750MC Silverstone 26/7 Aug 2006

[Peter Harding]

Thanks to all the marshals for making this another memorable weekend for the 750MC and their competitors.
Also thanks from the marshals to the Formula Vee guys who, once again, laid on a great BBQ for us all.

[Gridlock]

Great Weekend from the 750 Club Peter and all those that made it possible. I was pleased that I could stay for the whole meeting this time. Some really good racing especially the large grids on Saturday. Thanks also to all the drivers and teams for puuting on a great weekend.

[scorch]

I too would like to add my thanks to the formula vee guys for a cracking BBQ. and i might add some very good racing...

[mark77]

Thanks from all the Stock Hatch racers - a good day racing although the weather made qualifying interesting

Mark

[White flag man]

Well done Peter and the 750 club for another excellent weekend, with some great racing.
Nice to actually have two flag marshals on a post. Thanks to Gerry for all his advice and knowledge at Woodcote approach on Saturday, aswell as the general banter. Great idea of yours for flag storage, I think you should sell it to all flaggies. Nice to meet Steven aswell, though I'm sure you brought some pork pies, due to all the action between our two posts. Well done to the Brooklands incident crew on Saturday for virtually making Nick and his JCB redundant. Keep taking the steroids boys.
Thanks to Tim for the company at Maggots on Sunday, what a character!
Well done to Mick Harris and Bob Simpson for showing us what close clean racing is all about, in the 750 formula Championship, a credit to British Motorsport, and also to the Hot Hatch boys at the end of Sunday, in spite of the BTCC driving, for the great finale.
Can't get over the 10.45 sign on time on Sunday. I still got there at 10.00!
Look forward to seeing you at Mallory.

[ss_collins]

Good job as always chaps - bit of constructive though...

In the first vee race I found the hairpin a wee bit hairy every lap after a couple of the others went exploring. There was a lot of something on my normal line way over to the left - and debris on the inside leaving just one line. Dunno if anything could be done about (guess if it could it would)

One track problem - I found the flag position on the run from copse to the hairpin kind of hard to see Its just at the point where you are doing other stuff (at least I am!)

Oh and one for Jag Man Silverstone Sid - I told you I'd have you! just took 2 years for a rematch - I passed you in turn 2. I nearly took out the silver Audi on the grid - I did'nt expect to be racing the service vehicles - guess I should have learnt by now.

Race 2 was a lot better for me!

Hope my rantings have some meaning

Vee no. 26

[scorch]

Sam, We could see that all racing lines were not avaliable throught the hairpin (maggots for future reference). however, there was still a line throught not yours sorry.

The problem is that there is no safe way to fetch it, the time between you seeing us and being on top of us is less than a second, and as there was a line through it was left.

Next time you are at silverstone if you come down to maggots you will see it's totaly blind.

[JamesH]

To all those at Maggots after I was T-boned in the Locost race. Very quick on the scene, and very well done all. I was a bit dazed at the time, but am OK now, with just a stiff neck, and a written off chassis!

Thanks again, I will hopefully see you all next year, when, even more hopefully, I will NOT need so much of your assistence - this year has been a nightmare!

James Hughes
Locost#54

[ss_collins]

Mark - thought so.

[Suze]

The BBQ was good! To add to Sam's point, from where I was stood (on the inside), I could not see a gap where it would have been safe for the bodywork to be collected - I did think at points that it should have been removed, however having then looked for a "safe" period of time to give a marshal the time to run and retrieve it, not once did I see a gap where they could have done so.

[chezza]

The only time body work is likely to be retrieved is in the first couple of laps of a race when there is a big enough gap and only if it is safe to do so, marshals will not go out if its not safe.

[Suze]

This was within the first few laps iirc, but there was not a safe enough gap for the bodywork to be retrieved even then. There never was a safe amount of time during the heat for the bodywork to be retrieved.

[rbs]

After 2 laps it would have been impossible to retrieve any debris from the circuit. There was a 20 second difference in lap times from front to back of the grid. As the fastest car was lapping in 67 seconds it would have been 27 seconds gap between last and first on the second lap.it would have been unsafe for any marshal to go and retrieve the body work after that as you have to consider the distance you have to run to the debris as well as the time you have between cars.

[scorch]

There may well have been a big enough gap, looking from the inside, you can see up to the exit of copse, but when you are standing on the outside you can barely see 10m. infact it is a common for the IO on the outside to rely on the IO on the inside to signal is a car has pulled off round the corner.

Don't forget you will also have to jump off a 6ft wall then run and pickup a piece of debris, that is off line. (well a racing line still exists even with it there).

Quite frankley im not a great advocate of fetching bits of bodywork. if cars are going either side of it then i may consider it cause it must be right in the way, but normally i'm not putting my life at unnecessary risk just so drivers can go 0.5s a lap quicker.

[ss_collins]

In a single seater stray bodywork does worry me as it can get flicked up and hit you in the face quite easily (you wouldn't believe the amount of crap that hits you as you start a race for example - and following a car spewing gravel is plain nasty) It can also cause punctures and start big accidents as my wallet found out when a piece of stock hatch broke the Austro... (well the stock hatch and the Revett straight armco).

However a marshal shouldn't be taking crazy risks to remove it as mark says.

The Bodywork was there from Lap 1. however I think as as been said by the guys who were there it wasn't gettable.

[Dave Brand]

Originally Posted by scorch

Quite frankley im not a great advocate of fetching bits of bodywork. if cars are going either side of it then i may consider it cause it must be right in the way, but normally i'm not putting my life at unnecessary risk just so drivers can go 0.5s a lap quicker.

For me, it comes down to a simple question: can it be done safely? If it can be done safely, do it; if not, leave it.

[Suze]

There wasn't a gap when watching from the inside, and whoever put down the numbers earlier was right when they stated the difference between the first and last guys - def not enough time!