10. Scrutineering

One of the first things you’ll do when the race weekend gets underway is have your car scrutineered. Normally, this is scheduled to happen early on Saturday morning, however a number of competitors do choose to have their cars scrutineered on the Friday afternoon if it’s available.

Scrutineering is simply the process that all cars go through to ensure they comply with both the Motorsport UK and championship technical regulations. The car is given a thorough inspection by a qualified scrutineer, whose job it is to make sure that your car passes on every respective technical front required in order to be deemed safe and legal to race.

As mentioned above, in the eventuality that a scrutineer finds something wrong or something which contravenes a regulation, be it with your car or indeed your racing equipment such as your helmet or overalls, it will be up to you as the driver to ensure that they can fix the contravention before the race weekend gets underway, otherwise you may be going home early!

If everything passes the scrutineering stage, you’ll receive a sticker on your car to certify that it is eligible and legal to compete in the weekend ahead. It’s a good idea, however, to ensure that you check your car and racing equipment before the race meeting to make sure that you’re not heading to the circuit with any risk of being caught out.

The last thing to be conducted on your car will be a noise test, to ensure that your car complies with the noise restrictions present at each specific circuit. This is normally conducted just before your car heads into the assembly area for its first on-track session of the race weekend. If your car fails this noise test and is deemed too loud, it is your responsibility to make the appropriate and legal modifications to ensure your car complies with the circuit restrictions. Otherwise, you will not be allowed on circuit until this is fixed.