Bathgate

The Barttech Engineering Trophy

Well, the night comp has been.... and what a good event it was too!

With a course mostly designed by Mark Caisley (with Alan Agnew, Davie Stewart & Davie Bartlett throwing in their ideas, and me just ensuring that we kept to the rules), we had five miles of interesting (and different) fun.

In practice, the course laid out was 4.85 miles (as driven once the pegs were in the ground) - giving a 30mph average time of 9 minutes & 36 seconds, and a target time of 30 minutes. Given I had a Doctor, Rescue Unit & Recovery Unit on site, I was able to not panic if people put in times down to 5 minutes 49 seconds.... which is always good to know, and a bogie time nobody was going to break :)

The format for the day was different to our normal schedule: this time we had three sessions, with the competitors putting in five laps in the afternoon, five laps at night, and five laps again on Sunday.... for a total of almost 70 miles!

From the outset, Davie Bartlett showed why he's last years SCCC champion, putting in five consistent lap times, from 9:54 on his first lap to his fastest of 9:21 (basically, an average speed of 32mph)
Hot on his heels, and looking to recover the trophy he won in 2008, Mark Caisley was less than a minute behind him after the afternoon session.

The following pack, all sitting in the 11-minute-lap area, were all the V8's, with the diesels of Ross & Abe Hamilton and newcomer Robert Scott coming in around the 12-minute lap times.

One issue that a significant number of competitors suffered from was overheating... Higel Hails, Mark Caisley, Stu Howe, Ben Gill, Jonathan Barker, Billy Philips, and all three from team Bartlette having big problems.

During the early evening, the heavens opened, and a good inch or two of rain descended upon us. The night stages saw a reduced field
Andi Harrison retreated to replace a diff; Brian Hilditch & Chris Cruikshanks decided discretion was the better part of valour, and racing in those conditions was too risky for them; and Mark Caisley retired, concerned about his engine blowing steam.
Davie Bartlett's charge came to an abrupt end on lap 9, when he broke a rocker-shaft.

When we reconvened for the sunday runs, we were back to an almost full field: only Davie Bartlett & Mark Caisley were not back with us.

Robert Scott ran into problems, with three blown dampers from lap 9, he needed to work fast to get to the start-line in time.

Sunday saw two other retireals: Ross & Abe Hamilton broke their fuel pump and Chris Cruikshanks blew his drive-train.
Billy Phillips managed to finish, however the final lap tore his rear axle from its mounts, and the car came in with a definite sag.... and a spring dangling in mid air!

The man, however, with the worst luck was Chris Sainter: he knocked the end off his oil-filter on lap one (and couldn't get parts until supper-time); knocked his timing out; and then lost his lights. In all, he only managed four laps.... but had an absolute ball!

Congratulations go to Ben Gill, who managed to beat Stu Howe to the win by less that 10 minutes. Full results are on the scottishcompsafari web site.

it's been a busy wee while....

It's been busy, certainly it doesn't feel like two weeks since I put finger to keyboard in this Blog...

Borders Hill Rally
I've been down to Forrest Lodge, to review the stages that Campbell and I planned out on the paper maps. Every road & off-road section has now been driven by me, in the Disco, on road tyres... slicks, as near as dammit.
Every stage is different to last year, and even though the BCCC & SCCC have been there this year, none of the stages match those routes either!
There was one off-road section I didn't drive: it looked blocked from the end, and the possible blockage was just after a soft bit..... so I bypassed it!
I've found a couple of new potential off-road sections, so I need to run them past the estate manager, see what we can do.
The Service Yard is also going to be a challenge: 50 competitors into a 5,000m² yard is not going to be easy - it ain't 100m² each! There's service in, service out & through-service traffic to route... two-way traffic at that!... and each area needs access, so that complicates things too!

