Plum Pudding Races: Mallory Park: Boxing Day 2015:

[Fred Bromley]

I am not sure if this is the right place to put this, so please feel free to move it to a more appropriate place.

Club Mallory are running the Plum Pudding Races at Mallory Park on Boxing Day. There are races for both Sorts Cars and Open Saloon cars, as well as for the two wheeled variety of cars.

If you are interested then entry forms, along with SRs are available on the Mallory Park web site: malloryparkcircuit.com.

Fred Bromley
Chief Marshal: Club Mallory

[delta]

Fred ,will there be a test day in December for open wheel cars.I know in years past Mallory has had a day for cars/Bikes racing in the Plum Pudding races. Thanks.Iain.

[Fred Bromley]

Originally Posted by delta

Fred ,will there be a test day in December for open wheel cars.I know in years past Mallory has had a day for cars/Bikes racing in the Plum Pudding races. Thanks.Iain.

Unfortunately Mallory Park is not holding any more test days this year.

Back to testing on the country lanes!!!

See you all on Boxing Day,
Fred

[delta]

Many thanks for looking into this Fred .

[TIMELORD]

I love this meeting! Always an interesting mix of cars and plenty of overtaking.

750MC's Facebook page suggests the following have entered:

Tim HERON (Toyota MR2)
Matt KANE (Mini?)
Andrew BARRETT (Mazda MX5) - could be on pole for the Saloons, as was an early entry (Race 1 grid is based on order of receipt of entries).

Anyone else have any news on entries?

[snailpace85]

Final Instructions and tickets are with the competitors. There are 22 cars in the sports car race. Andrew just missed out on pole position. He's second! First 4 places are MR2, MX5, MX5, MR2 then some quick boys. Gerards should be interesting!

Scott

[IAN #51]

Only have the sports car details.

8 T HERON TOYOTA MR2
5 D HEMMINGWAY TOYOTA MR2
12 MYSELF (I SMYTHE) FISHER FURY
16 B DEAN WESTFIELD SEI
18 J BREWER MAZDA MX5
21 R YATES CATERHAM SUPER7
23 C GIMSON TRIUMPH GT6 mk2
24 R ROWAN PORSCHE 911
33 I FLETCHER FLETCHER HORNET MK2
45 P MARSH CATERHAM 7 MEGAGRAD
50 D PORTER RADICAL SR3
51 P HART MALLOCK MK16
69 J CURRY CATERHAM 7 ROADSPORT
77 J WILSON TOYOTA MR2
81 J MOUNCE TOYOTA MR2 ROADSTER
90 A BARRET MAZDA MX5
91 D HARVEY RSM200
93 J SPENCER RSM200
99 A GRIMM BDN 52
107 S BAILEY MAZDA MX5
112 J BAILEY MAZDA MX5
291 M CANNING MAZDA MX5

Great Grid should be a cracking day

[Speedblood]

Decided to get off my backside, make the trip and come and watch on Saturday! Wish I was able to join in the fun though.
Hopefully I can persuade my car owner to lend me the SR3 for next years event...

[IAN #51]

Well a fantastic days racing in frankly lovely weather, Well done to the officials for getting everybody a race given the couple of incidents that consumed a lot of time.

A moan though not directley aimed at this event but at the circuit

On the drive back from the scrutineering in my road legal taxed and motd race car that was doing no more than 1200 rpm i was challenged by a member of the Mallory Park staff for breaking the noise curfew and how people like me are going to mean the closure of the circuit. Now i resent that given that i had pushed the car down to the scrutineering bay with the help of a couple of passers by. On the way back i was on my own (i dont have a "TEAM" i race on my own) the paddock is on a hill and for me this meant having to push the car back up the hill i couldnt do it TBH so i ran the engine in a sensible manner.

If the cars as we were are due into the assembly area at a time very close to when the noise curfew is in place why dont the scrutineers come to the cars as they would do/ have done when i race at Combe.

Ian

[snailpace85]

Nearly everyone has this problem at Mallory. We've been there 3 times this year - my brother driving and me on spanners. Each time we've run the engine the minimum amount necessary to get to and from scrutineering. The car is certainly quieter than many road cars and the transporters going through the village to the circuit. So far no-one has shouted at us.

It would seem reasonable for the final instructions to say something like 'before 9.30 race car engines can only be run for the purpose of driving to and from scrutineering and must only be run at low revs and throttle position'.

Scott

[snailpace85]

Originally Posted by snailpace85

Final Instructions and tickets are with the competitors. There are 22 cars in the sports car race. Andrew just missed out on pole position. He's second! First 4 places are MR2, MX5, MX5, MR2 then some quick boys. Gerards should be interesting!

