HSCC DONINGTON

[Mike Bell]

HSCC Season opener.

[Rudernst]

now that the 75th MM is over...

we could get this up

I have entered

my Titan Mk 6 in the HFF race
and my Ralt RT1 in the CF3 race

mainly because these are ready to go at this point the season

anybody else racing ?

RuE

[apriliadriver]

Yes, Rudi, I will be there for the Historic Road Sports in the Chev Camaro. This is the first time I have been to DP in this car and looking forward to discovering how it feels.
The season is starting ! Spring is here !
Nick

[delta]

Yep lots of cars to run. Probably will not race myself, saving pennies for new project.

[Chigley]

I hope all you venerable and respectable gentlemen will behave yourselves during the rolling starts and SC interventions at the start of the season as a different hand will be in the SC. I'm probably going to miss the first half of the season, at least, after having spent a week and a bit in the Knackers Yard with knee troubles again.

[bauble]

Originally Posted by Chigley

I hope all you venerable and respectable gentlemen will behave yourselves during the rolling starts and SC interventions at the start of the season as a different hand will be in the SC. I'm probably going to miss the first half of the season, at least, after having spent a week and a bit in the Knackers Yard with knee troubles again.

Knee tremblers Chigs? At your age? Wow!

[Chigley]

Originally Posted by bauble

Knee tremblers Chigs? At your age? Wow!

I'm afraid I won't call recurrent 2hr periods of leg muscles locked in excruciatingly painful spasm a leg tremble.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Chigley

I'm afraid I won't call recurrent 2hr periods of leg muscles locked in excruciatingly painful spasm a leg tremble.

Hmm.

Sounds nasty.

Good speed with finding a fix.

[Lancsbreaker]

Good turnout of Alfas in the 70s Roadsports race - might try to get down for this meeting if the weather's good - our last visit to race there (with 750MC) was completely rained off after qualy....

[brands]

Entry list http://www.hscc.org.uk/images/Provis...son_Opener.pdf

[grantp]

Popped in to see Delta and a few others testing at Donington earlier today.

Nice fresh tarmac and gleaming white lines in the open paddock area where tarmac previously existed. Just ready for gazebos this weekend ... but presumably it survived the BSB lads last weekend.

The gravelled area, or at least most of it, seems to be gravel still

The grass is looking lush. I think one has to mention the grass now doesn't one?

That it was generally a nice sunny day may have helped but I thought the place was looking pretty good. Christopher Tate was to be seen inspecting the garage complex and chatting to customers just before and during the lunch break.

Looking forward to Saturday.

[geordiecriag101]

Had a great day up at Donington yesterday, stunning weather and sum great drives thru out the day thru could have done with out the confusion in the Derek Bell Trophy race with the safety car leading to 1st n 2nd pace being excluded.

Here's my pics from the day, hopefully have vid sorted out at sum point:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/geordi...57680367429481

[morninggents]

Yes, a lovely warm spring day. Donington itself was in better condition than I have seen it for a long time with new paddock tarmac, improved toilets and shower facilities, the infield grass area looking good and the paddock cafe as good as always.
The formula ford entry was fabulous - over 50 cars - including Tim Brise after a long lay off.

[apriliadriver]

Historic Road Sports were first on track at 0910 and even then it was tolerably warm. Considering that the last time I visited in April for U2TC at the Historic Fest, it was bitingly cold, windy & wet, this was a major improvement.

Agree with Morningents : the Paddock retarmacing and the general tidiness of the place, the improvements to race surface etc made an instant impression. Give MSV & Chris Tate a couple of years and a plan and we may get proper Scrutineering place and etc.

The whole raceday was great. Anyone who has any pictures of maroon Chev Camaro in action in Race 1, plse contact me.
Thanks all
Nick

[The Flagman]

Re Derek Bell Trophy

A reminder to all that no overtaking is allowed when yellow flags are displayed especially when under Safety Car Conditions. Two competitors, one the Race Leader, overtook the Safety Car - Probably in error as they were allowing back markers past to collect the leader. Leader should know that is what they were doing. So, lets fly past the Safety Car, run round at high speed to catch up the pack. Probably realising the error the two leading cars then overtook the entire train to reposition behind the Safety Car. All under waved yellow flags.

Message is clear - overtake under yellow flags you will visit the Clerks and be penalised. End of Lesson.

[Mike Bell]

I was trying to think of one word to describe that scenario- it has to be 'bizarre'!

