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If you are considering going road racing you have probably already been out on the track at a motorcycle track day. If you have not GO ON ONE! Have a look at the track day guide.
If you have already been on motorbike track days and find your pace is at the higher end of the fast groups it is a good indicator you would probably do well racing at club level.

At first it can seem like a very daunting to start motorbike racing. There seems to be so many things you have to do. It is a good idea to go along to a local club meeting. Have a look around the paddock and chat with some of the racers and club organisers. You will see some riders wearing an orange bib, these are novices who have raced in less than 10 meetings. It is also worth chatting with them as they will have just gone through the process you are looking to do.
To go racing you will have to do the following;

Join A Motorcycle Race Club and Get a Licence

Before you can take part in any racing you must obtain a race license from the Auto Cycle Union (ACU) and be a member of a club that organise race meetings. Motorbike Racing Club The two main clubs are the British Motorcycle Racing Club (BMCRC or BEMSEE) and New Era. These clubs organise meetings and championships using tracks throughout the country. There are also several smaller regional clubs. The cost of joining a club is usually around £25 per year. The club you join is down to preference and where you want to race. It is often cheaper to join a regional club as the travel can become expensive if you are racing all around the UK.
The club will send you entry forms for the seasons meetings. You select which you want to race in and pay for each meeting you choose to enter - usually a few weeks before the meeting. ACU LicenceAn ACU license costs around £35 per year. The club will forward your ACU application to the ACU for you, as they have to counter sign the ACU form.
There are different levels of ACU license; Novice, Intermediate Novice, Clubman, National. At first most people will get an Intermediate Novice for which you must have a full motorcycle road license, it enables you to race any capacity machine. A Novice license requires no road license but restricts you to 600cc. As a Novice (or Intermediate Novice) license holder, you must race wearing an orange bib. You remain a novice until you have completed at least 1 race at 10 meetings at 3 or more different circuits. At this point you can upgrade your license to Clubman status.

Buy Some Good Protective Motorcycle Clothing

Before you start spend money on a bike, get yourself some high-quality protective gear, one piece race leathers, helmet, back protector, boots and gloves. Buy the best protective kit you can afford. You are likely to crash at some point.
Identity TagThese are often known as ID tags or "dog tags." You are required to wear an ID tag around your neck when racing. It must have a metal base and chain with your name and date of birth engraved on it and it wise to include your blood group but this isn't compulsory. The best place to get one is a pet shop or shoe repairers although if you forget it a piece of card and an old boot lace will do!

Buy A Race Motorbike

First you have to decide which class you want to compete in. The 600cc classes are very popular, although the 400cc class is often a better starting point. Both BEMSEE and New Era run 600 and 400 classes for riders in their first year of racing, often called "Rookie" races.
There is usually a very large choice of second hand race bikes for sale. Places to look for a used race bike are: Motorcycle News BikeMart (Road Racing section), Bikesport News, BEMSEE website, Club racing website and at the race meetings.
It is cheaper to buy a bike that is already converted to race spec. than convert a road bike. It will already have had the engine tuned, suspension upgraded, race fairing fitted, all relevent safety modifications done (lockwiring & catch tanks) a spare set of wheels, stands and other spares. Converting a road bike is an expensive and very time consuming.
For your first bike do not go and spend all your money. The cost of a bike will only be about 30% of a years racing budget. A common mistake new racers make is to spend loads on a bike and have nothing left to pay the entry fees, travel expenses etc.

Buy A Motorcycle Transporter

You will need a trailer, van or caravan. You can buy a second hand motorbike trailer for a few about £50 and tow it with your car. A van will probably cost from £1000 upwards, but you will also need to pay the running costs. Insurance on a van can be very expensive. A van makes life in the paddock easier because you can organise your tools and spares better, it also gives you somewhere to sit, cook etc. You can sleep overnight in your van for meetings that are a long way from home.
Alternatively, if you like comfort, race transporters can be bought for a few thousand pounds upwards. Many are converted 7.5 tonne lorries and can be driven on a normal car licence.
Another popular combination is a van to transport your motorbike and gear and tow a caravan. Caravans can be bought for as little as £500. Alternatively a caravan can be converted to carry the bike and then slept in over night. This is how I went racing for several years and it works well. Although I am not sure of the legality of this!

