ERC Lydden Hill 2009, what's the news?

[bigted]

just a quick check in.

Lovely and sunny again, crowds galore

Julian Godfrey Rolled this morning, but is back out and set 8th Fastest time.

Kevin Procter has had a failure this morning, the team are working hard to get him back out.

George, Pat and Christopher had a great battle in their heat.

Liam and Steve came back in from there heats with smokey cars, not so good.

[ebby]

Just got home, sunburnt having seen the best rallycross action in the UK for decades. Hansen wins!

[elspethhardie]

Just got home after a fun day at the racing, I was a bit worried about how long we might have to que to get in and out of the circuit. But drove straight in, paid...got a bit confused at the prices as none were shown and the poor girl on the course was obviously been on the gate for a while and tired, so charged 2 of us £35 - was bit confused as thought it was £20 per head but then realised she'd charged Dad as a senior much to his disgusted!

Pity the spitfires couldn't be there but understandable - think Lydden must have been one of the very few places that actually had sunshine!

Good to hear Muddy Talker even if it was only for a short amount of time.

The only down point was - A 99 ice cream with flake cost £2.50! Everything else was priced about right..yes expensive but expected but £2.50 for an icecream!

[goldy]

well mr rx-guru did you have a head count on the gate today! you need to alter your records. Good couple of days ENTERTAINMENT i thought, heard alot of expected moaning, didnt see any evidence of a credit crunch in the pits, Big well done to all the lydden staff for putting on this event and how well they did it.

[BertMk2]

Cracking couple of days racing I thought. Congrats to the organising team - I thought it all went rather well

[zac510]

Yep great two days! I had no problems with the spectating changes. Fair enough it's a little step backwards but the on-track was a huge step forwards and I'm sure any of the johnny foreigners will say that Lydden is still an awesome place to watch rallycross or any motorsport. Still far better than any of the other ERC tracks I've been to.

I reckon a lot of people missed out on the best spot which was down by the joker area. Spent quite a while down there watching drivers taking different lines through the joker chicane. It was amazing how many of them took a poor line and lost a lot of time, sometimes costing them a place. This morning Hansen went out and did two practice laps, both times through the joker lap just getting the line perfect and he surely saved himself a second or two, then back to the pits to preserve tyres.

Hunsbedt and Walfridsson very sideways spectacular. Best of Brits for me was Pat and best of Irish for me was Evans again (he did heaps with just two heats).
Pinnomaki was fast too. He didn't look or sound fast like his old Clio but the stopwatch told a different story.

First time I've been back since the Doran's took over, all facilities were spot on, couldn't have asked for more. How bloody good were all of those toilets?

Even the traffic on the A2 was good!

[zac510]

Originally Posted by chunder

And the Supercars looked to be really struggling to get the cars to work nicely, lots of front end push, Proctors car looked woeful!!! When you consider most of the tracks are fairly tight and twisty, the cars looked hard work here, guess understeer doesnt look as spectacular! Also maybe the block tyres perhaps.

I sat on the north hairpin for the first heats and one of the few div1 drivers who seemed to be actually able to get the front right wheel on the apex every time was Liam Doran.

[BOY BLUNDER]

that say's it all for me,what a good weekend i've just spent at lydden,i've just got home and i will comment more tomorrow.

BB....

[The SpeCTator]

Some interesting comments!
Here are mine:
Thought the Dorans had done a good job, shame about the chicane being fenced but no doubt the FIA was behind it.
Great you could hear the commentary, its a first at Lydden! Poor Authur Debenham had so little info about what was happening - whoever was his contact from race control did a VERY poor job - he was hung out to look like a fool too many times. Good to hear Murray - he sounded like death when he started!
The racing was very poor, too many grids of 3 cars 2 which went into the Chessons and one round the joker, just awful.
The joker lap, the worst thing ever in rallyx, minimal over taking as just used up their joke to pass or be passed.
The heats - unexciting bar about 4
The finals - some racing at last although Div 2 could not fill the grid or get 4 cars to the finish.
The cars - many breakdowns and far too many punctures.
THE WORST ELEMENT WAS THE DELAYS RACING STARTED AT 10.00 AND CONCLUDED AT 16.35 - 2HRS 35 MINS OF NON ACTION JUST HANGING AROUND - rallyx used to be zap zap zap. This was just awful.
The future - well for me although I have attended rallyx off and on since inception, this was probably the worst major meeting I have attended ( nothing to do with the hard working Dorans) but I have now closed the chapter on rallyx until better grids appear and the joker lap is binned.

