This is the article about my exploits in my Sprint published in The Triumph Dolomite Club magazine 'Dolly Mixture'.

Since writing this I’ve gone on to compete in one other Sprint at Castle Coombe in July before taking the car off the road for some engine work prior to My last competition entry in 2003 at Castle Coombe 18^th October.  I was still some way behind the class leading cars but it was good fun nonetheless!

Sprinting in a Sprint

By Graeme Smith

I’ll start this article by getting one thing straight, you won’t find me moaning about odd rattles, picking the stones from my tyre tread or sitting in a field all day polishing immaculate paintwork. I have respect for anyone who does the concours thing – but its not my bag as anyone who has seen my car can plainly see.

I admit it, I haven’t yet grown up, I’ve always had a buzz from driving fast and despite hopes I may have calmed down since passing my test in 1988 at the age of 17 it hasn’t happened.  However public roads aren’t what they used to be, with congestion on the rise, breeding of the Gatso’s and sanitised sometimes pointless traffic calming systems on the increase its near impossible to find that holy grail of motoring – the quiet fast twisty road.  So how can I get my fix AND stay alive AND keep my licence clean.  Private circuits are the answer.

Lurking under the rather worn looking exterior of my Dolomite Sprint ADA 991M is a potential champion, a winner, a track day hero waiting to wipe the smirk off the hot hatch brigade. 

My first tastes have been thrashing my cars around Castle Coombe circuit and driving the Racing School cars on their tuition days.  I was never top of the class at the racing school, and will never be the next Schumacher, but I was in the top 20% so that’ll do.

The track days ar fun, but the somewhat anarchic organisation of a track day allowing any idiot who pays £20 to drive any car 5 laps at speeds well in excess of 100mph with 34 other idiots at the same time is a bit disconcerting.   To be safe the only way to go is organised motorsport.

There is no cheap form of motorsport, but the cheapest in a road car on a full race track is Sprinting or Hillclimbing.  Its normally run under the rules of the RAC Motor Sport Association and organised by affiliated local motor clubs.

Sprinting and Hillclimbing ‘the event’ put simply comprises driving a car from a stationary point ‘A’ to the end of a tarmac track ‘B’ in the quickest possible time.  A Sprint is always on a private race circuit or airfield whereas Hillclimbs are on normal roads closed to general public use.

I decided as a beginner in motorsport Sprinting would be for me – at least if I mess up a bend there are no walls to hit!  And what better car to do it in – a Sprint! 

There are classes for anything which resembles a car – from road going mini’s to full bloodied  single seater race cars.  You can just turn up in your road car if you dare!  I’m going for the 1800cc to 2600cc production road going class.  Turbo and rotary engine cars have a capacity penalty which pushes them up to the class above, meaning I’m facing cars such as Pug 205 Gti’s ,  Astra GSI‘s  and the class leading Mk1 & 2 Escort RS2000’s.  There are also a few bored out 1900cc MGB’s which and TR’s which enter now and then.   Competition will be tough, but fair.

In this class you must have the same basic suspension layout, transmission, bodywork, engine casting (or another engine of the same era from the same manufacturer) and seating as the original production car and you must run road tyres.  Other than that you are pretty much free to modify the car as you wish.  You do not need to fit a roll cage or battery cut off switch but many do for safety’s sake.

If you must put a 5 litre supercharged V8 in your car then you’ll go into the modified category.  When you get your MSA licence you also get a copy of the MSA yearbook which details the permitted modifications in full.

To go Sprinting you need the following:- 

1. A suitable car compliant with the regulations (That’s another article itself).
2. An MSA  National B motorsport licence.  Just a matter of filling in a form and sending off a fee.  The only reason for obtaining a licence is so they can disqualify you.
3. Suitable MSA approved overalls and Type B helmet (a normal motorcycle helmet is quite often NOT suitable).
4. A timing strut fitted to the car to activate a timing beam.  This is nothing more than a vertical strip of metal bar painted black mounted to the front bumper.
5. A big fat wad of cash!

 I’ve carried out the following modifications to my car to help it along:- 

 The engine is standard and should be chucking out about 150BHP in its current state.  Upgrades to about 175BHP are on the cards later in the year.

 My first event was on 5^th May 2003, at Colerne RAF base, North of Bath – The 2003 Wessex Sprint.  Fortunately the weather was dry and bright.  The entry fee for this event was £70 which covers the venue hire, public liability insurance, MSA stewards and scrutineers and expenses for the course marshals.

Upon arrival, once I’d found the place, I have to admit a sinking feeling seeing virtually everybody else turn up with properly prepared race cars on the back of trailers.  Some with an array of wheels and tyres to choose from to suit weather conditions.  You could count the number of cars actually driven to the circuit on two hands out of the 100 or so competitors. 

Turning up in my sad looking Dolomite running budget remould tyres made out of an everlasting rubber compound I didn’t think I was going to be competitive at all.  I signed on about 8:30am and found the MSA scrutineer to check my car.  The scrutineer basically checked I wasn’t running on slicks, using nitrous or a turbo, and checked the seating, steering and structure of the car appeared sound.  They can ask to view your MOT certificate but didnt in my case. With the scrutineers ticket on the car I was ready to compete! 

The time had come for my first timed run.  I duly queued up in line behind one of the RS2000’s. I watched his start and it was obvious he takes his sprinting very seriously with the speed that thing launched at on its sticky Yokohama A0032R tyres (stretching the road tyres!).  It was my turn at last and as the marshals lined up the timing beam I sat there waiting for what seemed like an age for the lights to go green and then they did – I dumped the clutch at 3000rpm and with wheels smoking I had lift off.  Not being familiar to the track I was braking far too early and being way too cautious on the bends.  Not once did my car feel strained.  Being one of only two newbies In my entered class I was on a steep learning curve.  I managed a time a whisker below 110secs which compared to the class record of 83secs is pretty unimpressive.  I managed to improve by another second in the second timed practice which put me ahead of the MG boys at least, 10^th quickest out of 14.

I softened my rear dampers and tyre pressures during the lunch break before the competitive timed runs took place as the car felt very tail end nervous.  It helped a fair bit and gave me confidence to stay on the power longer exiting bends.  My best timed run was 104secs, an improvement of 6secs over my first practice and it consolidated my 10^th place in my class.  A satisfactory result which wasn’t far behind the next 4 cars ahead of me.  Some decent tyres and more power would be needed though before I can really start dicing with the escorts.

My next sprint event is at Llandow circuit, west of Cardiff on 26^th May.  Unlike Colerne spectators are allowed at this event.  It’s a short circuit and the Sprint consists of 1 ¾ laps.  Again I’m up against the RS’s, some Gti’s and a BMW 325 but the MG’s aren’t there so I’m going to be battling it out for anything better than last!  Like Colerne I haven’t driven there before so its going to be a learning exercise.  Fingers crossed for dry weather – my Sprint handles like a pig on roller skates in the wet!

Colerne & Llandow Circuit Layouts