How did people think things went yesterday give us some feedback

how was the track with the bumps
how was race control
how do people feel about 7 cars in a heat
what about driving standards?

feel free to reply on here or by pm if you prefer


Ste's post, just edited to keep everything under one post

Just a suggestion - would it be an idea to hold a quick drivers briefing at the start of each meeting? It'l give everyone a chance to ask quesions, make suggestions etc, as well as giving us a chance to remind everyone to drive cleanly, marshalling, tidying up etc...


The lower heats and finals seem to be getting quite scrappy at the moment, possibly due to an unfortunate mix of almost A final pace drivers and new starters. A drivers brief reminding everyone to drive courteously might be a better way to deal with this than a rant on the forum.

Or maybe we should bring back penalties.......


Ste

All hale bright ideas!! it pissed the living daylights out of me been wiped out by a back marker a couple of weeks ago, not once but twice in a race and also got held up. I think ste that thats a good idea!

Maybe there should be a more help on stage during the racing for the newer members or less experianced . Its all well and good having a briefing at the start but after that who's helping the new starter get better ??? it may only take a little time to show people how to let people past without losing to much time your self or a little more car control . There seems to be enough talent at the club with the faster drivers to help new starters .

Valid point stu, but this then needs moderating! from what i have seen there is only few that cause these problems so would it be possible for there elders to show them the correct way or teach them the needed skills? its a tough one as we dont want to single people out and we do want to encourage new members of all ages but there has been quite a few of these incidents recently.
A possible solution is to maybe have a more strict final heats, as in if we as drivers are known to be less competent maybe keep them in a separate finals until driving skills and awareness improve?

Heeeeeey! Who's been messing with my post, you young scoundril, ill get you...



Another suggestion - if you are having a problem with another driver, or drivers in your race, mention it to one of the race directors - myself, Ian, or stu and we'll monitor the situation and then try and do something about it if needed.

Jumps were great, good job by everyone on the track.

I think 7 cars in a race is fine, sure it's easier with less, but that's just avoiding the issue of people learning to deal with other cars.

It would be cool to try and assign a race director for every race, their duties include reading out start order, hitting 'go' and commentating. Commentating needn't be excessive, but cover things like alerting drivers to cars that are lapping, point out when someone's been wronged, calm people down if it's turning to carnage.

Obviously there's the issue that most of the race directors are likely to be in the top heat, but we can train new ones and in the mean time the top heat is supposed to be the least likely to need one...

How about at the start of the meeting anyone who wishes to block, crash, rant and do whatever they can to get past! can show there hands and be put into a heat together? Thats fine with me will be quite funny to watch. Then the rest can be put into heats faster and slower etc which have no reason to do any of these things and have no excuse if they do as they had the chance to show show their hand at the start? The fact is no one should need telling with the exception of younger drivers who are new and may not understand this. I understand it does get frustrating at times and this has been said a million times before (thats a yawn not a laugh) its toy cars and meant for fun. Lets get on have fun if ya can't its simple don't come.

Track was ace much more interesting. The race controll was good ran smoothly, glad the tyre debate got sorted and is clear now. (wont mention driving standards) Must admit i wanted to run pins but after the new track with the jumps, bumps foams are fine and driving is exciting.

The track looked excellent from my all day viewing, even the marshaling was exciting at times lol, Im happy to run foams and im also glad the issue was cleared up it now saves me having to go buy mini pins
I think the suggestion of a commentator may be welcomed as its not always easy to know if you are been lapped or the guy behind has just cheated to catch up .
Ive been racing on and off for a few years and i hold my hand up and say i have held people up before without realizing it so as a new driver or a younger member the commentating in my opinion would be a good suggestion.

I think the alterations to the track were a great success, I think we did a good job there.

Race control was good, but we may have a problem with the results, I am hoping Rick can salvage them from the PC's data from Sunday.

I think 7 in a heat/final is pushing it indoors, 5 is a better number. Anymore than that and collisions are bound to happen easily!
(But not to worry outdoors in on the way where we can run 7 with no problems)

If there is a need for a briefing on the driving standards expected at the club then it will be a first for me (apart from regionals). I don't remember this happenign before, when I first turned up I just got on the track and give it a go! We do have more people attending which is what we all wanted to achieve, so I guess the number of heats has to go up or the number of cars per heat has to go up. I think the spread of ability has shifted though, as now there is greater competition towards the upper level (i.e for the A final places in 2WD), this I think is due to people improving compared to the last indoor season which is good too.

If there is a problem with Driving Etiquette then advice and observation has to be the way to go, I can't really see penalties helping at all. Often we are described a fairly friendly club which is a big plus in keeping members and the numbers up.

He is a post that Chris Burgess put on Southport's forum. Some of it is only relevant to their club but in the main it covers most things, there is something in there for us all :
http://www.srcc.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=708.0

That link is very good Paul thanks for that made an interesting read and all points are valid maybe it should be edited and printed off for all drivers to read, this then singles no one out and makes it very clear!

Just to add my ten pence in to the mix. Loved the new style track, certainly evened up the racing with a new mix of drivers in the A final this week. I think we might have had too many cars per heat this week which will have highlighted a few issues with slower / quicker cars.

Not sure on the best route for the driving standard as for some drivers just going round the track and not crashing is a challenge, let alone keeping track of being lapped. Having a heat for new drivers would sort this out, in the old days we used to have a novice championship.

Once we are outdoors with a wider track it shouldn't be such an issue.

It was interesting reading the Southport driving standard post. Especially the let a driver though in qualifying if they are quicker.... can't see that one ever taking off here....

Yes I was surprised by the let drivers through if they're quicker... even on the same lap. I don't think we've ever raced to that. It was questioned further down in the Southport thread.

I think it's something to be applied with some common sense, clearly you don't have to let some one through just because they're very close for a few corners, but when they're consistently quicker.

I'm not sure if it's something we'd want to do, takes all the 'race' out of qualifying, but it would certainly have made things easier for Paul on Sunday .

I think over all the club is great how it is but there really does just need to be some kind of control in regards to courtesy for other drivers and guide lines set into place that are fair for everybody. I think that is all we are trying to achieve? but no matter what the club decides some body wont be happy as we cant please everyone.

I remember being shocked at being told not to race this other car during qualifying at my first touring car meeting. I think I was being lapped at the time, but I was overcome by the urge to race!

Barry

We have never run the rule of not racing people during the heats, but if you are being lapped then you should let the driver though and then try and keep up with them but not crash into them. Watch their lines to see if they are gainin more time over you on a corner or track section.

I think we will have a look at the heats at the next meeting and figure out a better way to group drivers together so they are not constantly lapping people and also that drivers are not having cars constantly trying to lap them which is a nightmare if you are new to racing and not knowing who is lapping and who you are 'racing'.