MSA ANNOUNCES COMPLETE REVIEW OF BLUE BOOK

The Motor Sports Association, the governing body of UK motor sport, has announced a `root and branch` review and re-write of the Blue Book - the Competitors` Yearbook that details the regulations that govern every discipline of four-wheeled motorsport in the UK.

The independent review will examine all elements of the Blue Book, including readability, cross-referencing and relevance. It will be the most comprehensive review of the regulations ever undertaken by the MSA. Once completed, the regulations could then be re-formatted and split into separate booklets to ensure that competitors only receive the regulations that are relevant to their particular discipline.

The project has been initiated by new MSA Chairman Alan Gow.

"The Blue Book currently comprises 30 sections, 330 pages and over 150,000 words," says Gow. "It is, at best, difficult - at worst, impossible to make sense of the contents. It's not surprising that many competitors have not fully read the rules - for the most part they are over-complicated and confusing. We should simplify, condense them and then issue people with just those rules that reflect their participation; they will then be able to read and understand them better.

"The current regulations are the inevitable result of many rewrites, clarifications and amendments through the years; so it's going to take a long time to decipher the current rules and strip them back to their fundamental meaning. We will not be able to deliver this in time for next year as it's a huge and expensive undertaking, but we are also looking to make some interim changes to the layout of the current blue-book that at least helps the user until we have fully completed the project."

"This is a very important project," explains Colin Hilton, Chief Executive of the Motor Sports Association. "We are constantly trying to reduce the barriers to participation across the board to make it as easy as possible for people to compete. One of the critical elements in that process is ensuring that people are able to understand the rules. Like everything else there are downsides, notably the financial implications of the revised print specification, but this is another vital step in the modernisation of UK motor sport."

Release MSA06-027: 27 April 2006