A season of Autograss racing
Discussion
Hi folks, I thought I'd write something down about my experience taking part in Autograss racing, perhaps it'll inspire others looking for a cheap way in to competitive motorsport.
So, it all started at the tail end of 2019, myself and a group of friends were taking part in supermini endurance 'races' with a Honda Jazz, although it could get a bit crashy it was great fun and gave a couple of us a real bug to do some racing.
This was our wee car in our third race, it finally threw in the towel after this, roughly 3 hours in to a 4 hour race
.
Then came the task of finding something to fill the void left by racing the Jazz. I'd known about Autograss racing for a while, most of us will have seen them bombing about at the Autosport Show, and known about how accessible it could be but until then never really thought much of.
For those that don't know, Autograss is essentially oval racing on dirt on fairly short ~1/4 mile tracks. It's non contact with short races (our club does 4 1/2 laps in heats and finals, rising to 6 1/2 laps for an open race - the 1/2 lap owing to the layout of our track).
We aim for 3 heats, a final and a champion of champions race, other clubs may vary.
It's not an MSA sanctioned formula, instead the governing body is the National Autograss Sports Association (NASA).
To go racing, you first need a licence, this is obtained through whichever club you want to join. The price varies from club to club but from what I've seen is between £50-100. This is also the point you'll choose your number, which is prefixed with your club designation - mine is CS818, CS being Central Scotland - simplifying things for racing away.
Now it's time to decide what class to race in and find a car to suit. This is where it can be as cheap or expensive as you want!
There are Classes 1 through to 10 plus Stockhatch and F600, covering everything from a standard 1000cc Mini to a 400+bhp spaceframed silhouette saloon.
I chose Class 1, 1.0 saloons without any performance enhancement from the choice of Toyota Yaris, Mini, Nissan Micra, Peugeot 106 and Citroen AX/Saxo.
I scoured the classifieds for a trailer then began the hunt for a suitable car. As a beginner, buying a ready built car is definitely the best route to go.
I eventually found an AX for sale locally, it was pretty beaten up but it had the all important NASA tag on the roll cage (this is essential to pass scrutineering, it shows the material used to make the cage is within the correct spec). I paid £400 for the car.
I then managed to find a Kirkey seat and a couple of tyres for sale through a family member, bought a new harness and finally gave it a coat of New Holland tractor paint, applied badly with a roller.
Unfortunately, this was the point that Covid hit and like most things, our season was cancelled.
By September, I was beginning to get annoyed at having the car sitting around and having to move it on and off the ramp all the time. I then noticed that the Yorkshire Dales club was running a couple of "test days", I booked in, loaded up the trailer and we drove down.
I'm very glad I did, although my car wasn't particularly quick (racing driver excuse #1) it was great fun and after each "test" I returned to the pits with a huge smile and it got the buzz back in to it.
I'll own up that I did kill the engine in my last run when I forgot to switch the fan on....
Over the winter I bought a donor car and relieved it of it's engine and exterior panels which then found their way on to the racing car, along with another coat of New Holland blue (badly applied again) and some tiger stripes.
After what seemed like an eternity, we finally got the green light to go racing in June of this year with a compressed calendar.
The first meetings were all about finding my feet and seeing if there was anyway of improving the car within the scope of the rules.
I also discovered one of the best parts of the sport, the people. I've been around various types of motorsports as a marshal and spectator for years now but nothing comes close to Autograss for the community spirit, everyone will take the time to talk to you and if you have a problem they will help if they can.
As the season progressed I was getting more and more competitive and starting to take it a bit more seriously; playing with tyre pressures, adjusting the tracking and replacing tired looking suspension components with decent quality replacements.
I even made a huge discovery when replacing the timing belt, the timing had been out 2-3 teeth. With that set correctly it made a great improvement.
Our class would have between 4-6 starters and I was beginning to see second places occasionally. I also learnt that any mistake is costly, with only 50bhp you struggle to make up for losing time (racing driver excuse #2).
The racing is as close as you like, there's the odd bit contact from optimistic dives and overtakes but never anything malicious.
I was looking good for a 3rd place in our class standings (okay, quite average given there is only 6 of us but I was still pleased) but in our penultimate meeting, I was looking to try and move up to second in one of the heats only for the door I swear was open at the time to be suddenly shut
. This resulted in me bending a chassis leg and gearbox mount just enough to pop out a driveshaft. Because of time constraints I'll not have time to sort this out properly before the next meeting so that's my class 1 season over.
In summary, I've had an absolute blast, met a bunch of great folk and I wouldn't hesitate in recommending it to anyone looking for some cheap motorsport.
Will I do it again next year? Absolutely, in fact I've already bought something different that I intend on running at our last meeting this weekend.
So, it all started at the tail end of 2019, myself and a group of friends were taking part in supermini endurance 'races' with a Honda Jazz, although it could get a bit crashy it was great fun and gave a couple of us a real bug to do some racing.
This was our wee car in our third race, it finally threw in the towel after this, roughly 3 hours in to a 4 hour race
.Then came the task of finding something to fill the void left by racing the Jazz. I'd known about Autograss racing for a while, most of us will have seen them bombing about at the Autosport Show, and known about how accessible it could be but until then never really thought much of.
For those that don't know, Autograss is essentially oval racing on dirt on fairly short ~1/4 mile tracks. It's non contact with short races (our club does 4 1/2 laps in heats and finals, rising to 6 1/2 laps for an open race - the 1/2 lap owing to the layout of our track).
