Aintree Sprints
We need more entries for our Aintree Sprints!
We need your support to keep motorsport alive at Aintree, so we hope you will join us at our friendly events.
Competitors :
Click HERE to go straight to the How To Enter page for more information.
You are welcome to visit our Friends of Liverpool Motor Club Facebook page where you can find lots of photos and comments about the Club’s activities.
And……. Spectators are welcome at all our events!
Track Day Drivers:
Want to have a go at competing, but think it’s too difficult or expensive to get a competition licence? If you’ve got a completely standard (unmodified) car under 2 litres, built since 31/12/1999, you could enter our sprint events at Aintree on a free Motorsport UK RS Clubman licence that you can obtain online. You’ll need an approved helmet, but racing overalls etc are only recommended, not compulsory. Click HERE for more info.
For over twenty-five years Liverpool Motor Club has been running its season of highly popular Sprints on the Club Circuit at the historic Aintree Motor Racing Circuit.
See our Club Calendar page for details of all the championships invited to our events this year.
Lining up an historic Lotus 69
David Spencer on the limit at Country Corner, Aintree. Photo: Steve Wilkinson
What’s it all about?
See MSUK’s video introduction… What is a Sprint?
Sprints (Time Trials), are one of the oldest forms of motorsport, having been established in the 1890s. 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 classic 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!
A link to the results for our events usually appears in the tab on the right of our website on the Monday after each event. We often publish a time for the first 64ft from the start line. This gives a great indication of the acceleration of the car – A time of 2 secs to the 64 feet mark equates to an acceleration of 1G.
On board video:- Aintree Sprint, Honda S2000, Sept 2010
On board video:- Aintree Sprint, Radical PR6, Sept 2014
Interested in competing?
Have you competed in a car before? You’ll need to join an approved motor club like Liverpool Motor Club and obtain an “Inter-Club” or higher competition licence from Motorsport UK. See their Introduction to Sprinting for background details and links to more detailed information.
Then have a look at our event regulations. You could compete in a standard road car – which is a good place to start. If it’s an absolutely standard post-1999 car under 2 litres (or 14oocc if turbo’d) you just need an approved helmet, a timing strut on the front of your car, ignition switch marked to show which way is off, and towing points marked. Other cars are fine too, but you’ll need more safety kit including fire-resistant gloves and an approved race suit and helmet. Then, provided your car complies with the rules, send in your entry form & get ready for your first event.
We strongly recommend that you come along to at least one event before you start out, 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 Liverpool Motor Club 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.
There’s a great article on our Track Days page describing how to drive a lap of Aintree quickly. It contains a lot of detail about lines for each of our corners that apply to sprints too. You can download it HERE and save it on your computer to read and re-read whenever you wish. A lap of Aintree – Really Useful Advice.
To Enter an Aintree Sprint click here
The three Aintree Sprints are qualifying rounds of various other regional and national Championships.
Our Club Calendar page has details of all the championships that have accepted invitations this year.
In addition, a competitor who is a member of a motor club that belongs to the ANCC, ANWCC or SD34 is automatically eligible to take part in any of our sprints, whether or not he or she is a registered contender in one of their championships.
Spectators… Come along, you’re welcome to watch
Spectators are normally welcome at all our events at Aintree, and it’s not expensive to get in. Just see our Spectator information page for more details.
In common with all UK motorsport events (and the venue owner’s own rules), Dogs are not allowed into the venue, not even well-behaved ones on the strongest of leads. And Drones are prohibited at all UK motorsport events too.
Adult admission is just £5, accompanied kids under 16 get in free, and there’s free parking, a free entry list and free access to the whole of the paddock where you can see the cars close up and talk to their drivers too. There are toilets and great food & drink available at the 5* cafe in the paddock where you can even sit and relax on the patio whilst all around you are preparing their cars for the next run.
Event Timetable: Gates open for spectators at 08.00. There will be two practice runs for each competitor, starting at about 09.30. The first competitive runs start straight after 2nd practice and often start before lunch. The lunch break of about 40 mins takes place at a convenient point between 12.00 and 14.00. After lunch, more competitive runs take place and depending on the number of cars that have entered the event, there might be three, four or even more competitive runs for each competitor until the event finishes at around 16.30.
Live timings are available during the Aintree events from Resultsman
Insurance whilst competing
Your existing car insurance policy will not cover you whilst competing so unless you take out specialist cover, you will be on track entirely at your own risk. There are several providers of motorsport cover and whilst we don’t recommend any particular company, drivers tell us that they have been pleased with the service provided by the following:-
Bluefin Sport – Click here to visit their website
Specialist Motorsport Insurer
Bluefin is the appointed insurance broker to Liverpool Motor Club and Motorsport UK.
Tel: 0113 394 2250 – (please mention Liverpool Motor Club when calling)
REIS Motorsport Insurance – Click here to visit their website
Moris Motorsport Insurance – Click here to go to their website
0203 427 5960
Results and reports for previous LMC events can be found here.