, Ginetta G4s and Marcoses, the rest of the grid has changed. Models that were barred during the ’80s in fear that they would dominate the series and that had somewhere else to play, such as Porsche 911, Morgan Plus 8, Lotus Seven and MGB, now do dominate proceedings.
It was with this group that I took part in my first motor race, on a bitterly cold March morning at Silverstone in 1985. I was so excited that I forgot to take my newly purchased crash helmet. Before my track debut, I’d barely driven my ‘racing’ car, a Sunbeam Tiger that a mate and I had restored, although I was confident that great things lay ahead. It would only be a matter of hours before news would spread and the BRDC would be pleading for me to join its elite ranks. That vision – once I had borrowed a ‘skid lid’ from a stalwart of my local Club Lotus chapter who was also competing there – lasted all of the first 30 seconds of qualifying. Despite this, my love of historic racing was ignited.
Never one to make things easy for myself, I chose to campaign the aforementioned V8-powered Rootes roadster, which I did with varying degrees of success for three seasons. By then the committee decided that, by living out my US West Coast racing fantasies, I’d been flaunting the series rules long enough, the spec of my car being closer to period Sports Car Club of America than 1980s HSCC regs. Even before I’d joined them, members of this friendly and welcoming band had heaped encouragement on me, probably recognising me as someone they could lap on a regular basis. One of their number was a chap called Bob Pomeroy, who, despite my departure from the championship to pursue tintops, remained a good mate and the HRS group, like that first girlfriend, continued to hold a place in my heart. So when Bob phoned last year to say that he’d damaged his shoulder and ask whether I would like to race his car in a few rounds of the series, I didn’t have to think twice.
The decision was largely emotional, but it also offered me the chance to drive something more suitable for the job and to get a handle on where club racing was today. Despite escalating track hire costs, the HSCC still manages to promote meetings at the country’s top circuits, three of which – Silverstone GP, Cadwell Park and Brands Hatch GP – I’d agreed to take part at.
My first time out in Bob’s Ford Crossflowpowered ’1967 Marcos 1600 was at the Silverstone Classic test day. Despite not really fitting it, I thought I’d done well – until we looked up Bob’s times from the previous year. It’s a long lap, but I was 12 seconds off his best! The pace of the championship had increased somewhat during the intervening years since my debut. Six weeks later, we were back at the same track where, this time, I was dragged along by the speed of the field and, by the end of qualifying, I’d clawed back eight of those seconds. During the 10-lapper, I found a further two. I was hooked again.
But having not done much racing over the past 10 years, a promising first run in the Marcos was scuppered by my lack of familiarity with current flag signals. A black-and-white diagonal with my race number under it was shown from the pitwall and, in my ignorance, I came in the following lap assuming that something was falling off the car. What it really meant was that I’d put at least two wheels off the track on one of the corners more than once and was being ‘observed’ by the clerk of the course – and not in an admiring way. The stop cost me eight places.
‘Track limits’ are relatively new and a big thing these days, but if the resulting flag signals have evolved, then the safety equipment for drivers has positively reinvented itself. I wore a £6 pair of Millets coveralls and some penny loafers during my first season with Roadsports. Today, we all wear a three-layer Nomex race suit over flame-retardant underwear, accompanied by fireproof boots, gloves and balaclava. It’s all datestamped and needs to be replaced every five or 10 years (depending on the item) and, although only advisory in pre-1985 cars, we will soon no doubt all have to use HANS devices. The equipment within the vehicles, too, has been subjected to upgrades with lifed extinguisher systems and belts, along with more substantial roll-cages.
All this, of course, contributes significantly to the cost of preparing both a car and driver for the first time and, as a result, many aspiring racers are encouraged to purchase a vehicle someone else has already spent the money on. Bob bought his Marcos as a project for next to nothing and did a vast amount of preparation work, including painting it himself. Even so, once all the safety equipment had been installed – along with the performance upgrades to turn it into a decent racer – it meant that he had in excess of £20k invested in it before giving me the keys.
There are still competitors such as Bob who spanner their own cars, but these days they are more likely to hand over the running of their classics to the increasing number of specialist preparation firms that have engulfed the paddock over the past 30 years. Even at a ‘clubbie’, it’s easy to get lost within the sea of transporters, trailers and motorhomes. One such firm, CCK, based near Uckfield, was looking after the Midgets of Ian Burford and first timer Larry Tucker, along with kindly keeping an eye on, and providing bacon sarnies to, me and Bob. Although quite capable, Larry found it far more relaxing to have the MG fettled and checked over by another team of eyes before reaching and at the circuit.