[daz2202]

Originally Posted by The SpeCTator

Some interesting comments!
Here are mine:
Thought the Dorans had done a good job, shame about the chicane being fenced but no doubt the FIA was behind it.
Great you could hear the commentary, its a first at Lydden! Poor Authur Debenham had so little info about what was happening - whoever was his contact from race control did a VERY poor job - he was hung out to look like a fool too many times. Good to hear Murray - he sounded like death when he started!
The racing was very poor, too many grids of 3 cars 2 which went into the Chessons and one round the joker, just awful.
The joker lap, the worst thing ever in rallyx, minimal over taking as just used up their joke to pass or be passed.
The heats - unexciting bar about 4
The finals - some racing at last although Div 2 could not fill the grid or get 4 cars to the finish.
The cars - many breakdowns and far too many punctures.
THE WORST ELEMENT WAS THE DELAYS RACING STARTED AT 10.00 AND CONCLUDED AT 16.35 - 2HRS 35 MINS OF NON ACTION JUST HANGING AROUND - rallyx used to be zap zap zap. This was just awful.
The future - well for me although I have attended rallyx off and on since inception, this was probably the worst major meeting I have attended ( nothing to do with the hard working Dorans) but I have now closed the chapter on rallyx until better grids appear and the joker lap is binned.

Well first meeting of the year so there was always gonna be teething problems for some cars and how can they predict a puncture.

however maybe you was rather blinkered when watching as i have just sat through 2 days of excellent entertainment.

[Suze]

Well we got there for 7 today, and were surprised at the lack of traffic! Sat on the exit of the hairpin which was good because got the "sideways" action and could see all of the lap. The gap from 1430 onwards was boring, would've liked to have seen the Spitfire, but would've been the third weekend in a row I'd seen one so can't really complain!

Thought the first few heats were disappointing, but they did get better. Don't know if it's just me but thought some of the better racing was in the heats and not necessarily the finals [though some were much better than others!]. Took half an hour to get out which wasn't too bad, though we'd parked near the exit, but good to have the police controlling the flow of traffic on the exit too which I'm sure helped. Glorious weather, facilities were better than I expected [though maybe could do with some more litter bins? Was pretty mucky even first thing this morning, as there weren't that many around compared to, say, Brands] but all in all a good day out. Lydden has improved under the Dorans, but still room for more.

[zac510]

I think the stuff about 2-3 cars being on the grid was down to the rules. Look on page 6 of the programme under 'the last two races' . They purposely try to put the faster cars in smaller groups of less cars. I don't recall seeing it like this in the past so maybe it's new, or since 2008 possibly, someone in here will know more than me.

[rx-guru]

Originally Posted by goldy

well mr rx-guru did you have a head count on the gate today! you need to alter your records.

Not me, but according to my colleague TW Lydden officially claimed 13,000 people today. Makes 5,000 more than the old record, but still 17,000 less than those 30,000 somebody expected to come…

[tbtstt]

Great effort by the Dorans and I have to say that the small closed off area was a small price to pay to have the ERC back in the UK (and somewhere local!). I also agree that the more distant crowd line on the hill seems to improve the field of view there. Damn shame that at least one of the Doran family didn't make it to the grid of the final. (As well as Ericsson - he had such a good run in the C final).

My only complaint were the people with OTT gazebo's and beach style screens set up around the start line: I appreciate people want a bit of cover and their own area; but why do it at the expense of the people around and behind you? Particularly when you know how busy the event was/is going to get.

Still, a minor gripe really, as the rest of the day was pretty bloody good!

Managed to find a decent-ish spot to film; I'll stick some video up in the next couple of days!

