HSCC Meeting - Donington 4/5th Oct

[John Turner]

OK, with you! Odd though when you think about it. I'd have put the sportracers and GTs together and kept the saloons separate, but I guess the GT40 drivers were worried about being beaten by open sports racers. Oh, well!

[terence]

Was the original ruling to do with the fact that GT40s were available as road cars?I used to live very close to Boreham and often saw them on the road,sometimes with the engine covers up and steam pouring out!

[simon drabble]

no I think it was more about GT40 owners not liking being blown off by cars worth considerably less!!!!

[terence]

Not much has changed then!

[p261brm]

The weekend summed up as follows; Blown away, Nags Head then soaked to the skin slightly broiled; More room in the paddock though, supose this is part of the 'improvements' for a GP that I; and most others doubt will happen

[delta]

Well that was two weekends in a row and all my cars finnished and drivers went away happy. "wont last". Worked hard Thursday then packed up as had to move truck to P3 holding area. Bit fed up in evening as its cold and wet and i am about to walk up to the village for fish and chips when Duncan Rabagliati came by and insisted on taking up the pub."only a little perswaysion". Had a great evening with Duncan as allways he then dropped me back of at the gate and i bid the marshall good nite when he told me i had to move the truck outside to sleep in. "not amussed". Then in the morning he then tells me i cant go back to holding area untill 4 30. "even less amussed". Had to prep cars outside then mad dash into paddock at 4pm thanks to HSCC Alan negotiation.Best race was Jim in Galaxie and Mini in HSCC Saloon both drivers had a great time this is what club racing is all about.I had a naff race in the Delta having changed settings after qualafing "should no better by now ". Customer Delta's ran well so that was good and Jim and Rupert Wood had a steady run in Flavions race.Got home 9 30 Sunday evening had a row with Mrs Delta and went to bed. Next stop Nurburgring.

[Marcus Mussa]

The Formula Junior Lurani round at DP was rather spoiled when HSCC (now known as the Health & Safety Car Club?) neutralized the second heat with a ... safety car. I was unfortunate in the first heat on Saturday to get hit quite hard by Walford who went wide at the Hairpin on the first lap then suddenly lost control (on the grass!) as I was going by into 2nd place – luckily he only thumped my rear wheel, however it spun me round and everybody went by. I thought the car would be a wreck but could see two rear wheels in the right position in the mirrors so I turned around and carried on and in fact everything was fine with the car. I had a lot of catching up to do and made it back into 7th place but a long way behind the next car. The wind was incredibly blustery making the car extremely twitchy under braking but everybody had the same problem.
In the second heat in semi-damp conditions on Sunday afternoon I worked hard to build up a lead over one of the cars which had finished ahead in the first heat (Tonetti, one of my main rivals in the Championship), but it all went to waste! Baba had gone off at Redgate but although we had gone past him perfectly safely at least twice under yellow flags, the H&SCC did their usual trick to try to gain time - out came the SC, we all bunched up, and out came the red flag as soon as the minimum distance was run. Mutter mutter.
CF3 was great fun; we qualified behind a SC and were lined up for the grid in Championship order which placed me well back in 11th! The track was drenched in qualifying but not too bad except for a river crossing the track at the kink after the Hairpin – it would certainly have been madness to drive fast under those conditions, so I guess for once H&SCC was right. I had a fun race, by then on a dry track, and really enjoyed following the top FF2000 car driven by Peter Denham – what a superb driver! My car was naturally faster so I went by in the end and finished 6th (which is about where I would normally have finished).

[John Turner]

Good report, Marcus, thanks. I wonder if the HSCC would be prepared to respond to your issues, on here?

[delta]

Sorry Marcus i thought the HSCC did a pretty good job. My only gripe is that testing was on Thursday then a track day for MG's on Friday. Surley someone could of thought about swoping the days arround.