Living in London, I never had room for a trailer, or indeed a tow vehicle, so gaining points for driving to meetings was an attraction of the Road Sports championship. It helped hugely to flatter my standings in the end-of-year results. The series still rewards road driving, but you can be crowned champion without doing so and, at the three races I contested, only two competitors had got there under their own steam.
An early morning blast to the track in any of the cars making up the grid these days wouldn’t be much fun, such are the advances in mechanical specification. Plus, the Marcos proved quite difficult to get into and out of, as well as possessing limited visibility. Once behind the wheel, though, the seating position was more akin to a single-seater and I immediately felt as if I was piloting the right vehicle for a motor race rather than the converted grocery-getters I’d been used to. Here was a car that was working with me, rather than constantly against me and, as such, the confidence it gave meant that I settled in straight away with this new bunch of compadres.
No more so than with my second outing at Cadwell Park, where the Road Sports group was running two races – one on the Saturday and one on Sunday. Low key and under-subscribed – just 16 of us made the trek up to Lincolnshire – it was one of the best weekend’s competition that I’ve ever had the pleasure of being a part of. Yes, it remained dry and I acquitted myself quite well, but the joyful atmosphere that prevailed on the track also spilled over into the paddock. Series chairman Kevin Kivlochan held a barbecue on the Saturday evening, confirming what a friendly and sociable bunch they still are.
Historic racing has come an awfully long way. Back when I started, only two people actually thought they could win a race: the rest of the grid just didn’t want to finish last. Le Mans was a film that we would never have been in, Goodwood was nothing more than a defunct racetrack used by the AC Owners’ Club once a year for a sprint and the only part of Silverstone that we were ever allowed on to was the triangle making up the club circuit. Today, the prestige meetings are full of ex-Formula One or BTCC drivers whose mounts they have rarely seen before and which have been prepped by former F3 mechanics. Yet there are still alternatives for mere mortals that are probably more enjoyable and, if you say it quickly enough, even affordable.
How do I start?
The sanctioning body for motorsport in the UK is the MSA (www.msauk.org) and it is responsible for issuing competitors with a licence enabling them to race. You will need to buy an MSA Go Racing starter pack (for £95), which comes with a DVD, a copy of its yearbook, an application form and details about the compulsory ARDS test, which needs to be passed before applying for a licence. Costing c£250, these are held at circuits across the country and are more a proof of competency than talent. Applicants over 18 will also need a doctor to carry out a basic medical check-up and complete the relevant part of the form. You can then apply for a Race National B Competition Licence (£60), plus you’ll need to join the club that organises the event or championship that you want to compete in, and register as a driver. Annual membership of the HSCC is £150. It costs less to join some clubs, but they may charge more for each race.
Then you will need fitting out with a helmet, overalls, gloves, boots, socks and underwear, all of which are mandatory and will cost (at best) upwards of £600 in total. Once registered with a club, it will send you race entry forms that you will need to fill out and submit with payment. Prices vary, but there has been a sharp rise lately. The cheapest I encountered was £310 for the two 20-minute Cadwell races, but 25 mins on the Silverstone GP circuit was £450.
Check out the following for more info:
750 Motor Club www.750mc.co.uk
CSCC www.classicsportscarclub.co.uk
Historic Racing Drivers’ Club www.hrdc.eu
Historic Sports Car Club www.hscc.org.uk
Masters www.mastershistoricracing.com
On your marks
It can be a long day at the track, starting from as early as 7am. Most meetings run qualifying in the morning with races in the afternoon. But, before any of this can happen, the driver has to ‘sign on’, whereupon their licence is checked before the car and the driver’s kit are scrutineered.
This is the most important part of the day because officials decide whether the vehicle is safe and ultimately whether or not you can race. They will inspect items including seatbelts, roll-cage and seat mountings, as well as more mechanical aspects, such as fuel tanks, throttle return springs, catch tanks and the like. It’s not dissimilar to having an MoT test each time you go racing.
Your car might well be measured for noise, too, many circuits being limited by regulations governing how loud the exhaust can be. The usual limit is either 98 or 105dB. The vehicle will also need a transponder, which is an electronic device that measures lap times – the days of stopwatch-wielding time-keepers having long gone – and the recorded bests then determine the grid order. Transponders are usually available for hire on the day, although most competitors now either own or lease theirs at £144 a year.
Each series or championship has its own set of rules and it’s critical to familiarise yourself with these before starting any work on your car. Likewise, the MSA also has further requirements relating to tow eyes, rain lights, ignition cutout switches and all manner of minutiae – which is why so many people these days hand over preparation to established businesses. Most importantly, visit the paddocks and talk to the racers: they are still friendly and always helpful.
‘THE JOYFUL ATMOSPHERE THAT PREVAILED ON THE TRACK ALSO SPILLED OVER INTO THE PADDOCK’
