Brands Formula Ford Festival

[jonbryant]

Originally Posted by Novice

Jon are you going to be a media pass snapper or a speccy snapper?

Alan

Media pass snapper for this one Al so I'll see you there!

[Nighthawk]

Lets not mention the weather, but I had a wonderfull weekend over on post 6
Some interesting racing.
We were a little short on numbers both sat and sun, My thanks go out to the team i had and the good work they did on sun.
see you all at the truck meet.....

[Bodysnatcher]

misquoting a bit - lets mention the weather

Should we have carried on?

On a personal note, I had no great problems with it - I was maybe a bit more miserable than usual by late Sunday afternoon, but I think I've had worse weather thrown at me.

On Saturday the 1/2 hour caterham race went pretty much belly up with 5 minutes to go. I think that it really would have benefitted from a red flag. Running to the chequered was madness.

but at least Saturday had breaks in the rain

Sundays races were run in pretty appaling conditions for most of the day. Probably not bad enough to call it all off, but the number of cars getting wrecked at post 4 must give rise to concern about the standing water/ differing levels of grip at the bottom of paddock on that newish patch of tarmac.

Amongst a whole load load of heroes (all of us). I think the stand out crew must be post 4. It was'nt my post, and I'm not sucking up to anybody (do I ever?). I'll leave it to those that were there to tell their stories if they wish.

The number of cars impacting heavily around the post ittself was frightening. From our viewpoint at 5 through the grey gloom of spray usually the first indication of something wrong was the hi intesity rear lights.
Either that or a Duratec FFord 10 feet up in the air minus it's front suspension heading our way.

Shame too that many old friends chose not to marshal, politics ruining a damn good hobby/profession/obsession again.

[Claire]

I enjoyed my day at post 5 yesterday despite getting cold towards the end of the day and getting covered in mud everytime we ran down towards post 4 to assist when another car hit the standing water and headed for the barrier!!
Thanks have to go to the BRSCC for the lunch bag, to the rest of my crew for remaining quite jolly whilst getting very soggy, the Sports 2000 drivers for their very generous cash contribution towards our raffle and to all the drivers who went out in awful conditions and still put on a great show.
Shame the result of the final final is going to be down to the appeal process and the MSA but that's what happens when the rules get broken

[Mike Kelly 1]

Having been the I.O. at post 4 for the festival I would like to say thank you to every one on post who worked in atrocious conditions and had one of the busiest Sundays that I have ever had at the festival. The incident crew worked fantastically and managed to clear up all the incidents with speed and safety. Thank you to the flaggies (our very own Evil Pumpkin and Alec Knyvett). I have never seen a pair of flaggies move so quickly every time a Formula Ford or sports 2000 was about to impact with the post. Thankyou also for the whistle blasts, some drivers dont appreciate that when the SC is out and marshals are trackside that they should not a. over take, b. speed up and c. spin! Thank you also to the crews at 4A and 5. Its nice to know you have great teams either side of you to back you up.

Finally, thank you to our Observer, Roger Allnut. Its always a great pleasure to work with Roger. The banter flows back and forth all day but never gets in the way of his professionalism. Even during the worst of the weather he had us laughing!

For those marshals that chose not to do the festival and for those who are yet to do it, Please come down. Its always a great weekend.

[Richard_Cooke]

Can I just say a few words of thanks to everyone for being there for us this season. It was the last round of our Sports 2000 championships at the FF Festival and I asked Colin Feyerabend the club secretary if he thought it would be alright if Deb and I went round the S2 racers to see if we could collect some cash for the traditional end of the day Marshals raffle. The club did this a few years ago and we felt that it was about time once more we gave something back to all you wonderful people who try and keep us and our race cars safe from harm. At considerable risk to your own safety at times.

As you know we have big grids as so it was quite a job getting to see everyone whilst racing myself but we did it and I must tell you that *ALL* my fellow competitors willingly chipped in. Anne's face was a picture when we handed over the bag of cash. The SRCC really does appreciate you.

There were a number of safety car incidents and I can appreciate your concern over speed but we have been urged to join the croc as quick as possible, keeping in mind that there may be Marshals working, so that all the cars are in one place on the track. Of course this doesn't work too well if there's a car running poorly which causes the field to be split in two as happened in the Pinto race.

So that's us finished for this year unless there are sufficient numbers interested in doing the Winter warmer at Snet on the 5th Nov.

Hopefully we'll be be back at Brands a couple of times at least in 2007 and we can return the post race waves.

It's been great....Thanks

Richard and Debbie Cooke
Car #16 Red Lola T87/90 Pinto

[Bodysnatcher]

Additionally - to whoever complained to the powers that be that coments made on 10/10ths seems to influence post allocation - read the whole of 10th threads carefully.
Your complaint was taken seriously, caused bad feeling and people at the top had to later make apologies because they had'nt actually seen your "evidence".

So here we go, lets review what was written....

The first time it's mentioned is when Mike says he hopes to see EP on post again (number not specified)
EP replies (with smiley)

well we'll see what we get

adding that bringing chocolate (for unspecified person) as bribery may help.
it's then Stephen Green that says

You think Mildred likes chocolate then Terri?

and that's it for EvilP & Mike

As far as I know Mildred has no role in the allocation of posts....and Terri was bringing a gift for the person that smooths things out for those coming from abroad.
Actually Mildred smooths things out for all of us.

Then one of our new members who goes under the pseudonym of Brandspost4a (hmm, who could that be? - hope you get better soon CJ) says

Hope to see MagnetON back on post with me and we can both a laugh
about EP pushing cars uphill from Post4 he he.

again post not specified & MagnetOn never replies to this.

