Brscc

[PaulSands]

Not sure if this is the right forum but here goes.
Given Marcus Pye's broadside at the BRSCC in last weeks Autosport (due to be repeated and amplified this week I believe) and the problems with the FF1800 "race" at Donington last weekend, is this a reflection of a club suffering a serious malaise or is it just a set of unfortunate coincidences.
This is a genuine question as I had been contemplating joining as a non-racing member and getting more involved myself but don't fancy booking the last deckchair on The Titanic (unfair analogy maybe but I'm sure you all get my drift)

[petestenning]

Firstly i am not a brscc member but did do Donington at the weekend as a marshal, unfortunately the last race being cancelled was
just something that happens. I cannot comment on the reasons as i am not privy to the decision.
However i was in race control the previous week
when racing had to be abandoned due to high winds,
that decision was difficult to take but safety had to come first.
Sundays meeting was very good and run very well,
it is just unlucky that hte race was abandoned.

[brickkicker]

What happened to the last race at the weekend? When I left it was running although I think there was a red flag.

[ss_collins]

wasn't it the 750mc that had a race abandoned due to wind tunnel conditions...

[Micky.H]

The last race was red flagged due to 4(?) cars in or around the gravel at the Old Hairpin. As for the reason why not restarted was possibly due to the time to recover remains of said cars vs time of night?

[Rod Birley]

Getting back to the theme of the thread, will the BRSCC recover from recent year's problems and mistakes. I don't know, but hopefully something will get sorted. I am still waiting for a reply to recent phone calls........so maybe not.

[redshoes]

Can you blame the club for the cancelled FF1800 race? The meeting was already running late after 2 previous races were red flagged. The Caterhams because of a crash at Goddards (see other thread); no idea why the Radicals were stopped.

[PaulSands]

My concern about Donington was, despite their obvious vested interests in getting a full race for their money, the FF1800 guys seem to be very p***** off by the treatment they were given.
Like you, Rod, I both telephoned and faxed the Midlands center, regarding photgraphy passes, but received absolutely no ressonse which resulted in me contacting Donington directly (not a bad thing probably).
It's rude as much as anything else. I then read Pye's article and obviously had some empathy with where he was coming from. Again a couple of incidents don't an iceberg make but nevertheless....

[DSM]

Why do clubs schedule races to start at 6.00pm, particularly at this time of year? I've rarely been at a meeting where time has been gained during the day and generally we fall behind the schedule to some extent.
Planning a race to start at 6.00pm allows for no loss of time at all and IMO is asking for trouble.

[stroller]

Why do clubs schedule races to start at 6.00pm

Its still all down to economics.

To ensure there isn't a loss on the meeting, a minimum number of enties is required.

There are only so many hours in the day that can be used and these have to be utilised where possible.

So its either take a chance and possibly run late, or budget for less entries and start bumping up entry fees again.

You pays your money and takes your choice etc....

Believe me the Clubs still struggle to get the late finishes in because of the dwindling number of marshals who are prepared to stand around from 9:00am in the morning till turned 7:00pm at night with a nominal half hour "lunch break"

[Stephen Green]

A thought...Why not put your views in writing to Bernie Cottrel as he is bound to reply?

I do agree that to plan for any race to start at 6pm at this time of year has to be wishful thinking given that generally meetings run late and not early. Donington has struggled for marshals on occasion for the very reasons mentioned above.

[JohnMiller]

Originally posted by DSM
Why do clubs schedule races to start at 6.00pm

Especially when qualifying is at 9am!

[Ian Sowman]

There was no problem with the light at Donington even at 7pm...

[stroller]

Could it have been the dwindling number of Marshals?

[Delta Caller]

To be Fair to the BRSCC at the weekend they had some bad luck due to the two incidents at Mcleans corner where two Catherhams come together in the middle of the track. Unfortunatly the Fuel tank split on one and left the tarmac swimming in fuel it did take a fair time to clean up to make is safe for the next race. Again the Radical race was stopped two cars had come togher at Mcleans one right in the middle of the circuit. the car had damage to both right side wheels & the tyres were off the rims & could not be moved by marshals. this is were the majority of the time was lost. You win some you lose some !!

[Rod Birley]

From a competitors point of view, living south of Watford, if you leave Donington any time after 7 pm then don't expect to get home until after 10 pm (assuming the M1, M25 or M40 are not blocked). Last Sunday I saw one Formula Ford on the M25 at 10.45, pity those guys if they had to go to work the next day. Also if the clubs/ circuit owners are genuinely trying to attract spectators, who in their right mind would want to be there after 6 pm anyway. Yes I know all the cost reasons already mentioned, but these are the reasons I have given up travelling to some circuits and I know I am not the only one.
Just for the record I have voiced this at various club AGMs, but as you can see nothing much changes. That iceberg is dead ahead!!!!

[dhart]

Race meetings do get behind and if you are last race you do spend the day wondering.I think the FF1800 lot really got p!ssed off because they signed on at 7.30am qual at 9.00am and waited patiently all day after losing an hours sleep due to the hour change, surely its mainly poor planning, if the FF1800 race had been put between the radical races , it would only have been the second radical race that would have been shortened - not rocket science!
And before anyone gets on the back of the fine BRSCC midland center - remember this season the metings are organised by head office, me thinks this is the real problem

[kickstart]

dhart, having been at the Donington meeting, fortunately involved with the Caterhams and not the FF1800, I have a great deal of sympathy for them. I would absolutely agree that race meetings tend to run over and therefore the sensible thing to do would be to run the second radical race last and if needed shorten it.
Things have not been going well at Donington so far this season, first meeting of the year - high winds, power loss and spectator walking across the track and now this FF1800 debacle. Hopefully this will mean that if all their bad luck comes now things will run smoothly for the rest of the year.

[PaulSands]

"spectator walking across the track" ??? no way!!! I hadn't heard about that...what was on track at the time?

[Peter Harding]

Originally posted by PaulSands
"spectator walking across the track" ??? no way!!! I hadn't heard about that...what was on track at the time?

Nothing to worry about. It was during a "pause" to allow the heavy rain to go away and some guy got lost because some accesses were closed (tunnel). He was already looked after by marshals on post long B4 we restarted.

[Rod Birley]

Just for the record the BRSCC have declared a six figure loss for last year.

[Chris Y]

Should be an interesting AGM coming up then...

[JohnMiller]

I think they lost about £150k, which amounted to a total of about 30% of all the club's reserves.

[goforit500]

Whens the AGM ??

[Rod Birley]

April 25th somewhere in the Midlands I think, although some centre AGMs are this week (south east is Tuesday 6th April).