Review of the 2012 Race - Comments?

[Nick Roads]

Club would be interested on some feedback from the 2012 24 Hour race to help with planning for 2013 post here or email or ring me.

Some points of interest for me

1 - Start time 1100 on Saturday rather than 1700 - did it work / which is best? My team felt it was a lot better, particularly for the crew

2 - Mini Grands - they really enjoyed the event and would like to come back "We were very impressed with the standards of driving from all 2CV drivers. It's quite a sight to see a pack of 6 or 7 2cvs battling for position into the Russell chicane (or whatever the new name for that bend is), and all coming out cleanly!" was a typical comment.
      The event really needs to get to 35+ cars to be viable in the medium term. While the Club would prefer it to be all UK 2CV if we have another series to ensure we get 35+ any preferences for Mini Grands, Euros or some other series?

3 - If we have other series do we try and match the performance to make an overall race by something like lap handicap based on car speeed, weight or performance handicap by adding weight / changing tyre types  and generally trying to match speeds. Mini Grands happy to reduce their speed by a few seconds by lap for 2013 if that is what club wants?
     Another possibility that takes place in karting apparently is to run 2 events at same time so the other series has different timing screens and results etc?

4 - Date: We used to race in May and BARC/MSV moved us to August Bank Holiday. Do we try and change date?

Any other comments welcome as well

Note that as a Club we cannot control all the elements - for example it was MSV who set the start time at 1100 not us. We decided it was ok and did not object but not always easy to change dates/ times etc.

AGM is being planned to take place same day as dinner/ dance so hope we can debate/ discuss some of the points then as well.

[Some Swede person]

Hi, i personally agree to 100% with 11 am being the better starting-time since it made for a lot less tiredness come race end, it also gives everyone a more relaxed time with packing up and departure.
Thought the Minis were a nice addition and its also adding a bit to the complexity with having vehicles doing a fair bit more speed down the straights. I found the Euro-class 2cv's trickier in the regard that they were loads quicker down the straights, but seemed to struggle more with speed through the corners.

Much praise to you the organizers of the radio, webstream etc possibilities to follow the race live!
And a general big thanks to all, drivers and crews alike, for being friendly to us foreigners ;)

[abfitness2cv]

Hats off to all involved with organising and running the event. You did an amazing job in all aspects and you should be very proud :). It was fun having the mini's in the race, however, I believe relative pace was measured in March at Oulton against Sammie's car? The information we were given at the AGM was that the pace was fairly even, but the Mini had destroyed it's tyres. Not really sure that was the case at Snetterton. Perhaps it would be better to measure the differences between the two cars at Snetterton? Perhaps have a midfield Mini against a midfield 2cv? The Mini's were surprisingly reliable too. All in all a great event.

[RLambert]

Hi,

As a newbie to the race this year (driving car 43) I must say that I found the whole event to be well organised and extremely enjoyable.

The 11 o'clock start worked very well, gave the drivers time to settle in before the darkness and as mentioned it meant that there was enough time on Sunday to pack up, wind down and take a nap before heading home. No issues with the Bank holiday weekend either as I was able to get some brownie points for doing some family things on the Monday!

It would be better of course if all the cars were 2CV's and had a similar pace but I accept that the race needs a certain number of runners to make it work. That said the faster cars did behave very well and I didn't have any issues with them over taking, in fact I think they were quite respectful not to hold us up on the corners. My preference would be for the Mini's if they were 1-2 seconds a lap slower just because they had a similar pace to us on the twisty bits.

Can I say a big thanks to all the organisers, the marshals, Tet Rouge , especially Tim for running the car and to Steve Jaques for giving us the opportunity to drive!

[shorty]

Start time is irrelevent in my opinion although the traditionalist in me would angle for 4pm
looking at the other comments i think it's clear that the preference is to keep the race a one make (2cv without the derivatives) race. I have always argued that to start running the race as a mixed formula devalues the event. the evidence of this is clear in autosport where the main photograph of the event was of a car with a bmw engine. shame i think.
The correct way forward, as ever seems the most difficult. the best future for the race is to keep it a uk spec 2cv only race. to do this it needs to guarantee more cars than currently enter the event. to guarantee more cars it must do a combination of things.
1/ find a way to make more cars available
2/ raise the profile and publicity for the race to encourage drivers from other formula or other endurance racers over. such as the mini racers who originally wanted to hire 2cv's or teams from the fun cup series.
3/ keep the event cheap. so that cost doesn't hinder the interest.