2009 Richard Egger/HSA Speed Championship registration open on-line

Events Motorsport Events Archive
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The 2009 Richard Egger Insurance HSA Speed Championship - the only major national hillclimb and sprint championship to have a dedicated class for road going MX5s - is now open for registrations. You can now register and pay on-line.

2009 could be your chance to emulate 2008 novice, Barbara Fogden, and not only compete for class honours but also overall championship position in an MX5.

So, if you are looking to get more fun out of your MX5 or interested in some friendly and (comparatively) safe competition visit the HSA website for more details. 

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 Hi Chris,
I have decided to give the HSA Championship a go this year and have just registered.  I’ll mainly be doing Curborough and the more northerly events.

Looking forward to seeing some other MX-5s out in 2009.

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The first round of the HSA championship is only a few days away and the MX5 class is shaping up to be a real thriller. With plenty of newcomers to take on last year’s winner, Barbara Fogden, and series regular Chris Bound it now looks even more exciting with 2007 class winner and 2008 championship front runner (until his Goodwood excursion!), David Jones coming back for another season.

 

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Wish I knew about this series before, I just finished reading the article Barbara Fogden the other week in the club mag.

I’ve been checking out the HSA site but it seems quite vague on what is involved to get an MX5 on track.

Kevham, what was your experience of getting yourself registered and your car race prepared?

Do you know roughly the costings?

Also out of interest have you raced any of the events yet? How are you fairing?

 

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Getting registered for the series was easy - simply filled in the form online and sent off the paypal payment.  I can’t remember the exact costs but around £40 for HSA membership and £30 for the championship registration.

As for getting your car prepared, there’s not much to do really.  You only need a timing strut (to break the timing beam), a sticker on the ignition to show marshals how to turn the igintion off and some yellow tape on your battery negative cable so that they can cut the right wire in an emergency.  Everything else is optional.  However. all of the registered competitors I’ve seen are running a decent roll-over bar, proper race seat and harness - not strictly required but HIGHLY recommended in a car like an MX-5.

Cost to prepare my car breaks down as follows::

Roll-bar and harness bar - £600

Seat - £120

Harness - £100

Timing strut <£2 (made from bits bought at B&Q)

Total - £820

 

You also need an MSA licence, MSA approved helmet, overalls and gloves.

I spent very little on overalls - around £70 but a lot on a helmet - over £500.  This was on the basis that I was less likely to catch fire than bang my head.  Having said that, I will be upgrading my overalls for next season.

Entry fees per event are around £70-£100.  I did a full season of over 15 events last year on a budget of less than £2,000.  This year I’m doing  23 competitive events on a budget of £3,500 (that includes entries, travelling costs, accomodation, food etc.)

Finally, I’ve done 3 of the HSA events so far.   I came second at Curborough, first at Olivers Mount and a poor third at Curborough last weekend. The racing is VERY competitive and it is amazing how similar the various cars are overall.  The class (and championship) leader is currently John Gallagher in his 1.8 Mk1.

If you are considering speed events in your normally apsirated MX-5 and you are based anywhere near the midlands, this is definitely the series for you. If you’re a bit further away (like me - I’m in Scotland!), you have to be pretty keen and there may be better ways into speed events locally.

If you want any other info, drop me a PM and I’ll be only too glad to help.

Cheers,

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Sorry you didn’t find anything helpful on the site. Didn’t you find the getting started page much use? We’d be grateful for your feedback so we can make it more relevant to people like yourself.

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Sorry if it came across as there was no info, there certainly is, but obviously the site obviously has to cater for everyone.

I only have interest in what it would specificaly take to get an MX5 up and running.

Often with these things I find the devil is in the detail and it’s always good to get advice from someone who has trodden the path before you, especially if you are a inexperienced simpleton like myself.