We aim for 3 heats, a final and a champion of champions race, other clubs may vary.
It's not an MSA sanctioned formula, instead the governing body is the National Autograss Sports Association (NASA).
To go racing, you first need a licence, this is obtained through whichever club you want to join. The price varies from club to club but from what I've seen is between £50-100. This is also the point you'll choose your number, which is prefixed with your club designation - mine is CS818, CS being Central Scotland - simplifying things for racing away.
Now it's time to decide what class to race in and find a car to suit. This is where it can be as cheap or expensive as you want!
There are Classes 1 through to 10 plus Stockhatch and F600, covering everything from a standard 1000cc Mini to a 400+bhp spaceframed silhouette saloon.
I chose Class 1, 1.0 saloons without any performance enhancement from the choice of Toyota Yaris, Mini, Nissan Micra, Peugeot 106 and Citroen AX/Saxo.
I scoured the classifieds for a trailer then began the hunt for a suitable car. As a beginner, buying a ready built car is definitely the best route to go.
I eventually found an AX for sale locally, it was pretty beaten up but it had the all important NASA tag on the roll cage (this is essential to pass scrutineering, it shows the material used to make the cage is within the correct spec). I paid £400 for the car.
I then managed to find a Kirkey seat and a couple of tyres for sale through a family member, bought a new harness and finally gave it a coat of New Holland tractor paint, applied badly with a roller.
Unfortunately, this was the point that Covid hit and like most things, our season was cancelled.
By September, I was beginning to get annoyed at having the car sitting around and having to move it on and off the ramp all the time. I then noticed that the Yorkshire Dales club was running a couple of "test days", I booked in, loaded up the trailer and we drove down.
I'm very glad I did, although my car wasn't particularly quick (racing driver excuse #1) it was great fun and after each "test" I returned to the pits with a huge smile and it got the buzz back in to it.
I'll own up that I did kill the engine in my last run when I forgot to switch the fan on....
Over the winter I bought a donor car and relieved it of it's engine and exterior panels which then found their way on to the racing car, along with another coat of New Holland blue (badly applied again) and some tiger stripes.
After what seemed like an eternity, we finally got the green light to go racing in June of this year with a compressed calendar.
The first meetings were all about finding my feet and seeing if there was anyway of improving the car within the scope of the rules.
I also discovered one of the best parts of the sport, the people. I've been around various types of motorsports as a marshal and spectator for years now but nothing comes close to Autograss for the community spirit, everyone will take the time to talk to you and if you have a problem they will help if they can.
As the season progressed I was getting more and more competitive and starting to take it a bit more seriously; playing with tyre pressures, adjusting the tracking and replacing tired looking suspension components with decent quality replacements.
I even made a huge discovery when replacing the timing belt, the timing had been out 2-3 teeth. With that set correctly it made a great improvement.
Our class would have between 4-6 starters and I was beginning to see second places occasionally. I also learnt that any mistake is costly, with only 50bhp you struggle to make up for losing time (racing driver excuse #2).
The racing is as close as you like, there's the odd bit contact from optimistic dives and overtakes but never anything malicious.
I was looking good for a 3rd place in our class standings (okay, quite average given there is only 6 of us but I was still pleased) but in our penultimate meeting, I was looking to try and move up to second in one of the heats only for the door I swear was open at the time to be suddenly shut
. This resulted in me bending a chassis leg and gearbox mount just enough to pop out a driveshaft. Because of time constraints I'll not have time to sort this out properly before the next meeting so that's my class 1 season over.In summary, I've had an absolute blast, met a bunch of great folk and I wouldn't hesitate in recommending it to anyone looking for some cheap motorsport.
Will I do it again next year? Absolutely, in fact I've already bought something different that I intend on running at our last meeting this weekend.
Mate, I did this in the early 90's car and trailer cost 300 quid, spent a bit more on parts but essentially raced for a year locally for not much at all.
You can race grass at a local level and do well if you look after the car and get it right very cheaply, but at a national level even in the cheap classes people spend a lot of money, but that is the same in any series anywhere I guess.
You can race grass at a local level and do well if you look after the car and get it right very cheaply, but at a national level even in the cheap classes people spend a lot of money, but that is the same in any series anywhere I guess.
LukeBrown66 said:
Mate, I did this in the early 90's car and trailer cost 300 quid, spent a bit more on parts but essentially raced for a year locally for not much at all.
You can race grass at a local level and do well if you look after the car and get it right very cheaply, but at a national level even in the cheap classes people spend a lot of money, but that is the same in any series anywhere I guess.
Using rough cigarette paper maths, I think my total cost including, car, donor car, entry fees and replacement parts has been £1100.You can race grass at a local level and do well if you look after the car and get it right very cheaply, but at a national level even in the cheap classes people spend a lot of money, but that is the same in any series anywhere I guess.
You're totally right about the national level, I look at the rule books and wonder how people can spend the money they do on a standard 1.0 Yaris
. As you say, it's like that in pretty much any race series!I dread to think how much the Class 7 boys and girls spend on a season at the top!
Good for you . Circuit stuff is my normal thing , but I did pop along to the championship round at Thornborough last weekend as it's almost audible from my home. For anybody who has never seen modern Autograss , do get along and see it for yourself . The fast stuff is astonishing - and where else can you see a car that looks like a Mini pickup, but has two screaming bike engines in the back , and can often be seen at crazy speed on full opposite lock while simultaneously pulling a wheelie ?
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