Aintree Sprints

For well over a decade Liverpool Motor Club has been running its season of highly popular Sprints on the Club Circuit at the historic Aintree Motor Racing Circuit.

David Spencer rounds Country Corner at speed. Photo: Steve Wilkinson

What’s it all about?

Sprinting is one of the oldest forms of motorsport, having been established in the 1890’s. The cars start one at a time, competing against the clock and the fastest one wins. Well OK, it’s not quite as easy as that. It’s obvious that someone driving a Mini is not going to stand a chance of beating a Porsche or a 2 litre single seat racing car, so we split the cars into classes of similar vehicles.

In the morning, each driver is given two practice runs, at an interval of about an hour. Although the times for these practice runs are recorded, they do not count toward the results.
Then the competition really starts, with two, three or often even more timed runs per driver, as each tries to set his or her overall fastest run of the day. 

How are the times measured?
Each car has a small vertical black metal strip on the front, called a timing strut. The start line crew use this to help line up each car just behind a detector beam at the start, and as the driver sets off, the strut breaks a beam of light to trigger a very accurate clock which times the car until it passes through another beam at the finish line. The elapsed time then reveals who is the quickest driver. Well that sounds easy, but when we are timing to 100ths of a second, it all gets pretty intense for the driver. And often with 700+ starts in the day, the start line crew have a busy day ahead!

Interested in competing?

Then have a look at the event regulations first. Depending on your car, you’ll need some safety kit of course, at least fire resistant gloves, an approved race suit and helmet, and a “Non-Race National B” or higher licence from the Motor Sports Association (The MSA) - the Governing body of motorsport in the UK. Then, provided your car complies with the rules, send in your entry form & get ready for your first event. And have a look at the Go Motorsport website for lots more information too.
We do recommend that you come along to at least one event before you start out, to talk to other competitors and watch what goes on during the day. This way, you’ll get a much greater appreciation of what to expect when you turn up at your first event – and our competitors love to talk almost as much as they love to drive!

Don’t forget, if you are also taking part in a few events in addition to those at Aintree, you could be eligible for an award by joining the Chester & Liverpool Motor Clubs’ Speed Championship – the Best in the North West!

Want to know more about the basics? Then have a look at TurboRussell’s short film on YouTube where he gives great advice about getting started. And a bit of in-car action, with pedal-cam too!

To Enter an Aintree Sprint click here

Results and reports before 2007 can be found archived here
This page Last updated 07/08/12