Round 1 VSCRC Sandown May 12-13

[MPA]

They were always going to struggle with the last event on sat scheduled to start at 5.10pm and moving the meeting from mid April into May.

But they did well to give everyone their full wurth of track time. With a bit of fine tuning this could work even better next time. It was not just offing the cars at 1, it was despatching the recovery guys from behind the dunny at turn 2/3 to pick up the dead cars on a hot track while the next category was gridding up that saved time too. Yeah Nakkers, the cast of thousands at 1 was down a bit....no BBQ....except one hot F/Ford.....

We had a F/Ford catch fire on his cool down straight and his seat was getting rather hot. In his panic to get out he forgot to undo his belts and was bouncing up and down in the cockpit trying to put space between his bottom and a rather hot seat....

Yup, there's one F/Ford driver out there smart enough to know when his ass was on fire....

[Silver 3]

Originally Posted by Notso Swift

. I congratulate the MGCC, they have looked at AASA events and recognised that they are doing certain things better, and acted on that. ain,
I fear that the PA system at PI would mean that if they tried it there people may miss an event, though they never started a race before a catagory would normally be entering dummy grid anyway.
.

Dealing with the last comment first-- it is not the PA that should be telling competitors when to proceed to marshalling-- the competitors themselves do/should have the responsibility to know when it is time to be them-- they are not children-- and if the whole flow of the meeting is ruined because they cannot follow the program - well!!
RE AASA and MGCC comment-- it is about time we stopped hearing this sort of rubbish comment-- AASA run nothing.Cams run nothing( well ,you know what I mean in this context. The MGCC promote and run a race meeting.In the course of running a race meeting there has been some Cams rules ( in seeking to have insurance cover from Cams for a race meeting comes some conditions and acceptance of some rules and regulations). In conjuction with the competitor groups-- but principally the MGCC itself-- has sought to get things done differently for some time-- and it is the culmination of considerable discussion that achieved the progress made.
There is no doubt that AASA "meetings" have a different structure and less
structural beaureaucy to contend with-- which makes common sense changes easier to achieve-- but to dismiss the MGCC efforts glibly a result of that existence is to do the people involved a disservice.The MGCC have been able to make terrific progress in spite of the difficulties and they deserve an unequivocal vote of thanks from all interested parties.
Finally-- please let us all worry about going racing-- leave the political crap to another place!

[Bullett]

Originally Posted by Silver 3

The MGCC have been able to make terrific progress in spite of the difficulties and they deserve an unequivocal vote of thanks from all interested parties.

Well said Silver 3

[Notso Swift]

Originally Posted by Silver 3

Dealing with the last comment first-- it is not the PA that should be telling competitors when to proceed to marshalling-- the competitors themselves do/should have the responsibility to know when it is time to be them-- they are not children-- and if the whole flow of the meeting is ruined because they cannot follow the program - well!!
RE AASA and MGCC comment-- it is about time we stopped hearing this sort of rubbish comment-- AASA run nothing.Cams run nothing( well ,you know what I mean in this context. The MGCC promote and run a race meeting.In the course of running a race meeting there has been some Cams rules ( in seeking to have insurance cover from Cams for a race meeting comes some conditions and acceptance of some rules and regulations). In conjuction with the competitor groups-- but principally the MGCC itself-- has sought to get things done differently for some time-- and it is the culmination of considerable discussion that achieved the progress made.
There is no doubt that AASA "meetings" have a different structure and less
structural beaureaucy to contend with-- which makes common sense changes easier to achieve-- but to dismiss the MGCC efforts glibly a result of that existence is to do the people involved a disservice.The MGCC have been able to make terrific progress in spite of the difficulties and they deserve an unequivocal vote of thanks from all interested parties.
Finally-- please let us all worry about going racing-- leave the political crap to another place!

Get of your hobby horse
1. The Competitors hearing the PA is ESSENTIAL is you are running a meeting ahead of schedule, as happened. Otherwise they don’t turn up until their allotted time.

2. This bit is for bullett as well
The congratulations to MGCC for taking a leaf out of the AASA book is about the value of the product offered to the competitor. After all that is what it is all about, I am a customer that this product is aimed at. Instantly that makes it not a rubbish comment but one with more value than someone who doesn't pay for the service.
I am one of the rare individuals who REALLY supports the race organisers and for the last 5 consecutive years I have done so by supporting the MG event with my money. In that time I have missed PIARC, VMCI, BAC and ASSA events, but I have always been to the MGCC. David V has always been the most progressive CoC and for this event he really demonstrated additional value to the competitors, that has not always been the case with other improvements, generally the value was a constant and other aspects of the running and management were refined, this time there was a marked improvement in value.
So, before you put me in one political camp or another try taking a look at my previous posts where I have been critical of both groups over different issues. You have been the ones to put a political bent on this issue. I am a lot more neutral than you suggest.

[Silver 3]

Hey Notso-- it was the implied issues of your post that generated my response.There has been a lot of work from a lot of people-- and for some time-- to get as far as the MGCC came on the weekend. It is very eay to tell people what is wrong- the difficulty to correct is to balance all the factors involved. My particular concern with your comments was that by going AASA would see all the problems solved-- that is a pipe dream.It particularly overlooks the fundamental point of race meeting organisation-- ie the ability of the people actually doing the work( please read earlier comment re Cams,AASA, organizing clubs etc) Once you get past the terms and conditions that they work within( either system) it is about the people themselves.In this case they earnt an unqualified pat on the back.
BTW-- you are not the only competitor that makes comment here!

