Perthshire Hill Rally and landowners, take 2

Well, another 100 miles on the clock (I wonder, should I get paid for this?)... I've a friend of a friend who's going to talk to a few of his friends (who are land-owners) and see about the Hill Rally coming onto their land... and therefor giving me an introduction.

Also spoken to another land owner, and clarified what bit of their hillside we can use, and which bit (most of it) we can't.... but I'm getting some firm possibilities coming together now.

I need to really get some definites sorted pronto, so I can define a price for the entry fee.

(PS: Can I go back to Comps please? they're so much easier :chuckle: )

Perthshire Hill Rally and landowners

One of the hardest parts about organising the Perthshire Hill Rally is organising the route.

Like any true Rally, the event is Multi Stage.... and as the Hill Rally is on hillsides.... it's multi-farm.
This means that I need to rent land of multiple owners, and ensure that all of them are happy with what we are doing.

On Saturday I went to see most of them.... and the news was not the most wonderful:

• Andrew needs a year out: there are sections of his hill that need time to recover
• Donald has windfarms going up, so the third of his farm that he puts livestock on whist we race on the other two-thirds is part of the wind farm, so he's having to put stock onto the bit we normally use... and the field we use for servicing is out of commission too... so a no-go there at all.
• James was happy to see us, and even has a bit more hillside we can use... so that's a big score there!
• John wants to put the relationship he has with the Hill Rally onto a more formal footing, now that his friend has stopped running the event. One of the tasks we need to do is go over the route, and look at repairing stuff.
• Magnus has moved house... I discovered this when I turned up at his old house... Oops.

I've had an offer from someone to give me an introduction to some places he knows, who may well be ammenable... but that's for later :)

The Forestry people seem happy for us to continue, and have even given a tacit nod to some plans for alternate routes I want to forge through the landscape :)

So it's all go on that front too :grin:

BCCC & SHRC

I've had a good, and productive, series of chats with Selwyn about the BCCC taking results from the Borders Hill Rally as one of the rounds of the BCCC.

We've not reached any definite firm decision yet, however one of the conditions I wanted was to have clear space around the Perthshire Hill Rally (normally there is a BCCC round just before the Hill Rally, and closing date for our entries is before the BCCC event.... you see the problem) - well, there will be a clear space of several weeks either side of the Perthshire, do drivers can enter, and have plenty of time to do repairs before the next round of the BCCC in September... YIPEE!!

Watch this space for developments on the Borders: we can do something, but it will have to be run as a Hill Rally, not a Comp Safari.

SCCC Round 1

Sunday 15th March, 2009

Round one of the SCCC is at the invitation of one of our competitors: we have been offered access to this well known rally site.

The plan is to restrict ourselves to about 5 miles... of tracks, fire-breaks, water-splashes, and foundation roads.

This promises to be a very exciting opening round of the championship.

Camping is available: proper hard standing to boot!

Regs are available from the me, or downloadable from http://docs.google.com/View?docid=df8ssf5n_16q4m8p&hl=en_GB and the times and locations are available from http://docs.google.com/View?docid=df8ssf5n_45c6mxx9gp&hl=en_GB

SHRC AGM

The SHRC AGM has been, and gone.

Ian Sykes has basically retired - to spend time with his family & mentor his grandson as he comes up through the world of motorsports (apparently he's very good on a kart).
We've managed to persuade him to stay on as President (but it took a LOT of persuading!)

Now I've notes and stuff to write up.

SLROC Committee meeting.

I went to the SLROC committee meeting last night.
I'm in that weird position where I'm the club member who organises some of their events, but I'm not allowed to be on the SLROC committee as I'm on the committee of another Cross-Country Motorsports club (conflict of interest, you see)

Anyway... I updated everyone on the latest Scottish Cross Country Championship events:

1. Round 1 (15 March): Forrest estate.
   • A 5 to 6 mile route planned , using tracks, unmade tracks, water splashes & quarries
   • I was there with the Lombard Rally: VERY fast! we will need to work to keep our speeds down to 30mph max average.
   • BCCC would love it :)
2. Round 2 (19 April): Not known yet.
   • I've been given a lead to the Quarry at Lassodie (near Kelty), which I'm following - but it needs lots of paperwork :sad:.
3. Round 3 (16/17 May): Drumclog.
   • Booked.
   • Discussions on a route have started.
4. Round 4 (21 June): Coulport
   • I'm leaving that one to other people, like I did last year.
5. Round 5 (22/23 August): Bathgate
   • Confirmed :)
6. Round 6 (20 September): Probably Innerwick
   • Dates issue: clashes with SORC's Wheels in the Wood - I'll let you know more when I know more
7. Round 7 (18 October): Galashiels
   • Booked :)

So things are moving a-pace, and looking good.
Hope to have increased attendance figures this year.

MSA Clerks & Stewards Seminar

A useful meeting...
The first half was pretty much the same as the previous few - not a problem, always good to know I've not forgotten anything :)

The afternoon breakout session was by discipline. If I'd not pulled the SCCC Championship Co-Ordinator out of the Rally group (he's a CofC for the some of the tarmac rallies), there would have been just myself and the MSA bloke!

As it was, we had a good bleather about the SCCC regs, and ensured that we were going along the right lines. It was good, as he gave us a few suggestions and alterations to make... which can only improve the way we run the events