For example:

  • What does "secure seat" exactly mean?
  • Do I need a harness or is this an optional if desirable extra?
  • Do production/Mx5 class racers drive their cars to the track or does pretty much everyone trailer it?
  • If you do drive your car to the track and you stack it how do you get it home again and how much is it likely to cost? (I know my breakdown cover doesn't include motorsport events or track days).
  • What roll bars are the other MX5 drivers generally going for and how much did they cost?
  • How easy/expensive is it to fit an extra throttle return spring on an MX5?
  • What does valid insurance entail? Is my normal everyday insurance adequate or do I need to extend or take out suitable insurance for the events?
Maybe a simple check list of must have's and do's and then a check list of optionals (whether highly recomended or simply preference) would be useful? Maybe one for each class.

Even so I would still end up asking stupid questions on here just for the expertise from people like kevham (thanks for the great reply kevham and congratulations on your results, very impressive!!!).

 

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I agree that the detail is what can be off-putting.  I put off competing for over 5 years because I couldn’t get a definitive answer on a roll-over bar and I couldn’t find any guides on how to prepare the car,  The ‘Blue Book’ is very daunting for a novice.  To answer some of your specifics:

1, The seat needs to be either: the original manufacturer’s seat OR a fully trimmed competition version.  It does NOT need to be FIA approved but it does need to be securely fixed to the car.  For various reasons (I’m 6’ tall and fat!), I run a Kirkey aluminium stockcar seat which I can fit in, fits in the car and gets me low enough to be below the roll-bar.  All of these are a real challenge in an MX-5.

  1. Harnesses are optional but if fitted must conform to certain rules - the shoulder straps must have two separate mounting points and they need to be FIA approved.

  2. Everyone I’ve competed against drives to and from the events.

  3. You either tell a porky pie or you pay a lot of cash to get ‘repatriated’.  The secret is not to crash, I suppose!

  4. I run a Hard Dog Hard Core M2 with a separate Hard Dog Harness Bar.  Not sure what the others have but they are all fairly serious bars and no doubt  quite expensive, I’m afraid.

  5. My car doesn’t have a second throttle return spring.  It’s not required on a car with the throttle body design of an MX-5.  Chances of a sticking throttle on a Mk2 are virtually nil (have you seen the size of the spring???)

  6. Road insurance will not cover you on an event - you would need specialist motorsport insurance and that is very expensive for on-event cover.

Best advice is to get along to one of the events and look at the MX-5s which are competing and talk to the drivers.  They’re all friendly folk.  I should say that for my first season competing (2007), my car was completely standard except for the roll-bar (no fancy seat, no harness etc.)

Cheers,

 

Kev

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There’s an ideal opportunity this coming weekend at Prescott near Cheltenham. Looking at the entry list there are eight MX-5 competitors, though unfortunatley Kev’s not there, but there will be a good variety of cars to look at. I’m car 191 if you want to come and find me. Once you’ve seen what’s needed I think you’ll see it’s pretty straightforward.

Dave

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If I haven’t been booked up by the Mrs then we will be there with bells on [:)]

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Looks like this weekend could be difficult, is anyone going to be at Lydden Hill in August?

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Shame you couldn’t make Prescott it was a good turnout and very sunny - too much standing around though.

Thanks to Chris B for the picture…

I think I’ll be at Lydden - not sure which day though - I don’t expect as many MX-5s to be there as its quite Southerly and not cheap.

Dave

 

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Hi guys,

I’m a new member to the forum and like one of the correspondents, I’m looking to use my recently purchased 1999 MX5 in competition. I have had great difficulty finding a suitable approved roll bar and would be keen to get as much info as possible from current competitors. I am based in Ashford, Kent, and will be going to Lydden this Saturday for a look at the Speed Championship. Is there anyone coming down that I can catch up with and talk to about sprinting & hillclimbing ?

Eamonn. 

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Eammon,


I won’t be at Lydden this weekend but I’m sure some of the other MX-5 competitors will be - they’re all friendly just go and say hi. On the roll bar front you don’t have to have an “approved” one. As far as I’m aware the only approved one is the full cage used in racing but this doesn’t work with a hard or soft top so not much use on a roadgoing car. A lot of people (me included) have got bars from TR Lane recently which are well made (in the UK) and a good fit at a sensible price.

Dave

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Thanks for your reply Dave. I will follow up with TR Lane. I look forward to meeting some of the competitors at Lydden and at other tracks in the near future.

Eamonn.