All motoring competitions held on the public highway, including motorcycle events, are governed by the Motor Vehicles (Competitions and Trials) Regulations 1969. Under this legislation the Competitions Authorisation Office of the Royal Automobile Club, as the central agency for England and Wales acts for and on behalf of the Minister responsible for Transport. Scotland is handled in a similar fashion, albeit with a different system of processing, by the Royal Scottish Automobile Club.

Although certain events are automatically authorised under the legislation, in particular events involving no more than twelve competing vehicles, or those with no set route or timing on the public highway, all organisers should ensure that they are acquainted with the terms of the legislation prior to running any event for cars or motorcycles on the public highway. Copies are available from the MSA. The official title of the document for England and Wales is Statutory Instruments 1969 No. 414 Road Traffic (price ￡10.00).

The organiser of any event which requires Authorisation under the legislation must make an application to the relevant office between two and six months before the planned date of the event, on an official application form (Form E404) which must be accompanied by duplicate tracings, taken from the current 1:50,000 scale O.S. maps in the case of England and Wales, showing the public highway route and detailing the control points and time schedule planned for the event. The minimum period of two months has to be rigorously enforced .

On receipt, applications are checked for compliance with the legislation and also with a rationing system which is designed to limit the number of events using a particular section of road in a given period. A certain level of public relations work is required as a condition of the Authorisation being issued, this being designed to limit the impact of events on local residents.

The controlling agency send the details of acceptable events to the Police Forces and National Parks involved with the route and will require action to be taken by organisers in response to any observations they may make about the event.

Organisers are also required to contact local representatives, the Route Liaison Officers, and gain their approval for the planned event. Before the granting of the actual Authorisation (Form E406) a fee will be required, as the departments are designed to be self-financing rather than a drain on central Government finances. Events are Authorised for a fixed maximum number of starters, using a quoted mileage of previously advised route on the public highway.

When the Royal Automobile Club was appointed as the Central Controlling Agency for the system of statutory control, it was understood that they would be acting for this purpose as the Minister’s agents and would necessarily be required to deal on a non-discriminatory basis with applications, whether from recognised clubs, clubs not recognised or individuals. Any additional controls which for their own purposes they might wish to exercise in regard to their clubs would evidently have to be kept separate from the statutory control system operated on the Minister’s behalf.

The General Regulations of the MSA are not taken into account by the CAO, therefore the fact that CAO Authorisation has been issued for an event does not necessarily mean that the event complies with MSA General Regulations.

For application forms, details of fees and any further information the following offices should be contacted.

For Scotland RSAC Motorsport Ltd, Competition Authorisation Office PO Box 3333, Glasgow G20 2AX, Tel: 0141 946 5045 Fax: 0141 946 5045