[Elio]

For those moaning about the moaners..... The reason why people on this board are moaning about the circuit spectating revisions is essentially because the changes that have been made, PURELY TO SATISFY THE FIA FOR THE ERC EVENT, appear to be permanent. There appears to be no obvious provision to return viewing in the affected areas BACK to the way it was before. Should this be the case, then IT IS (no quibbling here... IT IS) of significant detriment to the viewing of the OTHER non-FIA ERC meetings that Lydden holds.

One area has been lost completely at the Control Tower (and yes, the Oval-Fest viewing WILL NOW SUCK - shan`t be doing that one again!!). Also, the viewing around the top of the hairpin has been made into a farcical, ankle-breaking (thats POTENTIALLY ankle breaking as I have no confirmed reports of ankle breakages, although mine now feel like they are close to breaking) health-and-safety nightmare.

Maybe Mr Lydden fence man will move the fencing back during the week, but I doubt it.

Negatives out of the way....

Ooops, sorry, forgot about the car parking..... My personal opinion, and I care not a jot for "tradition", is that parking should be structured. You should not be made to feel like you cannot view from the Dover Slope because some eejit in their transit has parked it up against the viewing area and has his 13 small children, 2 dogs, girlfriend and so on watching from out the back of it. I find this lack of distinction between where parking ends, and viewing starts all rather cheap and nasty. And like I say, it doesn`t bother me that it`s "tradition". It`s bad tradition in my viewpoint.

And..... I am informed that exiting the spectator "overflow" parking behind the hairpin was not marshalled tonight, and as a result was an extremely unpleasant and anarchic experience. Not what you want at the end of the day.

On the plus side....

Racing in my opinion was good. Excellent in some cases. Tedious in some cases. Small grids aren`t great, but are not always doom and gloom when races are short, and cars are "interesting" to watch. A Finals a tad disappointing, but that tends to happen sometimes if the calibre of drivers in them is high, and they are all at 110% and don`t make mistakes. It helps obviously if you put a few more cars in them though....

Joker Laps.... Created their fair amount of oohs and aahs from the crowd at the hairpin. It does smack as a method of doing your overtaking without ACTUALLY truly overtaking though, doesn`t it?? It also serves to completely blow the whole 1st lap "closeness". Why not ban them from being taken in the first lap, just so you get the whole field close-up for at least the first lap.

Ticket Pricing good I thought. It would`ve been dearer had it been at another (ex) Rallycross circuit not too far away.

Oh yes, might as well end on another gripe.... The agonising, annoying, hot, sweaty, dusty, sleepy, boring, MASSIVELY FRUSTRATING HUMUNGOUS (although techincally only a little over 30 minutes) EXTRA GAP before the Finals. If this was genuinely caused by some sort of technical issue with getting the grids done then shame on you FIA grid people. If it was done, as I suspect, because those Live Swedish TV people wanted it all done later to fit into their TV schedules then thats bang out of order!! How many people you say..??, about 13,000?? So that`s 13,000xhalf-an-hour`s worth of wasted time going on there. That truly is a dreadful waste of peoples time.

Oh, and the commentary... glad some could hear it, cos on the exit of the hairpin I heard ABSOLUTELY nowt.

I`d go again though! Was good!

[Gnomex]

Originally Posted by BOY BLUNDER

that say's it all for me,what a good weekend i've just spent at lydden,i've just got home and i will comment more tomorrow.

BB....

Well I second that.

A cracking weekend. Yes, I agree not perfect - but close enough!

As regards delays on Monday afternoon - please do not think this was down to the marshals. We were simply carrying out instructions from those in control but I should not expand on that here. There were reasons and don't forget that as an international event this was controlled by the FIA.

Apparently the finals were being shown live on TV across all of Scandanavia. If you saw the helicopter flying around the circuit, this was also providing TV coverage.

[Hog]

A huge thanks to all my fellow marshals especially Gnomex and the Boy Blunder for another superb weekend. Just goes to show we can deliver when needed.

A few observations from me, and I will stress these are purely personal and in no way reflect on any of my marshalling colleagues.........

