Messages

Anyone who was around at the very end of the 90's and first half of the 00's will probably remember Stephen Morris, the Welsh mechanic for one of the Irish teams (Eurologic a.k.a. Paradise Racing).

Stephen passed away on August 17th after a short illness.

Sympathies to his wife Fiona, son Liam and father Frank - all of who helped out at different 2CV events we raced at - and to all his other family members and friends.

Martin,

I came very close to putting a bid in for the badgeroo seat that came up at short notice this year, but in the end it was too short notice for me to get organised.  But it certainly got me thining and I'm very interested in discussing a seat next year.  I'll be thinking about options (of which bringing a car over unfortunately is not one, so I am definitely looking for a seat) and watching out for driver wanted notices next season.

In terms of the services and programming and technical support, I wonder if some of the digital media colleges and their students might not be interested in such a project? A very nice technical challenge to let them loose on, and perhaps a cost effective way to get the job done?

Excellent coverage, well done to all involved.

The in-car camera was brilliant and being able to listen to commentary at the same time as watch the timimg screens was pretty cool.

Two small, small suggestions for even better coverage next year (and I appreciate a huge amount was done in a very short space of time this year):

- more web cams please, and perhaps the choice for the visitor to pick which camera they watch

- coming in some way through the race it was hard to know what had happened to that point.  A couple of times the commentators looked back over their notes as they were discussing a team or incident and told us what had happened earlier.  If those notes could be made on a PC and available via the web (perhaps the twitter feed) that would be a big help, not only to occasional visitors over the weekend but also those looking to do a race report afterwards.


Thanks for letting those of us far away be able to check in in real time, it was a 1st class service.

Given the commentary booth will be "online" might it be possible to send message inwards via email?

Also, will there be current standings available in real time?


(Simple sounding requests I know, but they may be more difficult than they sound to put inplace).

Any news about Mondello chances nowadays??

I assume you're asking about a possible 24 hour return rather than a regular race meeting, since as far as I know the costs quoted for an attempt to come over for a regular weekend this year were too high.

I've been out of the loop there for a while but will put out some feelers.

The usual two issues will apply I'm sure - cost and noise.

Excellent news and well done with the endeavour.

I'm always interested to know how the race is going and found it frustrating in the past to have to wait for days for the reports to come out.

I for one will be logging onto the webcast regularly over the weekend.

For the benefit of those of us unable to attend (and yet interested in the outcome!), any news for us from the meeting?

Can I suggest a minor modification to Steve's proposal.

How about shortening the first race and making it a 1 driver sprint and then lengthening the second race and allowing 2 drivers (or single driver with usual lark of running around the car).

I would have a clause that ensures two drivers from first race cannot combine for second race, to encourage genuine 2nd drivers come along.

Costs as proposed sound very good.  This kind of package could bring me out of retirement - I'd be looking to participate as a 2nd driver.

I await your comments with interest.
Terry Collier :roll:

Pun intended????

For myself the reasons I dropped out of the championship were three fold.

1) Costs.  2) Travel (time and distance, ferries etc).  3) General hassle and stress.

Of those number 1 is the only one relevant to this part of the discussion.

I'm not sure the idea would have made any difference to me, as I was able to look at the total costs for a season and realise I couldn't afford to keep going.  My issue was not really a cash flow one where there was close proximity of races - Mr. Visa was able to help smooth those out.

Not shooting down the idea, just commenting that I don't think it would have made any difference to me.

There's a simple reason for the dates being clustered where they were - the closer you get to June 21st the more day light hours you have.

Yep, going back a while there wasn't a problem with numbers.  Now there is and it needs to be addressed.  

I have a suspicion that shouting at people to bring their cars out is not going to solve the problem.

The suggestion of a late date might or might not be a solution.  At least let people discuss it.  If there's a lot of support then why not try it?

As a long distance observer, I've been watching this for a while and puzzling over how you might fix the problem.

The 24 hour is a huge draw into the series, it certainly was key in getting me to compete in three championship years.  To lose it I think would kill the class, but in keeping it something has to change to get it back to the point where it is feeding into the championship not starving it.

End of season 24hr race makes huge sense to me.  Newcomers have all season to try out their cars in earlier championship rounds and the wear and tear on the cars from the 24hr doesn't affect other races.  You build up to the season highlight rather than having it in May and the rest of the season in it's shadow.

I don't think you want the race too late in the year, so it might mean a lot of other races in the April - July time with the 24 hour late July or August.

Best suggestion in a long time, got to be worth a try .....

Some general comments from someone who has raced in the past and can no longer afford to make the trip back and forth across the Irish sea multiple times a year  :(  .

On the 3x24hr race idea, be careful that people don't start to pick and choose which of the three they'd prefer to do and end up with small grids for all three races.

As to the regular race weekend format, whilst the sprint plus enduro format always worked well for me as I brought along a guest driver to share the weekends costs, if you get a lot of cars parked in the paddock for the enduro round as sprint drivers double up then I think it's not a great format as the enduro entries will be low.  

I also think some thought as to the tracks raced at (ie suited to our speed and handling characteristics) along with a sensible calendar (nice gaps between rounds) would be beneficial.  This may be where the BARC have to be persuaded to play ball with us.

Can I ask how many new drivers are entering the championship, having raced in the 24 hour in the last 2 or 3 years?  This was how I came along and I wasn't alone, GaryAdnitt, Steve Panas and Martin Harold for example all started the same year I did via the same route.  If we're not converting 24 hour drivers into championship drivers then that's an area I think should be focused on.  Perhaps they are the people to ask what form of championship would entice them along.

One final observation, the first year I raced in the championship there were full grids and reserve drivers being sent home without a race.  Co-incidentally (perhaps) we had a 2 hour race in Spa thay year and many folks requiring upgrades to their licences.  So rather than a class in the 24 hour race, could another support race be looked into?

Well it's not quite as much fun keeping an eye on the race from afar :(.    A big thanks to the web team for the real time updates, I for one paid quite a few visits over the weekend to keep an eye on progress.

Congrats to Tete Rouge for another win and to Gadget for yet another strong performance.  But hats off to the Hollis team - looks like a steady drive throughout the race to climb up from 20th to 2nd place and an excellent result.

Looking forward to reading about a few of the tales behind the results .... once you catch your breath (or sleep I suppose) of course!

Hi Christine,

My query was for last year!  We won't be over this time round :-(

Cheers,

Derek.

It will be snetterton as the bridge at pembrey was going to be far to expensive (over£30,000 for a weekend).

Wow - that's big money!  Is that the cost of a permanent bridge or the weekend rental of a temporary one?

This is bad news for us.  The escalating costs at Snetterton and difficulties in getting a crew there (for us at least) mean that we have some hard thinking to do.

It may yet make much more sense for me to look for a seat in a UK based team this time round (assuming the right team and right price seat are availabe!).