Scottish Comp at Bathgate
This is all planned, however there's a crossing I need to put in - so we can link the top & bottom tracks without going round the (badly damaged) duck-pond.
I was out today, speaking to the farmer, about where to cross - and we have identified the place to put the crossing in: close enough to my original plan that the map will suffice, and also good for him when he needs to chase the cattle :grin:
So, I'm booking a minidigger & dumper to do the work next weekend...... except it turns out I've managed to get hold of TWO minidiggers! excellent!
I can now do the crossing (which will need a pipe & several tonnes of hard-core); the buggered track beside the duck pond; and repair the track in the wood!
This is all good, and keeps us in favour with the land-owner!

From the MSA Cross Country meeting

The meeting was good, very enjoyable.

An interesting mix of people, with a range of passions & personalities, so should make for an interesting series of meetings.

We had brief reports from Ian Davis (MSA) and Chris Tomley (chair) regarding general MSA matters:

• There is a review on Stewarding, primarily focused on Karting, but will extend across the board in time
• Cross Country permits are down about 1%, and competitor numbers are down about 8%
• Road Closures are getting a lot of attention, and there is pressure to produce something, but there are no outputs from that group as yet.

The consultation process is being changed
The current process is that:

1. The sub-committee meets & comes up with some ideas.
2. These go to the general council who like it or kick it back.
3. If they like it, it gets published in Motorsport Now & we all get to see it, review it, and write to the MSA to tell them how daft they're being... if not, it goes back to the sub-committee for re-work
4. The consultation report then goes back to Council, who review it, and then....
5. It either goes live, or goes back to the sub-committee to start again.

The new system is both more streamlined, and keeps the focus for rule changes at the sub-committee level:

1. The sub-committee meets & comes up with some ideas.
2. These are then posted to the MSA web site for consultation (http://msauk.org/site/cms/newslist.asp?chapter=276&cat=10).
3. The second sub-committee meeting then reviews the responses from the consultation process. There are either major changes requiring another round of consultation or minor changes & the new rules are passed to Council for ratification.
4. Council meet & then either pass the rules or kick them back as being daft.

Given the time-frame mentioned above, the deadline for Cross Country to get new rules to Council will be June/July, so we are going to move our meetings to Early December & Spring-time.

Challenge Events
We spent a long time (over an hour) discussing Challenge Events. We'd had a long email from someone about the proposed Challenge rules, many of which were centered around the principle that the proposed rules tried to cover both the extreme, frequently-submerged, winching, full-on Challenge events with highly specialised vehicles with 97" tyres, 43 winches, and fiddle/lockable everything; to the gentler events, where winches are not wanted & the challenge is in the navigation, not the terrain.

We have re-purposed (well, just slightly re-worded) the rules for Cross Country Orienteering & they will then cover the gentler challenge events, leaving the new rules less encumbered by the need to support both styles of events.

It will be interesting to see what comes back from that....

Speeds at Comps
We then moved onto comps, and the thought that average speeds had gone up.
Karl Reilly borrowed a speed gun and tested speeds at the BCCC event at Sweet Lamb. He found that speeds were generally about 20% lower than the drivers thought they were, and were about 15% up on 2003. The biggest difference was not the top-end speed, but the handling into & out of corners, and the improvements in suspension that allowed cars to cross rougher ground at higher speeds.
This single report implies that top-end speed is not as big an issue as was first believed, however one report is inconclusive, so the committee wishes more tests to be done, across the range. (Roger Reed will take some readings at some Scottish Comps, and the Borders Hill Rally.)
The results will be fed back to the committee, so we can get a feel for what's happening out "in the field" (if you forgive the pun.)

Tyres
Malatesta Kobra NT (http://www.tyresdirectuk.co.uk/xcart/home.php?cat=271) are to be included, and two Colways re-moulds are to be added.

Generally speaking, however, unless its obvious that the tyre is a pattern-copy of a tyre on the list, the committee needs to see an actual tyre to accept them (photo's are all very well, but you don't get a feeling for the size & aggression of lugs & lumps from a photo... and it allows an independent verification of the tyre rating ... 'cos its written on the carcass :) )

[As an aside, I was having a chat with a Competitor last night, and he swears by UK-made tyres... reckons the side-walls are way stronger that European imports!]

