Since the demise of the Beetle Cup there has been much talk about reinstating the series or trying to start a UK based version of the Kafer Cup.
All have been non starters due to lack of support or the start up costs have been prohibitive, along with various other reasons nothing has happened.
It wasn’t until a casual question was asked to the Classic Touring Car Club on noticing they run their own low cost series of races in conjunction with The Silverstone race school. A very enthusiastic “yes” was the reply and the Beetle Challenge was conceived.
We have consulted with various ex-Cup competitors, drivers that had been competing in other series and those that had expressed an interest in getting involved in the past, this has enabled a set of regulations to be agreed and approved.
The guiding principle has been cost and how to keep it down!, hence the series is for Beetles, the regulations have been built around the Beetle itself, keeping as much of the original car as possible (shell, engine and gearbox) and to give some parity across the cars a nominated tyre has to be used, along with no aerodynamic devices.
The series has been opened up to encompass all models of the car with only a set amount of modifications and updates permitted.
(You can download the Beetle Challenge Regulations here)
Things are moving fast, and interest has rocketed! The costs involved to get on to the grid must amount to some of the cheapest racing in the country. Early calculations show that it should be possible to enter all 5 rounds, pay the club membership and put a set of race tyres on the car for under £1000, it just doesn’t get any cheaper than that!.
We are currently in negotiations with various partners and sponsors, in the quest to make the race series as accessible as possible. Support has been offered by Toyo with discounted tyres and sponsored trophies, the Classic Touring Car Club will be offering a substantially discounted club membership as we will only be racing on their Stowe package.
All that remains now is for people to get there backside trackside.. There hasn’t been a better time to go racing!
Update:
Unfortunately Silverstone has let us down, BUT the BARC has invited us to join their TinTops Series so we can race in a ‘Beetle’ class.. so now we will be racing at several different tracks in the UK! More details will be posted later
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