The Cars
The Cost of the cars to buy depends heavily on the spec of the car your buying, if you go for a car with all steel products and a traditional front loading rear axle then prices are cheap, somewhere around £3000 to £5000 will see you on track. Then when you start looking at older cars with aluminium products and “quickchange” axle , then you will be looking at around £6000 to £9000. A quickchange axle is an axle where you can change the final drive ratio without changing the differential. You simply remove a rear cover plate and then swap 2 gears and replace the cover. It is that simple. Then for a new or nearly new top spec car you will be looking in the region of £10,000 to £15,000. There will be no change in spec, but things are newer and better quality or better made.
Licenses
We are licensed under the Startrax Promotions banner, so we are affiliated to the ORCi and are only allowed to run at those ORCi tracks. It costs £75 per season for a license and this gains you access to all e meetings on our fixture list. We are however charged £15 per meeting to race but the driver gets in for free at all meetings. A meeting consists of 2 heat races followed by a final. Heat races are normally 12 laps and the final is normally around 16 laps, sometimes depending on tracks we get offered a forth ‘All Comers’ race which is run as a heat race.
Racing
We form the grid from a drivers average score from the meetings they’ve attended. We run separate grids for both Tarmac and Shale as certain drivers perform better on one surface than the other. The driver with the highest average starts last car, the final row, outside grid slot. The last row inside slot is reserved for the previous race winner, as a bit of a handicap to stop new comers winning all 3 races at their first meeting and as a challenge to all other drivers. The grid is then formed by the drivers as their average reduces, the lowest average points scorer starts at the front. We run a few championships, the main ‘Overall Champion’ is the driver who scores the most combined points from shale and tarmac meetings throughout the season. Then there is a ‘Shale Champion’ and a ‘Tarmac Champion’. Around 5 years ago we introduced the ‘British Championship’ and for that there are a series of qualifying rounds that then culminate in a British Championship Final race where the grid is formed from the highest points scorer on pole, second on outside front etc. The Championship race is run as the first race of the selected meeting and the winner receives the right to wear the chequered roof. Lap times, simply put we are about the third fastest formula on the UK ovals. The GP Midgets and National Hot Rods are the fastest. Somebody quoted recently that around Buxton we were 6 tenths of a second per lap faster than the Brisca F1’s!! It’s a similar story on shale also, the grip from the cars is second to none out of the corners, also from a driver experience, we can tell you it is second to none. They have everything you could wish for, sound, performance, driver feedback and are a handful to drive. The cars are easy to setup and alter to make handle better. We run on slicks on dry tarmac and wets on wet tarmac, we also run the same wets on shale, and they last well. An outside slick will last 3 or 4 meetings (12 races) and then need replacing, the wets on tarmac will run all year as long as there are not to many wet meetings and then the wets on shale will run 2 meetings (6 races) on the outside rear before it needs replacing. the inside rear shale tyre will run 4 meetings (12 races) before it needs replacing and the fronts should last a season. Oils and filters for the engine will need replacing every 3 meetings, we run good quality semi synthetic oil, some use fully synthetic, some use OEM engine oil. The engines run on roadside unleaded or super unleaded petrol (additives are permitted) they use very little fuel, probably around 12 litres per meeting. Shock absorbers are free, as long as they are single adjustable. The brakes are all single pot callipers run from 2 master cylinders. The pads we run are specifically for tarmac because of the temperatures involved. The wheels have to be steel and 13” diameter but they can be any back depth (to help with car setup). Garage preparation time between meetings is quite minimal (if it’s a meeting on the same surface!). if you don’t crash, then there’s nothing to mend, it’s all about tyres, keeping them in condition and keeping an eye on the life of them and then basic car maintenance ie keeping things free from seizing up, as the water and shale soon rust things together. To be honest the worst part of it all is the setup change from Tarmac to Shale or visa versa. Depending on how competitive you want to be, depends on how much you alter!! It can take around an hour to achieve a basic change but up to 3 hours for an in depth one!! It involves swapping the following, shockers, wheels & tyres, corner heights, front suspension geometry, rear axle setup, rear axle geometry, brake balance and then fully setup the car including corner weight scaling.
Running Costs
Pads = £75 per axle, but last a whole season.
Shocks = £130 each, but obviously last until you break them. Need to be single adjustable type only.
Slicks = £10 each Michelin/Pirelli race tyre (second hand), but last for 6 or 7 meetings (18-21 races).
Wets = £35 each Michelin/Pirelli race tyre (second hand), but last a season in the wet, but wear out quickly on a drying track.
Shale (Wets, Rears) = £25 to £35 each Michelin/Pirelli race tyre (second hand) and last 6 races on shale outside rear, 12 races on shale inside rear.
Shale (Wets, fronts) = £25 to £35 each Michelin/Pirelli race tyre (second hand) and will last all season on the front.
Shale (Fronts) = £130 each Hoosier race tyre (brand new, as they are not available second hand) but last all season on the front (can use the Michelin’s on the front as an alternative, see prices above).
Oil = £35 per 4 litres, and needs changing every 3 meetings.
Filter = £10 each, ditto above.
Spare suspension parts can be made by yourself or bought from sources trackside.
How the Club is run
Just to give you a bit of background to the club, It is run by the drivers for the drivers. All the decisions are made in line with ORCi and promoter guidance and then the other decisions are made with the drivers and formulas best interests the foremost. Micky Preston initiated the birth of the formula and imported 6 cars from the USA approx 13 years ago and the formula has grown from there. There are currently around 30 cars in the UK now, with most being imported, some have been made in the UK however. We have approximately 20 drivers who regularly race through the season. Drivers are very friendly and always willing to help out new drivers with questions on setup information, support mending cars at meetings and to give guidance when they are making important decisions on new parts etc. but the decision is always left to the individual!
How to get involved
There is a number of ways you can be involved in our great formula. We are looking for obviously drivers first and foremost but then we are looking for a number of helpers to aid the running of the formula at meetings. A scrutineer is another role we are looking for to keep a check on car specs, someone on a meeting basis to complete the grids and anyone who can just simply help. If you simply want to drive, then obviously you will need a car. We currently have one hire car with a second on in the near future. please see the hire car page on the website. These are tricky cars to race and need a lot of respect while racing them.
If you have any more questions please do not hesitate to contact us using the information below
UK Modifieds 