CTCRC Brands hatch 5th / 6th June

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

What about Sunday then thats when I am racing!! For me dry practice/qually wet race is a nightmare scenario.home .

Now you know why I am flying off on Saturday night

[brands hatch]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

What about Sunday then thats when I am racing!! For me dry practice/qually wet race is a nightmare scenario. Just checked I really dont believe it, I may switch races tomorrow if I can and race on the Saturday as wet races are no good to me at all I may as well go home as the car is simply a pig in the wet and frankly dangerous.

yeah saturday is definately looking the better day...more showers predicted for sunday! I guess the Camaro's a bit of a handfull in the wet?!

I will be there both days, timetable is looking good.

[Al Weyman]

Its not nice at all in the wet and we cannot change tyres from the Dunlop Formulas and mine are virtually tread less.

[zefarelly]

safety fast eh Al !!! you've got radials, it should be a doddle whatever!

weather's weather, I'd rather dry and sunny for obvious reasons, but I don't mind wet races, you just have to adjust, and clench at the top of Paddock Hill

[NICK ALLISON]

Originally Posted by westfieldbend

Definitely

Programmes are usually appalling too. They also don't usually bother paying the extra £x for a snatch vehicle at brands so live snatches don't happen and safety cars end up being longer. BARC are probably the least spectator friendly club of all... Oh, except they run the BTCC (although not the promotional side of things)!!

Expecting fairly good grids all round except the chevron thing, should be a great meeting as it has all the CTCRC championships.

I suspect the spectator promotion of some of the meetings is handled by the circuit owner rather than the organizer .

[zefarelly]

I doubt its managed at all, there's no better plug for an historic meeting than the entrants, if we don't know and can't say its flogging a dead horse

perhaps the CTCRC need to shout at BARC? they've done the hard bit and filled their grids . . . . more spectators means better revenue means a potentially better deal for the organisers next time . . . . . . I wouldn't go as far as to say we'll get cheaper race entires!!!

[Al Weyman]

Originally Posted by NICK ALLISON

I suspect the spectator promotion of some of the meetings is handled by the circuit owner rather than the organizer .

Its the same old story Nick and Zef since I was involved running a race club, something seriously needs to change to end the status quo and horn locking.

[westfieldbend]

Originally Posted by NICK ALLISON

I suspect the spectator promotion of some of the meetings is handled by the circuit owner rather than the organizer .

Yeah..
As far as I know:
Programmes are down to the club
Gate fees go to the circuit

But what about when the club is the circuit, I'm thinking Thruxton, Pembury, Croft, Mallory here, do BARC just not care?

MSVR on the other hand always put an entry list up if its their meeting .

[Tainan]

It doesn't cost much to put the entry list on the web, and its important information for potential spectators. Even where the gate revenue doesn't go to the club, more speccies means more potential members / regalia sales etc.

[carrera]

16.27 today - Zef on the local radio station talking at BH about GT Cortinas, 3rd place qualifying, taking the lead and retirement!

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by zefarelly

you just have to adjust, and clench at the top of Paddock Hill

Well you proved that after the restart today !

[zefarelly]

Twas an action packed day! cars been great all seaon save a mysterious oil temperature problem, suffice to say we now know what it is!

Qualifying was tempered slightly by some bright spark doing 1/2 a lap spewing a double width trail of oil all over the black bit, mostly on the racing line as well, It made it pretty hairy down Paddock Hill and Druids, in fact almost all the way to Surtees from the start line! anyway 3rd behind 2 LC's wasn't too shabby, 0.3s off the pair who where only split by .003s!

got a reasonable start, in 3rd, felt I could stay with the front 2, harrying Brian Stevens whilst being harassed by Phil Mansers mini, then the safety car came out, we slowed, by the time I saw the SC it went in, the 2 LC's where 100 yards ahead as they'd seen the SC and the fact its lights had gone out and booted it, so I nailed it . . . . they had to hold back as they'd caught a slower mini before the start line, I timed the run right and flew past both of them, carried a little too much speed into Paddock and got it a little sideways, but hung on and it stuck. (I've never led a race before!) I held it round to Graham Hill bend where Roger squeezed me tight on the inside and I scrubbed off too much speed, both LC's out dragged me on the back straight, hey ho, 30s of glory!!!

a few laps later I pulled in and retired as something wasn't quite right and I didn't want to kill the engine, we whipped the sump off and had a look, I'd just run a big end . . . . which we could have replaced as the crank was fine, however checking a main we found little bits of rubber . . . . . It transoires that the chain tensioner rubber pad has broken up and been circulating, so it must be in all the oil galleries, A £5 bit ruins race day.

on the up side having retired rather than grenade it its going to be a peanuts cheap fix as no real damage done, we're competitive, and the cars handling much better, and I think I put a few smiles on peoples faces, although Mrs Zef wasn't so impressed

a nice relaxed meeting and some great conversations with all at the free BBQ last night, top work CTCRC!

oh, and thanks to AL, we got a best presented car award

[zefarelly]

I'll also add that for the first time in 7 years I was asked to show my FiA papers, and a few checks and measurements where taken from the car . . . also engines where being sealed, etc, with this alongside a sensible set of regs its little wonder the grids big and the racings close.