[Silver 3]

Originally Posted by Notso Swift

Get of your hobby horse
1. The Competitors hearing the PA is ESSENTIAL is you are running a meeting ahead of schedule, as happened. Otherwise they don’t turn up until their allotted time.

Thre is a serious issue in here-- the time wasted in waiting is one of the issues that is being addressed. Put simply-- in the past the Cams regulations required the annointed time to be published in the regs and race could NOT start early etc-- that is now in the past.One idea is rather simple-- Race 5 starts after Race 4 finishes etc That equals no waste time. The onus will be on competitors to be paying attention to where the program is at and be there when cars are leaving marshalling. The P/A is an aid-- not official notification.That is how it will work.
The P/A system at P Is (presuming it is in use!!!!) is not infallible. Nor Winton while I am at it. This is not going to be an acceptable reason for being late or missing race. These are some of the compromises that are in ALL competitors interests in creating better flow at the meetings.

[MPA]

On time or early......nice situation to be in....It means everyone with a working race car will get their full amount of track time for the weekend....Late is bad...very bad....Late means shorter races, community anger when the noise does not stop and marshals get double time if it's in their AWA...

So early is better than late....any argument there?

On time is best, yes?

So how can we keep a meeting flowing while keeping a few minutes up our sleeves in case someone does a whoopsie and flattens a fence that uses 20 minutes of someone elses track time?

May I suggest we give a plus or minus 15 minute window to the starting time of any event...Because if you have around 4 hours between sessions for your car and you REALLY need that extra 10 minutes, maybe you have serious issues that only you can fix....like buying a better mechanic, driver, car etc....

[MPA]

Rumour has it there were a couple of drivers that missed their events on the weekend because we ran early....

I'd be interested to hear what happened........."Yeah my engine was in a million bits and I was never going to make the main event. But because I never walked up to Race Admin and formally informed them I was a Non-Starter I can now protest the result"....Could this be what happened?

Or was the PA too soft? Just because all the other guys in the big tent next to me went off to dummy grid the penny never dropped.....

Has anyone got wind of this yet?......Are Championships on the line because a car was not ready when the MGCC said "GO!"

Anyone got comments?

[MPA]

Listening for a PA announcment is one way of making sure you turn up for your race on time....But as the pit and paddock is split up and the catagories have their own space....don't you think it would be a dead give-away when the bloke parked next to you suits up and rolls off into dummy grid?

When you turn around and you're the only one left in the marque, alarm bells should ring...

If the whole field fails to show.....that's different.

[Bullett]

More and more categories seem to be all setting up together going on Sandown's layout, Formula Ford teams seem to be at same end of pit lane, MG's are together in a marquee, HQ's and Vee's seem to be together. Sports Sedan's seem to be in bunches together. 944's seem to be in a few areas depending who runs the cars, eg Jocaro or aPorschePart. Sports Cars seem to not really have any groups except those that run them such as Jocaro or the Triumphs. Improved Production seem to be more and more in pit lane with the RX7's together etc. and Group N are pretty much the same area. So changes would be known easily you'd think as you have the groups and as someone said if they all set off and you havent realised....

[Silver 3]

Originally Posted by Bullett

More and more categories seem to be all setting up together going on Sandown's layout, Formula Ford teams seem to be at same end of pit lane, MG's are together in a marquee, HQ's and Vee's seem to be together. Sports Sedan's seem to be in bunches together. 944's seem to be in a few areas depending who runs the cars, eg Jocaro or aPorschePart. Sports Cars seem to not really have any groups except those that run them such as Jocaro or the Triumphs. Improved Production seem to be more and more in pit lane with the RX7's together etc. and Group N are pretty much the same area. So changes would be known easily you'd think as you have the groups and as someone said if they all set off and you havent realised....

The idea of grouping categories has been thrown around for easier communication reasons -- but at State level it is not so easy-- actual space at meetings prevents. Generally categories get some garages and a general area to set up in. This is not absoloute and cannot be( many reasons-including individual arrangements etc)
Irrespective-- each category does have an appointed representative and it is their role to help co-ordinate these sort of issues-- and in fact do.It is a lot easier with 15 cars than 30! Above all else-- it is the competitors that need to be paying attention-- it is less than 10% that seem to see an issue with this.

[Silver 3]

Originally Posted by MPA

When you turn around and you're the only one left in the marque, alarm bells should ring...
.

Hey-- we are talking racing drivers here!

[Bullett]

Yeah Silver 3 I wasn't having a go at Sports Cars or anyone just saying most are in groups these days so will know of changes of the movement around them...interesting to see the movement by some towards garages to and some rather stay out back near the road...

[Silver 3]

Originally Posted by Bullett

Yeah Silver 3 I wasn't having a go at Sports Cars or anyone just saying most are in groups these days so will know of changes of the movement around them...interesting to see the movement by some towards garages to and some rather stay out back near the road...

There are not enough garages-- only about 1/3 of entry can get garages. The allocation is a very sensetive issue-- try asking some of the non succesfull applicants !
The other part of this is that not all actually want to be in garage.They have their own accommadation and prefer to use it. For those that have ever been on a V8 program you lose interest in the garages and get yourself organised. Personally my preference is to organise ourselves-- then it is always the same wherever we go and are set up that way.