[TorqueWench]

That will have been because they can't run 3 noisy days together. The MGs will have counted as a quiet day - so the HSCC will have had no option

[Highworth]

[quote=delta]Sorry Marcus i thought the HSCC did a pretty good job.quote]

I have to say that from 70’s Roadsports perspective, Sundays outing at Donnington was not probably not the HSCCs finest, although it promised to be a real good one.

Arrival on Saturday amidst howling gales, but at least an early sructineering, then on Sunday like most we did the obligatory 3 laps sloshing around behind the safety car, which all acknowledge was the only sensible thing to do.

The race was programmed for 4.20pm, so with loads of time to kill quite a few of us went off about 11am to find the dry and warm of the Donnington Collection, only to find when coming out of the hall about 1pm a phone call from a colleague in the paddock saying “you’re on next” !!

So a quick sprint back to the paddock (must brush up on the fitness training if we have to do this again !) throw some fuel in the car, get changed and just made the collecting area in time, where seemingly we had been moved to the 1.15pm lunchtime slot (the cynical in me suggests that Group C boys on next had requested someone to go out and clean up what was a very greasy drying track, so HSCC in their wisdom decided 70’s would do the job - nice), giving very little notice and leaving several of our usual runners away from the circuit thinking they wouldn’t be on until late afternoon and therefore missing the race (again the cynical in me thinks they wouldn’t dare b…ger around the FIA/Group C entrants in the same way, so why us?).

So first lap and one chap (happily OK) turned it upside down on the barrier entry at Goddards so red flag, and next we’re being ushered back to the paddock. General confusion followed with rumours of a race later but not at our usual race time, and eventually representative from COC came to the paddock (we were near the builders yard on the left of paddock gates so outside earshot of the paddock PA) to say subject to no delays we may have a race at the end of the day, but not for some reason at our allotted time.

Now in my book we pay our fees like all other entrants and expect, disasters aside, our race broadly at the given timetable times, not a “you may have a race” situation. Many in disgust just left in the afternoon to go home, and I imagine are claiming their refunds from HSCC as I write.

We got our late race, cut from 20 to 15 mins (which again I accept does sometimes happen) ending in near darkness close on 6.45 with headlights ablaze to find our way back through the paddock. And special thanks to all those marshals for staying on so late, after what was a long weekend.

So summary would be perhaps be this was not the HSCCs finest hour, but as it’s the first major cock up I’ve encountered in 6 years racing with them I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt as they were probably under pressure, and we’ll probably have an apology or some better explanation from HSCC race director at our annual drivers meeting at the Silverstone Finals in two weeks time ?

[simon drabble]

I think you are being a little harsh here. Firstly HSCC were not sure what was going on with the weather and I am not certain it was all their decision.
They put the 1 hour race on first before you which logistically meant there would be changes as it was felt the track was not safe for single seaters (the first two races).
Anyone who left the paddock after a morning where quallys were done behind safety car to be frank deserves to miss their race. It was announced pretty early on that the 1 Hour was being out forward and that would ineviteably mean a change in the running order. The 1 Hour ran without major incident but you are right your race in fairly short order had to be red flagged due to someone rolling their car by overdriving.
HSCC clearly took a quick decision that the most timely decision to the rest of the running order would be to put a series where the cars are supposed to have MOT's (and therefore lights) last. I actually think it was a very good decision.
I think the guy in the Alfda who rolled his car is the one who needs to apologise to you guys.....

[grantp]

Hi All,

Simon, I don't think it is actually a requirement for an MOT that a car must have lights, is it? However if it has them they must work. That nitpicking aside I agree that the likelihood of a car that requires an MOT will have lights is greater than for most of the others.

As for Thursday testing - it's always on a Thursday rather than Friday. Only the most major meetings - MotoGP, Download festival for example - get 3 consecutive guaranteed noisy days.

That said if the wind is blowing in the 'right' direction any day can be a noisy day it seems.


Grant

[John Turner]

Welcome, Grant.