Look, whover you are that keeps reading too much into postings on this website between good marshals and their friends - give it up.

I have no hidden agenda. My friends and I want to enjoy our weekends. Communication via tenths can be a power for the good.

Finally thanks to the BRSCC for my lunches, which on Sunday did spookily contain smokey bacon crisps....

Al

[Nighthawk]

Ok having been a marshall at Brands for a number of years.
I will say this, there are 1 or 2 of our number who seem to have there selection of post or always on the same post.
influence post allocation i have to agree that this is something that on the outside looks like it is happening - not that i am complaining.
We need to be fair and experiance comes from working all the posts over the course of the season,

[Stephen Green]

Al, I wholeheartedly agree with your comments and think some of the venom was directed at me for some unknown reason. It was extremely hurtful and has led me to think whether I will bother doing any more FFF, and I haven't missed a year since I started marshalling!

[Stephen Green]

Richard,

A very warm and hearty welcome to ten-tenths from all of us marshals. We are endebted to the SRCC for their continued and unswerving support. I was at the SRCC Festival a couple of years ago when you made an equally generous jesture to the marshals.

Please pass our heartfelt thanks to all the club members, it made a very wet Sunday more bearable :-)

[Bodysnatcher]

Originally Posted by Nighthawk

I will say this, there are 1 or 2 of our number who seem to have there selection of post or always on the same post.

ABSOLUTELY - and some I've never seen anywhere near tenths.

[Mark Mitchell]

Originally Posted by Stephen Green

....and I haven't missed a year since I started marshalling!

75 FFF's? That's impressive old boy!

[Stephen Green]

76...you missed one

[Stack]

I would like to thank everyone at Brands over the weekend for making my first marshalling visit an enjoyable one - dispite the rain!
I had heard (obviously from folks that had not visited Brands) that it was a bit "clicky" but nothing could be further from the truth!
Thanks also to all the crew on Post 3 particulaly Rob the I/O who I had some great banter with.
Finally, I would like to apologise to anyone who was in the Kentagon on Saturday night who had to endure my singing in the Karaoke!

[archaic gold]

Reading through this thread, having been working all weekend and therefore unable to Marshal at the FF/Caterham Festival; (but Thursday on Post 22 - Testing was good fun!!!!); can I just add in support of Stephen? He does a lot of background work with Mildred in the Signing-on and in other fields, so perhaps he is entitled to a little preference in Post allocation? I also notice Roger was on Post 4, so he is no longer the resident at Post 4a!! Just an observation!

[Nighthawk]

Why should...Who you are -What you have done, or who you talk with, get you Preferential treatment.
As marshals we are all equal.

[Mike Kelly 1]

Sadly due to time and money constraints I was only able to get to Brands for four meetings this year but managed to do posts 1, 2, 4 and 10. Not too bad for moving round the circuit I think!

[Teletubby]

Originally Posted by Nighthawk

Why should...Who you are -What you have done, or who you talk with, get you Preferential treatment.
As marshals we are all equal.

I wrote and then deleted my original reply to this or EP would ban me!

I guess that in some respects you are right but this is not a case of asking for preferential treatment (and knowing Stephen he won't have asked) but that those doing the allocations feel that they are 'doing a favour' for those people who contribute the most.

Your post comes across as rather mean and snide even if that's not what you meant (and I would hope that it's not).

[Nighthawk]

Well i done 8 meetings Posts 1, 4a, 6, 10, 22, 24.

[Nighthawk]

Your post comes across as rather mean and snide even if that's not what you meant (and I would hope that it's not).

No it was not my intention to come across like this.
I was not having a dig at stephan or anyone else,

[Novice]

Sounds like everybody is still a bit water logged. More complaints about post allocations than the festival itself.

I hope that those that went enjoyed themselves, the few posts about the festival show that the team spirit was good. The comment that you were short both days is suprising as I had been told that no more marshals were required for the event, or were there a lot of no shows because of the weather.

[Nighthawk]

I know there was alot of no-shows on saturday.

[Teletubby]

OK Nighthawk, perhaps I misread your post, easy to do with the written word!

As an aside, do clubs take into account 'no-shows' when considering who to accept and reject next time?

[Eddy V]

Originally Posted by Novice

Sounds like everybody is still a bit water logged. More complaints about post allocations than the festival itself.

True Alan. I've enjoyed it as usual. Some great racing, albeit the Duratec final looked more like a banger race.
Tandy did a great job in catching the field again, spinning more often than once and some overtaking that was not allowed.
The Kents were superb, but there I'm a bit biased.

I felt really sorry for the girls and boys on the bank on Sunday (I stood down to be with my guest for the day), I could at least hide under the brolly.

I guess all the crashes at Post 4 maybe had something to do with EP being there? Or my quick visit in the morning, as I attrack the cars as well so often?
Where can I get a copy of the pictures taken?

Complaints about post allocation? How dare they! Probably they are the ones that hardly ever show up and then think they can do whatever they like.

(goes away humming a certain song from a US warmovie)

[Richard Sneader]

Having done sign on for a few clubs over the years its not easy and no one system seems to please everyone( no dig at anyone particuarly). I try to move around to keep my wits about me and learn posts especially when they have had a change. Thanks to all the guys on post 5 on Fri and Sat I was at RAF Halton doing a medical cover for rugby on the Sun. Not bad 1 off to hospital in the first 5 mins of the first game. very wet though in total 3 to hospital.
i think I attract it!!.
stay safe,
Rich.