Licence question

[firecracker]

Last week I went to the Prescott hillclimb drivers school which was an absolutely great day.  I got this as a christmas present and part of the package was a competition licence upgrade.  Being totally knew to this I thought that you go there and they give you a competition licence after the event.  Totally wrong!  The lady there told me I need to apply for a licence first then they upgrade it.  I have been on the MSA website as instructed but I don't know which licence to get - non-race national B - or if I have to get the novice race starter pack?  Anybody got any ideas?

[Mark Stanton]

If its for sprints and hillclimbs you need a National B non race otherwise its a pack for circuit racing    

Go to SS pages at www.wscc.co.uk and download a Beginners Guide              

[firecracker]

yes it would be for hillclimb and sprinting so thats great I'll check the link out

Cheers  

[slippy]

I quite fancy this was it VFM and did learn a lot ?

[firecracker]

It was a great day - what tought me the most was actually going out with the instructor in his car (a cavalier)!  They walk you round the track etc but as soon as your on the track yourself all your lines and breaking points go right out the window!  My clutch cable snapped on my second run    but we managed to fix it and they let me make up my lost runs!  You also get feedback on your runs as they video the whole event.  All in all I got about 8 runs up the hill which is plenty enough to get it nailed.  I would definately reccomend it.  

[Richard M Green]

Just to explain: The "upgrade" to which you refer is that from a National 'B' to a National 'A' licence. In your case Non-Race or Speed as it is oft referred.

In order to justify your competence and fitness to be trusted with a National 'A' Licence (should you want one), you need to successfully undertake four National 'B' events and at each one have your licence signed by the Clerk of the Course.

The Hillclimb School counts as one 'event' and when completed, the Upgrade element gains you a signature.

A couple of further points I would add:

All Westfield Speed Series events are held under National 'B' permit and therefore you do not need a National 'A' licence to complete.

Very few of the Speed Series regulars have seen the need to upgrade their licence - though some do in order to be allowed to compete, for example, at the Brighton Speed Trial which is a National 'A' event.

It may come to pass in the future that the entry criteria for obtaining a Non Race National 'B' licence get tightened up - i.e. you may be required to do more than simply fill in a form and send off a cheque for thirty quid. And this may affect those who let their licence lapse, as follows:

 

If this follows the pattern of the race licence then those who have ever held a (by then) lapsed National 'A' licence, will find it easier to get a new licence, whereas those who have a lapsed National 'B' will have to start the process from scratch and jump through whatever hoops are then required.

HTH

[firecracker]

so i'd better get my cheque off quick!  Cheers for the advice  

[V 8]

Very few of the Speed Series regulars have seen the need to upgrade their licence - though some do in order to be allowed to compete, for example, at the Brighton Speed Trial which is a National 'A' event.

Your car may dictate the National "A" status, for example if it is on slicks and over 2 litres in capacity.

[Paul Ranson]

To drive a Sports Libre or Racing car of over 2 litres capacity in Speed events of any status you need a Speed A (Open) licence. This requires 8 signatures on a National B. A Westfield on slicks would generally still be 'Modified Production' so this usually won't be relevant.

If you want to run in the British Speed, British Hillclimb or Midland Hillclimb you need an A licence of some form. At the moment it doesn't matter when you get your signatures, once you have 4 or 8 you can upgrade at any time in the future. So I'd recommend collecting signatures when you start out, just in case...

Paul

[V 8]

Stand corrected again

[Mark Stanton]

It may come to pass in the future that the entry criteria for obtaining a Non Race National 'B' licence get tightened up

Although a couple of years back the number of signatures required to upgrade was reduced, thus not such a tightening up excercise    

IMHO - it costs nothing to collect the required number of signatures to your Nat B licence so worth doing     then once you have the sigs you can then decide whether you wish to upgrade or not     but at least you have the sigs to enable you to make that choice