To get started in racing, the first and most important requirement is to obtain a race license. It does not matter which country you are from or where you decide to race in, the bottom-line is – you will need a license.

So, how do you get a race license?

Good news for aspiring racers living in countries with well established motorsport organizations, it is relatively easy to get your race license. For information on how to get the license, you can simply approach your country’s Motorsport association, usually called an ASN in short.

Here are the things that they will require you to do:

1)   Sign up as a member.

2)   Take a driving course to certify that you have the basic knowledge for racing.

3)   Take up a medical examination appointed by the ASN.

4)   Once you pass the driving course and medical examination, you will obtain your C-grade national racing license.

5) The C grade national license allows you to race in national events. Once you have completed a certain number of races as required by your country’s ASN, you would be able to upgrade to an International C grade license that would allow you to race in international events.

The problem comes when there is no established motorsport organizational structure in your country. For example, if you live in countries such as Singapore or Mongolia etc., you will need to take a different route to get your race license.

Every country will definitely have an organization that is the sporting authority for Motorsport in your country that is recognized by the FIA. For the list of contacts, you can search:

http://www.fia.com/en-GB/the-fia/member-clubs/Pages/FIAMemberClubs.aspx

Now for the aspiring drivers that are from countries without an established motorsport scene, these are the few key notes to remember:

1)   You are automatically under the jurisdiction of your citizenship country’s ASN.

2)   However, you can race for another country’s ASN even though you’re not a citizen. For example, a French may choose to race with a British FIA Intentional C License.

3)   At any point in time, you can only hold a race license in one country.

4)   You are not allowed to change your ASN affiliation more than once in a year. This means that you cannot be a French ASN license holder in January, a British FIA license holder in March and a Malaysian license holder in December.

5)   Once you receive your license, you must participate in at least one International FIA Race per year to continue to keep your license.

Going back to the topic of getting a race license from a country without an established Motorsport scene, you will need to go through the following steps:

1)   Inform your ASN of your intention to get a race license from another country and request them to write you a letter that releases you from their jurisdiction. For example, if you are from France and you want to race in Britain, you get a release letter from your French ASN before applying for your new British license.

2)   After you get your release letter, you need to go to the country in which you want to get the race license and apply for it using that release letter.

3)   Once they receive the letter, you will be required to go for a medical examination and a race licensing test. After you have passed the tests, you will obtain a license from that country and be able to race in that country’s local events.

Frenchman Yvan Muller race in the
British Touring Car Championship for most of his Touring car career

For example if you are a Mongolian that applied for a British License, you are able to race in Britain. But if you want to race in France too, you don’t need to convert to a French country’s racing license. You just need to get a letter of invitation from that race series in France and using an International FIA  C License, you’ll be allowed to race in France using your British Racing License.

If you’re asking yourself: “Why do I have to keep changing the location of my license? Why does it matter?”

Well the answer is simple. If your country doesn’t have enough racing, your license will not be of much use as you’re not able to do the required number of races to upgrade your license to an international license. So in order to have an international racing license, you need to be able to do the required number of 5 races in your country for upgrade.

As you can see, the process may seem simple but the steps can be a little complicated and tedious for those who do not know how to go about doing so.

Global Racing Schools helps aspiring drivers deal with all these process for free. It is part of our offerings to support the initiatives of our driver development program.

Feel free to contact us if you need any help in obtaining your race license. We can guide you step by step and tell you the path that you need to take in order to achieve your ambitions and can set up the right training for you to move in the right direction.

For more information, drop us an email at info@globalracingschools.com or visit our website at www.globalracingschools.com

By: James Brown

A garage technician might have big dreams of working around NASCAR racecars but will keep those dreams in check because they know they are not trained to work on that equipment or any other high performance engines for that matter. The typical garage mechanic might be able to repair a street model automobile, but it takes a lot of training to work among motorsports finest.

The automobiles that are part of the NASCAR motorsports realm are not the everyday automobile. They might fall under automobile manufacturing names that are well known throughout the automobile industry but they are not the kind that are easy to care for in a local garage. The engines used are tooled to be precision instruments that are capable of achieving over 200 miles per hour in the stretch. To enable the engines to maintain those speeds requires the care and expertise of a graduate of the NASCAR automotive schools.
Automotive engineers and the whim’s of the car’s owner, might have the NASCAR racing machines in the garage for inspections at any time. They might craftily mold the body parts to exact specifications and match sure that all emblematic decals are perfectly matched. It will be the responsibility of these motorsports technicians to ensure that they car can race every weekend and if parts need to be order and installed by race day, it is there job to do it.

Since there are many automobile manufacturers included in the mix that lines up at the starting line of NASCAR races week to week, there is a dire need for qualified technicians that have been thoroughly trained to meet the racing engine needs. A simple class in automotive mechanics will just not be sufficient enough to make repairs on vehicles that run at such high speeds more than 40 weekends out of the year. This type of need requires someone that is fast and a fan of racing.
Many automotive mechanics would jump at the chance to earn a career opportunity that allows them to work on NASCAR engines. There is a wide range of courses available that can be taken online with significant discounts on tuition to those that qualify. The training will be very thorough and all applicants can look forward to learning all about engines and how to be a member of a professional pit crew. The training courses move at a brisk speed which fits in well with the world of racing.

To achieve training to work among NASCAR motorsports finest requires training time in the classroom and on the racetrack too. The typical automotive mechanic might learn a thing or two about performance engines when they delve into those engines in a class filled with their peers. The people that graduate from the NASCAR automotive schools are well-rounded people who have dug in and learned things that they never knew were possible. NASCAR will expect high performance out of the graduates of the schools because they have a lot of money riding on the equipment and the driver that sits in the front seat.

By: Dirk Gibson

The financial crisis around the world has been touted in the news. Of course, many feel we are only really starting to see the actual effect on the ground. With the announcement that Honda will close its Formula One team, the auto industry is starting to show the effects.

Technically, Honda is going to try to sell its Formula One operation before closing it. Given the current economic environment, it seems highly unlikely that a private investor can be found to keep the team afloat. The powers that be at Honda seem to realize this, particularly since they have given only a 30 day window for the sale to occur.

Assuming the closure occurs, it raises questions throughout the motorsports world. Honda is, after all, one of the more financially stable companies in the auto industry. If they are pulling way back, one has to question whether other teams will be doing the same. Toyota is facing major sales drops and Renault has never been a manufacturer viewed as totally committed to F1. If all the team drop out, one has to wonder if the viability of continuing F1 would even be possible.

In truth, the chances of more manufacturers pulling out of Formula One are not as likely as they were with Honda. Why? Honda has had minimize sponsorship over the last two years. Either because the car was so bad or it decided to plug its own name, the team simply never had a tobacco, bank or cell phone company paying it tens of millions of dollars in sponsorship money like the other teams.

The derailment of the Honda effort in Formula One raises questions on a bigger scale. Honda has taken a hit in the economic downturn, but the company is hardly on the cusp of bankruptcy. The same cannot be said for GM, Ford and Chrysler. Bailout discussions with the government are ongoing, but how excited is Congress going to be about money being spent on stock car racing? Given the sure lack of enthusiasm, how will NASCAR be impacted moving forward? Nobody can be sure, but NASCAR and the teams cannot be feeling too comfortable at the moment.

The economic troubles around the world often seem to be from another planet given the problems faced by multinational corporations that individual cannot really relate to. It is only when this news filter down to our daily lives in the form of job losses and the like that we realize it is an entirely real problem.

For motorsports fans, the Honda F1 failure is the first sign of problems in motorsports, but most likely will not be the last.