Joker Lap - for God's sake someone please wake up and remove this farce. The whole essence of Rallycross is quick-fire close racing for anywhere between 3 and 5 laps. All the Joker Lap does is create confusion as to who is actually where in the race until the last few hundred metres! Yes we had some close and exciting finishes this weekend, but I'd rather see close racing for the whole length of each race rather than the last few seconds. Not only that but we've a few instances of contact which just wouldn't have occurred without the extra joke lap. There has been a fair amount of contact when the cars are joining the main circuit from the outer loop purely from the extra speed they're carrying, not to mention the different lines being taken.

More worrying I feel is the problem caused by cars diving for the joker lap and taking unwilling opponents with them - on several occasions today with a grid of 5 cars abreast you had the car on grid slot 3 diving for the joker lap from the start and taking grid positions 4 and 5 with them when that obviously wasn't their strategy.

I just feel that it's an unneccesary inclusion in an already spectacular sport - in fact I feel it's detrimental to the spectacle. Spectators come to watch cars racing cars, not cars racing the clock which is what we've had on the whole with the fields being so split up from the start.......

Anyway - onto positive things - I think the work done at the circuit is mighty impressive and the Dorans and their team should be congratulated. I'm sure when it's all finished it will look superb even if some areas weren't quite finished for the weekend. If the spectating areas could cope with today's crowd's there won't be any issues on a "regular" meeting.

The new false start system worked a treat and a hearty thanks to the chap who designed the sensors that were inserted into the tarmac. I know he was having kittens until they were all shown to be working correctly but they've made a difficult job so much easier detecting false starts.

I think the racing was excellent - some good close battles in spite of lower numbers in some heats. The drivers were well behaved on grid and tolerant of delays which were out of our hands.

Finally - a big thank you to our little team of helpers for the finals. Brought a smile to drivers and officials faces, and made me wish I was 15 years younger and 5 stone lighter.

Anyway - enough ramblings from me. See you all at the next one in May!

[Norwegian Rallycross]

Maybe the Joker lap did'nt work at Lydden. because it is such a fast track? I feel that the jokerlap has done a good job in other circuits... Just a thought...

[jonbryant]

Hog, I'll put the photo up later on...

[rx-guru]

My writing on the wall: There will come a day, sooner or later, when some people realise that Joker Laps were the biggest joke in RX history…!

[Sarge]

Fantastic w/e's racing all round, no question about it.

A huge thank you to the Dorans for putting on a great show. The circuit looks by far and away the best I can ever remember it.

As is often the case with the British rounds, I think the racing picked up as we got through the event. The speed of the Div 1 cars across Chesson's was incredible. Although i'm not totally sold on the Joker lap, the faster exit speeds the cars can carry out of it provides some great side-by-side action down towards the line - e.g. Ericcson & Hansen!

My only complaint? It's over!........

Lets just hope that the FIA were as impressed with the event as Murray claimed and that the ERC stays at the home of Rallycross for good.

[Suze]

Originally Posted by Elio

Oh, and the commentary... glad some could hear it, cos on the exit of the hairpin I heard ABSOLUTELY nowt.

Most of your post is absolutely spot on, but I was at the exit of the hairpin and could hear the commentary fine....sorry!

[lancaster]

The commentary at Lydden has always been a bit hit and miss. Probably the age of the equipment (not referring to Arthur here).

Also Arthur fell silent for a period of time until they identified a faulty microphone.

Why don't Lydden obtain an Ofcom Restricted Service License (RSL) for the big events and relay the commentary over low power FM radio (usually 97.5FM or 107.9FM) so that commentary can be heard all over the site - in cars, on headphones etc.etc.

Probably even insert some local advertising in the gaps while Arthur takes a breather to pay for it.

Excellent event. No complaints. Nice to get a reasonable pint from the concessions too!

Also proves the big man upstairs is a RallyX fan too with that weather.

[D Smeets]

Pictures from yesterday online on my website: www.davesmeets.nl

[Benny1664]

The joker lap has no place in racing.. if people cant overtake on the track then the rules need to be looked at or the tracks looked at rather than offering a joker section.. its what you would epxect off a computer game, not real racing. Rallycross used to be great and all the joker does is confuse spectators..

Did I hear the RX150s were there? How did they get on, good grids/racing?