Scott

Oh dear, I must be some sort of Jonah - as my brother Andrew in his Mazda MX5 and Dave Hemingway in his MR2 touched at Gerards on the first lap and Andrew spun, glanced the barriers and crossed through the pack causing increased blood pressure all around!

[Dave Brand]

Originally Posted by IAN #51

A moan though not directley aimed at this event but at the circuit

On the drive back from the scrutineering in my road legal taxed and motd race car that was doing no more than 1200 rpm i was challenged by a member of the Mallory Park staff for breaking the noise curfew and how people like me are going to mean the closure of the circuit. Now i resent that given that i had pushed the car down to the scrutineering bay with the help of a couple of passers by. On the way back i was on my own (i dont have a "TEAM" i race on my own) the paddock is on a hill and for me this meant having to push the car back up the hill i couldnt do it TBH so i ran the engine in a sensible manner.

While I sympathise with your predicament, these rules are imposed as part of the circuit's licensing conditions; make an exception for one & you're opening a can of worms, so it has to be a blanket restriction. An MoT's no guarantee that a car falls within the circuit's noise level limit.

I'm sure you're aware how much of a problem noise has been at Mallory; the new owners are working hard at building good relations with the local community, so it's understandable that circuit staff may be a little bit edgy.

In fairness to Mallory, similar conditions apply at most, if not all, circuits.

If the cars as we were are due into the assembly area at a time very close to when the noise curfew is in place why dont the scrutineers come to the cars as they would do/ have done when i race at Combe.

Castle Combe must have a surfeit of scrutineers if they can afford the time to come & seek out cars in the paddock!

Originally Posted by snailpace85

Oh dear, I must be some sort of Jonah - as my brother Andrew in his Mazda MX5 and Dave Hemingway in his MR2 touched at Gerards on the first lap and Andrew spun, glanced the barriers and crossed through the pack causing increased blood pressure all around!

That looked scary from where I was (post 2, Gerards In). The way that MR2 shot across the track in front of most of the pack was scary. . . more than a few near misses there!

[Redlake27]

I love this race meeting. It's great how you can throw together a random selection of cars (and bikes) from a diverse range of championships and get such close racing.

BTCC Seat v Scirocco Cup v a 1980s SD1 in a race that also had modified Civics and a Focus battling for the lead

A tight tussle between the two top Superbikes (which pretty much lapped the rest of the field including classics, bantams and supermoto bikes)

A stunning battle between two identical Caterhams for the sportscar lead, piercing their way through lapped traffic.....until they sadly wiped each other out on the last lap.


A great day of action, and very well run. Good to see so many spectators (although I think bikes do pull in the fans at Mallory)

[IAN #51]

Ok Dave so what is your suggestion having single people teams push 500 kg race cars on their jack jones on a hill you don't have to be Nebosh trained to know that's not a great combo.

Why is it so difficult for the scrutineers to come to the cars. Ive had them come to check the car in the paddock @ Snetterton, Castle Combe ,Le Mans Classic,Silverstone @MG Live and Various Sprint and hillclimb events.

There were 30 - 35 Cars at the Plum Pud is it really that impossible.

Im not trying to pick a fight Dave but Mallory Park needs to be Proactive you cant just blame the racers, sooner or later an errant race car is going to end up causing property or person some damage when its owner/driver is pushing it to the scrutineering bay slips or loses control of it.

Moan over

[Lancsbreaker]

I agree that this "no running of race car engines" is a recurrent issue - Mallory is bad enough, but last time we were at Brands we had an early race so had to scrut before the magic hour - and it's a serious hill up to Brands scrut bay......and our cars weighs a lot more than 500kg

[IAN #51]

The interesting issue is going to be when an incident happens ! as far as i can see i would be liable if pushing the car to the scrutineering bay not the circuit if an incident was to occur,

I also know from my day job that if such an incident was to occur and it was reported to the HSE they would most certainley issue a prohibition notice.

Ive never mentioned it before because as long as you were sensible with RPM etc nothing has ever been said to me in 10 years of racing.

I also presume that the noise curfew stops road legal race cars being driven to the respective circuits as once they reach the boundry of the circuit they have to switch the engine off and push.

A complete Farce but hey thats motorsport

[Heightswitch]

Donington is the best one!! Pushing cars whilst being overflown by large passenger jets at full throttle taking off!!

N.

[anna_blakemore]

Originally Posted by IAN #51

Why is it so difficult for the scrutineers to come to the cars. Ive had them come to check the car in the paddock @ Snetterton, Castle Combe ,Le Mans Classic,Silverstone @MG Live and Various Sprint and hillclimb events.