[MGDavid]

I'll take the bait - wouldn't happen with Code 60 ;-)

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by MGDavid

I'll take the bait - wouldn't happen with Code 60 ;-)

I was thinking exactly the same thing.......

[Rudernst]

I was in the combined DBT / CF3 race in a F3 car.

I did not pass anybody under the SC car (God forbid !), but, yes I got passed by the leading DBT cars, which surprised my but did seem to make some sort of sense.

I think the confusion partly stemmed from the fact that the DBT cars were gridded before the F3 cars irrespective of quali time and also started before us.
you could take this as two races run at the same time, only 100 metres apart.
However some F3 cars were quicker than DBT cars (even I finished in front of a DBT car)

Starting procedure was covered in the drivers briefing. but I dont think is was really clear to all what should happen behind the safety car. Some DBT drivers must have assumed that they were supposed to get in front of the F3 cars again on the restart.

So either we go back to the old format in the combined races, grid by qualy time alone irrespective of which race you are in
or what is supposed to happen behind the safety car needs to be clearly spelled out.
My preference would be for the leader to get behind the safety car without resorting them into races because how are we supposed to know who goes where ?

Also my feeling was that the safety car was quite slow.
(i dont mean near the stranded car where the work was done, of course)
I followed the safety car in 2nd gear most of the time and struggled to keep the tires warm.

RuE

[Mike Bell]

Thanks for the input, Rudolf. I thought there had to be more to the story than just 'two cars overtake SC' and 'overtake while behind SC'.

[grantp]

I happened to be watching the DBT from the area of the pit exit.

Quite why the Ralt that spun at Redgate (and either stalled and would not restart or was stranded on the kerb) proved to be such a problem for race continuity was difficult to understand from where I was watching. I only had a head on view of the car.

It was there for quite some time before the Safety car was activated. Probably two laps? Everyone would have seen the problem.

The safety car then shot out of the pits about 5 cars before the leaders came around. Maybe 10 to 15 seconds?

The Ralt remained stranded for some additional time while the SC attempted to gather its flock, eventually passing my viewing position very slowly with a train behind it. On the previous circuit it seemingly had had time to pick up the leaders and lose them again as they appeared at the back of the crocodile and clearly were confused about what was going on.

Eventually the snatch tractor was despatched from the outside of Redgate and dragged the Ralt to the inside before heading off back to station.

Given the number of "events" that seem to involve cars going off on the inside at Redgate it might be worth considering having a marshals post there? I seem to recall that it was regularly used for such purposes in former times. Presumably still is at the bigger meetings?

In the prior race a car had ended up in the gravel at the esses on the second lap. On around lap 4/5 the snatch vehicle from Redgate was despatched through the paddock area to effect a recovery. I'm sure I recall recovery vehicles being located in all the space available at the esses for races in the past.

Traversing the paddock was perhaps not as easy as it might have been for the snatch tractor, given that early arrivals for the Sunday meeting were being ushered into the paddock area as soon as any space became available as HSCC competitors vacated. Thus the vehicle movements included not only the leavers but the incomers and of course those competitors heading for the collecting area.

I got the impression that some resources might have been running a little on the tight side which, if indeed the case, would not have helped anyone.

The stranded Ralt in the DBT race look like the sort of incident that, in times passed, would not have attracted more than some waved yellows, a sighting lap for the field to make sure everyone knew about it and a couple of pushers to get it off the circuit. However, although I had a clear view of the corner the root cause of the "stranding" was not evident.

In the DBT race the size of the field and the speed discrepancy for the classes was such that the leaders were almost with the backmarkers after a couple of laps. Being that strung out so early in the race would not have made it any easier to deal with early lap incidents, especially when needing to get the snatch vehicle across the circuit at that point.

[Sodemo]

I take it there is no timetable or entry list yet? The link on the first page does not load (any more?).

[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

I take it there is no timetable or entry list yet? The link on the first page does not load (any more?).

Errr, the event was on Saturday just gone.......

The docs will be still on HSCC website though.

[gary396]

And HSCC just updated their website - hence the reason why some of the old links won't work (but the documents are still available on the new site albeit somewhat dated as Mike mentioned).

[Mike Bell]

Thanks Gary- occurred after previous post the Sodemo might be thinking of Donington Historic Festival at the end of the month.

If so, timetable is on DHF site but no entry lists yet.....