MX5s in the HSA Speed Championship

Events Motorsport
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In 2015 Alan Mugglestone (pictured below) not only won the coveted MX5OC trophy for winning the MX5 class in the SBD Hillclimb and Sprint Association Speed Championship he joined an illustrious list of other competitors (Tony Thomas, John Gallagher and Nick Mugglestone) in winning the Championship outright. Nick Mugglestone, sharing, the car with his Father, completed the overall podium in third place.

Once again the MX5 Class proved to be the most popular with no less than 14 drivers scoring points in a Championship that includes both Sprints (Combe, Rockingham, Croft, Pembrey, Blyton, Hethel, Goodwood etc.) and Hillclimbs (Shelsely, Gurston, Prescott, Loton, Barbon etc.) in an extensive calendar.

The draft regulations for 2016 have been published and entries for this year’s Championship have opened with four MX5 competitors amongst the early competitors to sign up.

Alan Mugglestone receives the HSA Trophy

Alan & the MX5 at Snetterton

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Good post Chris, don’t take this as sour grapes (it’s not, just an observation), but I spent the past few years competing with Mk1 and Mk2 with the HSA and BOC and only wish I had the money and technology that the Mugglestones had lavished on their MX5, am sure I would have been a lot more competitive and quicker at the various HSA and BOC sprinta and hillclimb venues, us folks on limited budgets just make up the numbers albeit having fun whilst doing it, have now progressed to a Mk3 but with the new regs (HANS etc) just unable to afford it any more. was fun though whilst it lasted, I even held the Castle Combe record for a few years until it was taken away by - guess who - the Mugglestones. regard, Paul H.

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Paul -
That’s not sour grapes - more like the reality of competing. Times have changed, you can no longer compete on a shoestring unfortunately. You have my sympathy.

F1 needs HANS - I can’t see the point in lower powered - and speed - cars in sprints, other than the odd Formula cars that do attend sprints. Even then, they can’t get up to formula speed on most sprint courses - or hill climbs either.

The HSA might as well say we all need HANS when driving on the motorway - or on trackdays - that’ll be the day - - - - -

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All comments welcome! But it looks like I need to clear up a few misconceptions here:

  1. It isn’t the HSA that says we need HANS. It is the FIA via the UK Motor Sport Association who set the ground rules for most sanctioned Motor Sport in the UK.
  2. HANS devices are not required in Hillclimbing and Sprinting for Roadgoing and Period Defined vehicles. This means that competitors in the HSA’s MX5 class (which is Roadgoing) are not required to wear HANS devices. People like Willem Verhaak and Paul Webster who run their MX5s in Modified classes will, of course, need them.
  3. I saw David Jones roll his MX5 into a marshals’ post in a Sprint at Goodwood a few years back. Suggesting that MX5s “can’t get up to formula speed on most sprint courses” rather misses the point. If you hit something at 90mph rather than 120mph it is still bad news! MX5s can get up to high speed at many tracks (Combe, Pembrey, Croft, Rockingham etc.)
  4. Actually the Mugglestones haven’t spent that much money on their car - less, in fact than many other competitors in the class. Unfortunately, depending on your viewpoint, they are experienced engineers and very good drivers. So, although Motor Sport is very susceptible to the ‘cheque book’ advantage talent also plays a very large part.
  5. Fortunately, I hear that the Mugglestones are likely to be competing in a different class in 2016. We’ll see…
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Hi Chris, do beg to differ re the Mugglestones car, last time I competed against them (Gurston Down 2 years ago) they were running throttle bodies, a very sorted, blueprinted, ported engine and a real fancy engine management system and an awful lot of BHP for a normally aspirated car and were running in H2A1 etc, Dad is/was as far as I could ascertain a McClaren software engineer, the car was sat plugged into a laptop and fettled prior to the runs, a couple of us “ordinary” MX5 runners were nowhere in the ball park, mutterings from them in the know were saying on engine “tweeks” over £9K had been spent! my car as I ran it only cost £2K complete ?. There is an article in your HSA magazine about them and the car some time ago detailing the car and the family operations (just found it) copied are the running costs:

Mazda MX5 race car project overall costs – including original car (£1,500), build,
development and running costs, plus all track, membership and entry fees
and transport.
2009 total: £4,420.48
2010 total: £2,078.13
2011 total: £10,307.12
Total over 3 years: £16,805.73

Just Google “Mugglestone MX5” your HSA article is in full.

I thought things would improve when I moved up to my Mk2 with a few more legal mods to improve times, alas again still one step behind, but such is life and as Gerryn comments “it aint cheap anymore”, so life moves on.

Re the Hans situation I would be running in mostly BOC events at Prescott and it was indicated that although for H2A1 and members events HANS not compulsary but "highly recommended even for our class of open sports cars, especially after last years accident brought home the dangers of lack of head restraint.

So there it is, have had my fun, will settle down as the years progress and content myself with crotcheing and basket work in my twilight years, I just tell the kids about my motor sport exploits with “the older I get the better I used to be” , regards Paul H.

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Paul, costs are definitely in the eye of the beholder.

The costs quoted for the Mugglestones (Dad is a professional race engineer and hasn’t worked for McLaren) correct but they are for two people sharing a car i.e. £8,400 each for three years which works out at less than £3k per year. Remember too that in 2011 they did 15 events with all the associated entry fees, travel and accommodation costs again for two people. £3k per year all in, including the cost of the car (the throttle bodies were off a crashed motor bike by the way)for a championship winning campaign is not expensive.

Contrast this with Tony Thomas, who many people in the MX5OC may know, and who won the MX5OC trophy three years running from 2012 to 2104 in his silver MK3. He told me to-day that it is up for sale at £7995. If his running costs were similar to the Mugglestones then he would have spent more than £3K per year. I rest my case.

You also mention “us “ordinary” MX5 runners were nowhere in the ball park,”. Well in a British Sprint Championship round at Anglesey last year Alan Mugglestone shared the SBD Dallara with its regular driver and promptly put just about every other competitor in another ball park! Not because he had a faster or more expensive car - but because he was a faster driver. We have to recognise that some drivers are simply in a different ball park to most of us (me included).

At times I wished I had been competing in the MX5 class because to compete against an exceptional driver and engineer and enjoy some of the advice and guidance that was freely given would have been a special experience.

Who knows who will win this year and what it will cost? Perhaps someone will buy Tony’s car…

Paul, I am happy to continue this conversation but suggest we do it in private rather than bore other readers on this Forum

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last year a driver died in a ministox race in Scotland from basular skull fracture, precicely the sort of injury the hans device is designed to prevent. The speed of impact was assessed as being approx 40 mph. The HANS device, and similar FHR do save lives. To be honest I would not compete without a HANS device, I would compete without fireproof overalls!

 

 

 

 

 

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Andy - the case in point concerns road going class (MX5’s) not track cars - cars stripped down purely for racing. Offhand I don’t know when airbags became compulsory, but newer Mx’s certainly have airbags. O/K - I don’t know the format for ministox, but the name suggests violent contact, as do most stock car races. Sprints are not races, while you race against the clock, it’s to the best of your ability, and that of the car too. As I said above, it’s virtually impossible to get up to full speed on most sprint and hill climb tracks - they aren’t long enough. Single seaters are the exception, I’m not arguing about them.

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Hi csbglos,

No need to apologise about boring the other readers - probably one of the most interesting topics I’ve ever read on here!