JCC Donington 20/10/02

[Alan Green]

Although I am spokesperson for neither the JCC or DDMC (Darlington & District MC), thank you to all the marshals who turned up for yesterdays meeting, and sticking with it through until the (very) bitter end. If the cars could have seen the chequered flag in the last race we would have been away at least two laps earlier, but the red lights were the only option to get the cars to stop once the leaders had gone accross the line yet again!

The last race was shortened due to the weather/lack of visibility, but after having a full grid travel down from (predominantly) Darlington / NE England / Scotland to turn them round saying 'sorry you can't play today' would have been a bit harsh. I know that the AROC and JCC members will feel upset about losing their race, but conditions were obviously very against us.

Being a DDMC member, I hope that you enjoyed the Northern Sports & Saloon races, with Mr Sugdens attempt to get the win back after choking the restart in the A+E class race, and action all the way through the BC+D class race. Unfortunately as the flag/observer on post 39 I had to call a stop in practice as a fellow club member threw his 205 into the wall and made it a narrow version Peugeot (but his McNish-like take off was spectacular, but he kept it within the circuit, and also walked away shaken but not too badly stirred). Then at the end of the A+E race I had the yellow Darrian and a Cobra finding out that horse power & wet tracks don't always work together, fortunately the chequer beat the red on that occasion, but lifting the streamlined Darrian with a knackered front end is not an easy task as Mr Avery found out. And finally the sight of several BC+D classes sailing majestically past the turn in for goddards and heading towards melbourne before the sychronised u-turns to rejoin was hilarious, although the Evo heading towards them broadside was slightly less so, but alls well that ends well (eventually).

Again thank you to all involved.
Alan.

[SCARY]

Due to the weather forecast issued on Saturday,we knew that we were possibly in for a rough ride, but the racing made up for this. As usual the grids were quite full with all competitors from first to last trying to go for glory or bust (some obivously did !!!)

This time of year it is always a bit of a lottery with failing light against the number of races needed to make a meeting viable.

We were kept pretty busy all day - thoroughly enjoyable.

[Adam43]

Thanks from us drivers too.

I had a race cancelled due to weather and reds at Cadwell last year. It is, shall we say, a bit annoying but sometimes it has to happen. Most drivers realise this.

A great day. It's a shame it's all over for another year

Cheers

[Grahambangers]

Alan

May I return to your posting....

"And finally the sight of several BC+D classes sailing majestically past the turn in for goddards and heading towards melbourne before the sychronised u-turns to rejoin was hilarious, although the Evo heading towards them broadside was slightly less so"

You made so little of it....
As Alan said....

Approximately 4 or 5 mid field runners (some of which were normally front runners) decided to out break themselves into goddards..(the fact that it had rained for some four hours previously and was still raining should have been a give away).

The said incident was at the end of the first or secon lap after two green flag laps so they should have been used to the conditions.

They simply applied the breaks and went straight down the wrong side of the loop...realising their mis-fortune our friend in the Evo applied his breaks and turn 90 degrees on the spot and continued track direction. At this point his view must have been goddards appearing form his left, passing in front of his eyes and off to the right...pure ballet...oh then we remembered our four or so other friend..
it maybe time to start worrying..nor..its post 38's problem.

Everyone manage to avoid each other with no more damage than a couple of tyres got moved....

It was one of those moments that really should have been caught on video.

[Stone-kicker]

Thanks for your comments guys, hope you enjoyed it, despite of the weather.

A big thanks from all at the JCC to everyone who has marshalled for us this year and I just hope that our final 2 meetings of the year are more indicative of the grids for next year.

If we could combine the grids/racing from Donington and Silverstone with the weather from Anglesey and Cadwell and bring the marshals from all of our meetings together we could have a great weekend!