The simple answer is drivers. If scrutineers go out to do the cars insitu they are never ready, not organised, not with the car, have wondered off while wearing there overalls and boots etc, organisers also seem to have a habit of organising drivers briefings at the same time so the area is deserted. Don't say it doesn't happen I have seen it week in week out. It also requires more scrutineers which organisers don't want as that costs them money.
In my mind if its road legal and has an MOT it has therefore passed the noise limits for the road so shouldn't be a problem driving it around the paddock. Ive been at Donington in the past when a driver drove in through the gate in the morning in his road legal Caterham and got stopped almost immediately and had to push it!!!!!
Ive also been to Combe and never seen them move from the scrutineering bay making those parked in the lower paddock push cars all the way, then do noise test as soon as you got through, but then had to push it back to limit noise!!!!!!
Option is to start racing much later and circuits reduce the hire fee, but that will never happen.

[midgetman]

I was stopped from driving my road going MGB to scrutineering once, the marshal suggested I should tow it with my Transit. Having dragged the old York diesel into life he agreed the racer was quieter and begged me to drive the MG!

The easy solution to this problem is for drivers to strictly adhere to the letter of the law. By the time the paddock is grid locked with cars that go no further because drivers simply cannot push them, the meeting will be so far behind schedule that the organisers will either nominate a "pushing crew" or an outbreak of common sense will see engines gently burbling cars into position.

We're all reasonable people and understand why the rules are there.

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Heightswitch

Donington is the best one!! Pushing cars whilst being overflown by large passenger jets at full throttle taking off!!

N.

It does seem crazy doesn't it. But then the jets are gone in a few seconds and some of the places often affected by track noise, depending on which way the wind is blowing, are not under the flight path anyway.

Most of the aircraft using EMA these days are pretty quiet compared to how they used to be.

The light aircraft are more intrusive being lower, and noisier and slower so they hang around longer.

There's one glorious WW1 era biplane that flies around once in a while that is incredibly noisy and only manages about 50knots. (Or so it seems). Into a half decent headwind it sits around up there for hours going nowhere on full throttle.

Race days are not so bad - the noise is about 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off for a clubbie.

Track days, depending on atmospheric conditions and wind direction (and what's out on the day), can be inaudible, almost inaudible except for some tyre squeal, somewhat intrusive but broken up by a lot of red flags for recovery or a near perpetual background noise with the only respite being the lunch break. In the longer days of summer there are often evening sessions tacked on to extend the day.

By comparison one hardly notices the planes much of the time and, of course, the direction of use of the runway varies regularly so the aircraft noise patterns differ quite a lot and are shared with people the other side of the M1 who probably rarely hear any track noise at all.

The problem is that it only takes one regular complainant to screw things up - and you can always find one.

Some years ago the Airport reported that noise complaint had dramatically reduced in the previous year. I don't remember the exact figures but they were something like 13,000 calls per annum down to 4,000.

The difference was basically down to fewer call from one telephone number - which happened to be the number of a former and recently retired Air Traffic Controller at the airport.

I think the figures showed that something like 99% of calls were made by a very small number of people. It will no doubt be a similar situation for Donington to deal with via the Council noise control people.

Presumably there are a lot of happy faces during the FormulaE test days ...

[andy97]

Originally Posted by Heightswitch

Donington is the best one!! Pushing cars whilst being overflown by large passenger jets at full throttle taking off!!

N.

I understand the frustration but,

A jet takes off or lands at EMA and is noisy for about 40-45 seconds, there are then long periods of quiet before the next aircraft

The runway at EMA is used at just 19% capacity, so there are actually some very long periods of quiet between movements

EMA provides approx 6000 jobs!

Perceptions of noise irritation are affected by the frequency and duration of the noise, thus as Grant says, some small prop planes are actually more irritating than the 737s

In contrast, at a race meeting or track day there are long periods of lower dB noise level but irritating (to the non petrol head) engine noise, these periods can be up to an hour or so long without a break at some meetings.

The race circuit only used to be used probably 3 days a week (before track days) but is now a 7 day a week operation, inc some evenings.

A race circuit does not provide many jobs!

The sad fact is that we racers are in a minority interest sport and an easy target for the environmentalists. We break the rules at our peril. The noise meters at Donington are connected to the local Council offices so breaches of planning regulations are easy to prove. I have also seen local residents at the race meetings with their own noise meters, and I doubt they were race fans!

I don't know what the answer is, but we have to find a way to comply, or We won't have anywhere to play. Pushing a car to scrutineering is a pain, literally, but when I have had to do it in my own, invariably someone offers to help.

[andy97]

Just to add,

That essentially Donington is perceived by many local to be adding to the noise nuisance in the area by filling in the "quiet gaps" between aircraft with an irritating non stop engine drone, for little benefit to the local community.

As I say, we racers have to be squeaky clean (but as quietly squeaky as possible!).