An Inter-Association Cross Country event
This is Roger Reeds baby, born back at the turn of the century with the help of Dave Barker.
The original concept was to be for an RTV, however the world has moved on since then, and times have changed.
After some discussion, the idea is now to have a Tyro event.
Each Association can put forward as many teams as they like, and the teams can be of any age, however the Inter-Associational Trophy itself is only open to teams where the drivers are under 17 (note to self: question if that is that up-to-and-including 17, or up-to-and-including 16.) Teams are three drivers (vehicles can have multiple drivers, etc...)
The event should cater for any number of teams, and should consider allowing non-associational entries to take part.
The plan is to have an event in early August, somewhere in the Midlands (Andrew Flanders will investigate).... in 2011
(Oh, and note that SACC has a history of paying for teams entering inter-associational events!)

BCCC
There was discussion about the BCCC, and it would be nice for the Cross Country Committee to see the results of the MSA Cross Country Championship.
There was some rumination on the current style of championship and if that was what was wanted, or whether it should be broadened to include the Baja & Hill Rallies as well as Comp Safaris.
I expressed my somewhat biased position (as the chairman of the only club running Hill rallies!), but would be delighted to have Hill Rallies as part of a larger championship.
This lead on to a rambling discussion about road legal & traveling to France & closed roads & event entries covering you on the public highway & ....

One question I did ask was "If there was a championship that had rounds run by different clubs, how many cars are you looking at for a comp?" - we reckoned it would be between 50 & 80 cars, and you would need to do a 15-lap, two day, comp safari.

And personally: I'm wondering if Scotland should host a Comp Safari round? Could we find a piece of land that could sustain 70 cars doing 15 laps over two days? -- that's over 1,000 vehicle-laps.... that's a lot of wear on the ground! Given we're already running the only available Hill Rallies, do we want to try and do a Comp too?

MSA Cross Country meeting

Getting ready to catch a 9am flight down to London for a Cross Country group meeting.

This will be my first, given that I never made the proper first meeting due to Eyjafjallajökull cancelling my flights, and a car crash stopping me getting my train.

The major contentious issue this time appears to be revolving around Challenge vehicles - not something I have a lot of knowledge about.... we'll see what the arguments are, and stick my oar in occasionally :)

Getting ready to marshal

I'm heading off to marshal at the Rally of Argyle (yes, the one that moved the "Perthshire" from it's original date this year), and I've been packing the car.... I've to be there at 8am on Saturday morning, so I'll drive up tomorrow night & sleep in the car.

But the stuff one takes!

Tools for a 300-mile round trip; food-box with cooker, kettle & custard; water; extra diesel, just in case; spade & mattock; tow-rope (well, full recovery kit); jump-leads & airline hose; stapler & tape & arrows & hammer & spike; chair & table; back-up radio..... the list goes on!

.... and don't forget food, waterproofs, and a change of clothes (or two - the weather forecast is for "Periods of rain"!)

2011 forestry allocations

That's the 2011 forestry requests now applied for - yes, us clubs need to apply for forestry allocation now, for next year!

I've put in a pile of speculative forests, stuff I'm been planning for a few months now, knowing that I probably won't get half of them.... though I have a sneaking suspicion the right way is to have actually planned the whole event 2 years in advance, and apply for what you know you need [and hope that there are no clashes, or your screwed]

The not-the-perthshire-hill-rally comp

When I was phoning round, dealing with the aftermath of cancelling the Scottish "Perthshire" Hill Rally, one of the competitors suggested a comp in it's place.

This is three weeks before the date of the Perthshire, and therefor the date of the comp.

So, I found the land (two options, so I spoke to both land-owners), got the club on side, persuaded rescue, recovery & doctors to come along for almost nothing, and even got a great turnout of marshals..... not bad for a weeks work, around paid-work & a weekend devoted to Lothian 4x4 Response and a trial (Leaf Sprung motors only :D )

.... except I've only got half-a-dozen people interested.
(makes me wonder why I devote so much of my life to this sport.... for so little return)