[Mike Sheraton]

Are you entering any other CTCRC races this year, me and my dad really enjoyed watching your Cortina, especially as it's the only GT our there, as dad used to race a GT back in the late 80s.

[Alfaholic]

Originally Posted by NICK ALLISON

I suspect the spectator promotion of some of the meetings is handled by the circuit owner rather than the organizer .

It seems that the spectator promotion of this meeting has been handled by the competitors - I only found out about it from this thread and so changed my plans and went to Brands instead of the 2nd day of the HSCC meeting at Snetterton. However...

Originally Posted by zefarelly

I doubt its managed at all, there's no better plug for an historic meeting than the entrants, if we don't know and can't say its flogging a dead horse

perhaps the CTCRC need to shout at BARC? they've done the hard bit and filled their grids . . . . more spectators means better revenue means a potentially better deal for the organisers next time . . . . . . I wouldn't go as far as to say we'll get cheaper race entires!!!

Perhaps the CTCRC need to shout a lot louder. I got there this morning before 10am to be granted by the news that they had run out of programmes! When I mentioned that the Saturday must have been busy I was told that the organiser had not printed many at all.

How do they expect to attract spectators if they cannot even let them know who is competing.

On a positive note though, there was some good racing today, the highlight being the Classic Clubmans race with a last lap manoeuvre that started with Ray Mallock taking the inside at Druids and finished going round the outside at Graham Hill.

Congratulations are also due to Al for 3rd in his first race of the day - I hope you supplied extra doughnuts to the marshals for the effort they had to put in to clear up afterwards though!

[Al Weyman]

Thanks for the conrats Alfaholics and yes I do appologise profusely for the senior moment I seriusly didnt realise I had ripped a hole in the sump thought it was a reaccurring power steering pump leak to to a hot manifold. I too managed to lead a race although briefly after one of the best starts I have ever made with this car, I will try to post some incar later.

As for CTCRC promoting it can I make a correction there. The CTCRC is run by unpaid amatuers without an advertising budget and take Jack **** out of the gate or anything else, its the BARC that organise the meeting they also control printing and supply of the programs. However we will again be promoting our very own Lydden Hill Historic meeting in July this year and can assure you funds will be set aside to advertise this as it is a CTCRC run event and that there will be plenty of programs as the clubs Chairman is a printer!!!.

[Alfaholic]

Al - what I meant was that the CTCRC need to shout a lot louder at BARC (as per zefarelly's post) if they rely on them for promotion. I have no problem with the CTCRC as there seems to be more info on their website than on BARC's.

I attended the Lydden event that was CTCRC promoted last year and saw what they could do.

p.s. The cheers of your support team (wife?) at Paddock could be heard from the inside of Druids as you lead off the start line!

[SPECTATORSAL]

We decided to go to Snett to spectate at the HSCC meeting today purely driven by the fact that we knew what the entry was & the weather forecast looked slightly better! Both turned out fine. Know the CTCRC do a grand job though & have great cars/racing so will defo do one of their meetings another time. Possibly Lydden on 18/07 in fact (no can do the 17th sadly)! Sal

[Stephen Green]

No doughnuts from Al this weekend sadly. Next time he gets given the cement dust and a broom

Nice to see all those lovely cars again this weekend. I was post chief at post 4 both days so was more busy on Saturday than today. I hope the guy in the BMW who backed into our post and shortened his car by about 3 feet is ok? I saw it on the trailer this morning (near Al) and went to say hi and to see if he was ok but he was nowhere to be seen.

Thanks to all of you for providing a great weekends action (apart from the very poor 7 car gris for the 40 minute race on both days) and for your waves to the marshals on the slowing down laps.

[zefarelly]

that Ginetta thing is a bit of a joke!

[Stephen Green]

Chevrons Zef Chevrons...

[Alan Raine]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

I seriusly didnt realise I had ripped a hole in the sump thought it was a reaccurring power steering pump leak to to a hot manifold.

Described on TNF (with photo) as the Amoco Cadiz

[zefarelly]

oops, shows how much atention I paid! You pays per money and takes your choice but you get a bigger grid of IT consultants in Caterhams on the Ferry to Lemans!

[Stephen Green]

I agree with you on that one and feel they should shorten their race distance until they are able to field a larger grid, say more than 12-15 cars. It's not much fun marshalling 7 cars for 40 minutes either...

[zefarelly]

nodding off mid race isn't in the blue book is it!

you all did such a good job with the SC in our race I only actualy saw it at the end of clearways and it was in!

I spoke to the driver and mechanic of the CSL, they where optimistic the damage was panel work and not structural so it'll be back.