A Typical Motorcycle Race Day

Below is an approximate timetable for a typical motorcycle race meeting;

7:45am Scrutineering & sign on. You walk your race bike to the scrutineering area. You can always tell where this is in the paddock because every other racer will also be pushing thier bikes, so just look where they are going! There is always a huge queue, but it generally moves quite quickly.
Once at the front, you hold your bike upright as the scrutineer looks over the bike. The scrutineer does some basic safety checks to ensure the brakes work and the bike will not fall apart. Once he's happy he will sign your race entry card and put a sticker on your bike.
You then join another queue to get you motorcycle leathers, crash helmet, boots, gloves and ID tag checked. Once passed, you get another signature on your race entry card and a sticker on your crash helmet. You then go to the signing on office and exchange your signed entry card for a practice permit and an official programme. The whole process takes about 30 minutes, but this can be longer if the queues are long.

9:00am Practice sessions begin. The sessions run a bit like a motorcycle track day session but are only a few laps long, not much practice especially if you have not ridden the track before. You go to the collecting area on your bike with your practice permit and join the queue. Eventually you will get out on track and do the session.
10:30am The racing begins. The programme states the order of the races and the time the first race will start but not the time of each individual race. Clubs fit a lot of races into a day so its impossible to know when each race will actually be.
The paddock PA announces when you will need to go to the collecting area for the race. It is a good idea to keep track of which race is currently out and know which race is directly before yours, so you know roughly when you must be ready. You will be called to the collecting area when the race before you is starting.

Once the race before yours finishes you will be let out onto the track to line up on the grid at your designated grid position. You will have been told your grid position as you entered the collecting area. You are then waved off 1 row at a time for 1 warm up lap before reforming on the grid for the start of the race. Once the grid is formed, the start marshal points at the lights and gets off the track - the lights go red then after a few seconds the lights go green and you are off - your racing!
About 12-15 minutes later you will see the chequered flag and it'll all be over. Around 30 minutes after each race the official result sheets are made available from the paddock office. These show the final positions, race times, fastest lap times of each rider and fastest lap of the race.
Lunchtime A short beak in the proceedings for all the officials and marshals to have lunch then its the same again for race 2 in the afternoon.

How Much Will Motobike Racing Cost?

Generally speaking work out how much you can afford and then double it! Racing is very expensive and even more addictive. Have a look around the average club paddock and you will see most people own tatty old vans or cars because they are spending all there money on the race motorbike and the racing itself. I spent 2 seasons racing a Yamaha TZ250, I worked out that every racing mile cost me £10 and that was in 1997!Many racers will open a "race bank account." They put in a set amount of money and when it runs out they stop racing. Do not borrow money to buy a race bike or to go racing - if you need to borrow you can not afford it.

Here is a list of the main initial one-off expenses:

• Race bike Transport (Trailer, Van, Caravan, Motorhome etc)
• Tools & a decent sized jerry can
• Tyre Warmers and generator
• Leathers, lid, gloves, back protector and boots
• ACU and Club membership

• Fuel for travelling to and from the meeting
• Fuel for the race bike
• Entry fee (not cheap)
• Tyres - buy used tyres at first - it will save you a lot of money
• Food and beer

• Clutch
• Chain
• Sprockets
• Oils
• Engine work: rebuilds and repairs

On top of all this you could have to pay for crash repairs. Chatting to friends who have raced and given up I would say 70% have given up because of the costs.This all sounds very complcated but once you get into it it is simple enough to go racing, but winning races well thats another thing that people have written books about. But warned, just because you are the fastest on the road amoung your mates, or even if you are the fastest of the fast group on track days you are likely to be surprised at the pace in a race - remenber you are doing it for fun!

Useful Web Sites

ACU
Auto 66
BEMSEE
Classic Racing Club
KRC UK's only endurance racing club - this is who I race with.
New Era
North Glous
Wirrel

Written by Shaun of Motorbike-Crazy.com. I used the ACU, BEMSEE and Steve Bullimore's web sites for info.