There is a lot of necessary bureaucracy in racing these days, from an organisers point of view it’s a nightmare, insurance, indemnities, track fees, regulations, organisation, timing etc. When you finally get to the race the organisers will be running round sorting out a million problems, if the organiser does not look stressed then they are either dead or have resigned!

To make life as easy as possible I tried to get all the forms sorted out as early as possible, this includes paying for it! For any circuit racing like this you will need the following:

A race licence (about £400 all in)
Club membership (usually in the region of £60).
Race registration and a race number (again, often about £60 but sometimes free).
Race entry (varies with circuit but about £185).
A certified and stickered crash helmet (a certified sticker on the helmet may cost a pound).
A timing transponder (various types about £250)

So you will spend about £1000 just to get all the paperwork sorted for the first race!

The following were recommend to me as things to do BEFORE the first race:
Get your crash hat certified.
Get your car scrutineered. Its amazing what you may have forgotten or got wrong!
Get your race suit and helmet scrutineered.

I also had to sort out:

Transport there and back (remember the car may get broken).
Accommodation
Food
Fuel (available at most circuits but really expensive)
Spares
Tools
Assistants

I found it invaluable to do a track day first, to iron out any niggling faults before race day and get some much needed experience behind my nice new shinny steering wheel.

So there we are, a few things i learned in this project, I hope it is helpful.