20th Jan 2012

[BleepyEvans]

Got a bit frustrated tonight, only got one semi-clean heat in and struggled with persistent traffic all night. Ended up 'retiring' from a quali and the final because I was getting too annoyed. I know its just a fun night and I shouldnt be getting frustrated, this just wasnt my idea of fun. It seemed to be quite bad tonight for some reason, and a number of drivers commented about it.

Someone can only ghost you for so many laps. If it’s obvious that they are quicker than you, don’t come back at them when they over take you. I lost count of the times where I got the inside line around a corner, had clearly got ahead, and then only to be tboned on the next corner by people who try too hard to stay ahead.
After Pete had told everyone to let people by if they are quick etc it still wasn’t any better.

Firstly if it’s just a qualifier, race your own race, at your own pace and against the clock, everyone else around you are trying to do exactly the same thing and by racing against them you ruin both your times.
In a final it’s obviously different but you should know if someone is lapping you simply if they have got past you previously or if they are on your tail for most of the race.

When racing Nitro or Electric I always get told by Adrian (my pit man :P) not to be so soft at letting people through, but there’s nothing worse than having the guilt of ruining someone else’s race, most of the time I just keep out the way and if someone wants to go past then I will most likely let them, that way I don’t lose any time crashing into them waiting to be marshalled and I can keep in the rhythm and flow of things. Once you get frustrated there’s no calming down and then your racing reflects your feelings.

Sorry if I’m being a bit over the top, but when committee members spend time and effort on Driver Etiquette notes, Marshalling Tips and just putting on the event and they aren’t followed, it’s a bit crazy. After all, everyone’s here to have some fun, and crashing into people isn’t what I see a fun tbu.

I didn’t really have any issues for marshalling throughout the night except in the final, it seemed we had a lack of and we shouldn’t really require volunteers. Then again, if you dont crash then you wont need marshalls right :P ?

Anyway thank you to all the committee for putting on yet another extremely popular race night.
Sorry I have to keep shooting off, but I hadn’t had any dinner and it takes a while to get home to an angry mother and brother who don’t like being woke up at midnight when he has rugby matches on a Saturday morning.