South West Regionals

[rowley]

Hi all,

We recently had a TRCCC committee meeting and this included discussing the way forward for the South West Regionals.

Now, currently there is no committee specifically for the South West Regionals as in previous years the regionals have been small to non existent to say the least. Whilst we understand that 1/10th off road has really taken off, this year I think will be a bit of a trial and error when organising, running and the overall logistics of each event.

So as some of you know, each club will designate a club race day as a qualifier for the regional series for collecting points. Most of this should be explained on the South West Regionals website.

At our committee meeting we discussed the rules and dates for these qualifiers. As a BRCA sanctioned event, each club should comply with the BRCA rules set out within the handbooks/website. This includes track rules, i.e. 2.4m wide etc, qualifying and finals structure etc. This does also include the dimensions/weights of the cars by which each car must comply with. The problem with this is manpower. We all know what it takes to run a club and how many people it takes to keep things going. We also do not want to rely on one person to run around to each event carrying a box/scales for cars to be tested in. The proposal is to get some boxes made and allow each club to hold onto them for their regional qualifiers. We will update progress on this to the clubs shortly.

The manpower issue will always be difficult to cover but as these are BRCA events, there has to be a structure to them and it is the responsibility of the host club to cater for these rules, albeit to the best of their ability. I can't think that there should be a designated referee, however those of a more experienced nature should be vigilant in keeping an eye on things. Lets be honest, nobody likes cheating and blatant cheating I can be positive about, would not be accepted at a club level event, let alone a BRCA qualifier.

As a number of you know, at Tiverton we try to keep a structured day with every event, with drivers briefing, not leaving the rostrum until race over etc. These are items that you will find in the BRCA rules which we will ask each club to stick with, again to the best of their ability.

Each driver wishing to race for points at a regional qualifying event will pay an additional £1 onto top of the club race day fee to cover trophies mainly.

We have confirmed dates as follows:

28 April - 4wd qualifier at TRCCC
14 July - 2wd qualifier at TRCCC

We have proposed and will gain confirmation on the following:

19 May - 2wd qualifier at WORM
30 June - 4wd qualifier at WORM

West Cornwall will be asked to find two dates, not clashing with either of the above or BRCA nationals.

Some of the above may need a little more discussion/sorting out but as I mentioned, this is really a first year back in the regionals situation so it will be a little trial and error.

If you have any queries, please contact one of either of the club committee and we will try and answer/sort it in the best and most fair way we can.

David Rowcliffe will contact the clubs to fill them in a bit more but for now, I hope that it answers questions and allows planning.

Thanks and I look forward to a great year of racing.

Chris

[Mark Field]

Good work Chris,

Looks like the old days are coming back

I guess it will be the best Two from Three rounds to count in each class?

[Mowen208fly]

It is 2 out of the 3 to count Mark

[millser]

think should have to do all 3 so every club gets a good attends

[blue_pinky]

The rounds to count rules are a BRCA thing...50% plus one basically.

I get what your saying though. My hope is that as there are only 3 rounds per class people will come along regardless as they love the racing!

I know I'm making the trips down to West Cornwall...I likes a bit of camping and racing!!!

I'm hoping you can camp down there anyway!?!?!

For those who might be interested, we can arrange for camping trackside at WORM if anyone wants it...the landlord charges a small fee, but it'd save the early starts for anyone coming from a far!!

[rowley]

All dates confirmed......

See www.southwestregionals.co.uk.

[cornishboy176]

Are you going to be running 2wd on the 4wd regional and 4wd on the 2wd regional,or just the one class per day

[blue_pinky]

I can't speak to the other clubs, but I think there will be a fair bit of trail and error with this this year!

At WORM we'd probably plan to allow all classes (2wd, 4wd & trucks) to run on all our race days...if we can! But on regional days entry priority goes to the class that's nominated.

As long as overall numbers on the day don't mean the day runs too long, then we'll be fine, but if we run into timing issues we may need to limit/cut the non nominated classes.

First step would be ask people who try to book into more than 1 class to drop to one class for the day.

If that doesn't reduce the heat listing sufficiently, then we'd need to cut secondary classes in some way, but we'd do everything we can to make sure everyone who turns up to race gets a race if possible.

Having said that, as long as we start in good time, I see no reason to need to do that. My experience of nationals sees they fit in 120 racers, 2x3min practices, 4 Qualifiers, single leg finals, and 3 leg A finals in their schedule, but they do start booking in at about 7am, practice at 8am and finish at about 6pm!!! We shouldn't have those numbers here, and we'd like a shorter day than that I suspect, so we'd look at something more reasonable.

Not sure if the region has a fixed schedule or if they let the host clubs control their days, but I'm fairly sure that until we get a feel for the numbers entering this year, we won't really know!

My guess...2wd days could get close to the wire on timings, but should be do'able on squeezing in other classes with a timely start time. 4wd days we should be fine, I suspect the entry will be lower this first year, so I don't foresee it being a major issue running other classes...as long as the 2wd's don't all come expecting to race as well!!!

I'd hope people coming to regionals aren't interested in running 2 (or more!!) classes on those days so they can focus on their primary class!

[millser]

now at cornwall we are planning to run a 2wd & 4wd clubman on the day that the regionals are on so for the guys that havent got a car to run in the regionals event they can still run would run the trucks as well if anyone wants to run them

[rowley]

We have planned for the Regionals to be on a normal club day so that anyone can still race. The original thought is the Regional points will be collected but normal club racing still continues.

[Paul Field]

I don't know if its the same in the southwest
But at the BRCA Nationals you can run 2wd in the 4wd class as long as it runs to the 4wd weight limit.
These days 4wd is not that much faster than 2wd. On some occasions I have gone quicker with my 2wd.
So you may be able to score points in all regionals with a 2wd car.

I would say to anyone who has not raced at a regional to give it a go. All 3 venues are very different and all are excellent. Cornwalls mental long straight, Tivertons banked corner, and Worms hilly nature + a great cafe.

Thanks to everyone for getting this organised. Now all we have to do is pray for nice weather.

[J'MM'N]

How does one enter the regional rounds, is there a central booking point for the SW, or is it through the individual clubs.

[Paul Field]

Originally Posted by J'MM'N

How does one enter the regional rounds, is there a central booking point for the SW, or is it through the individual clubs.

Just turn up on the day and book in like a normal club meeting.

[J'MM'N]

Originally Posted by Paul Field

Just turn up on the day and book in like a normal club meeting.

Thanks Paul.