Three down, one to go....

The final Borders Hill Rally Organisers meeting was a Telecon on Monday evening. Everything is going sweetly: the printing is printing; the stages are sorted; and we have a good set-up crew ready to go. The Response crews are sorted & the fundamental marshal points are covered (but we can always do with more marshals!)

Tuesday evening was a Scottish Hill Rally Club committee meeting - a good turnout of the usual faces, and a useful meeting for us all to get an overview of what is happening with the various events we are running.

Last night was a Scottish Land Rover Owners Club committee meeting, where we had a review of past & future events; discussed the glossy Annual Review and the news-fliers (notice I avoid using the term newsletter in both cases :chuckle: )
Alan proposed a superb idea for linking lots of the club events together... I'm going to say no more on that, other than to say "watch for information on that" - it's a belter of an idea!

Tonight is a meeting to discuss what we do in July... the "Perthshire"

A busy week ahead

Looks like its going to be a busy week:

• The last Borders Hill Rally organisers meeting (a telecon) tonight
• Hill Rally club committee meeting Tuesday evening
  
• Scottish Land Rover Owners Club meeting on Wednesday evening
• Perthshire organisers meeting on Thursday evening
• It looks like I'll need to go to Dundee on Friday evening to work through the service area details with Campbell
• Saturday some of us meet up to load trailers with stakes, arrows & stuff to take down to the Borders

.... and I head down the following Tuesday, to start Setup on Wednesday!

Dunbar trial

An excellent 10 sections - All sections were cleared by someone, and everyone cleared at least one section, yet nobody ended on zero points.

I came second-last on 25, beating Jumplead Jonny by a single point, and a full 21 points behind the winner!

A great day, and it was fun to be on the competitive side for a change :grin:

Setting up a CCV Trial

Just back from Alex's, where we were setting out the sections for tomorrows CCV.

Alex & I did some, and Sharon & Big Eck did some.... and Andrew & Peter set out 10 tyro sections.

Some of the Sections require grunt, some require finesse, and most require you to think three gates ahead.

It's gonna be a good day tomorrow :)

The old 80/20 rule.....

It's always the last 20% of the organising that seems to take 80% of the time!

Tonights task is to review Campbells notes for the course builders (I know this years routes better than Campbell, however if he writes the notes it means he understands the various twists & turns), and to review the Road Book.

I'm reckoning there's about 4 hours work here, which is not a patch on the work Campbell has put in to get them to this state for us!

SACC 2/11/2010

I'm just in from the Scottish Association of Car Clubs meeting.

Not a lot to report, really.... however the Scottish GoMotorsport man came along, so we can hope things improve there.

I'm going to try to get the AutoTest co-ordinator to pop along the the SLROC Boxing Day Bash, and we can see if there's a way to get Cross Country involved in AutoTests (we'd not be interested in the tarmac stuff, but the grass-stuff could be interesting...)

Perthshire 2011

I've been musing plans for the Perthshire for a while now - working out what to do in 2011.

There are a number of alternatives, each with Pros & Cons, and each deserving serious consideration.

1. Run a standard Perthshire: 100 competitive miles over two days - basically re-impliment what we had planned for 2010.
2. Go for broke: Go larger - try to find enough land to run 150 miles, over three days, under a National A Permit.
   
3. Try to emulate the Borders: find the space to run 100 competitive miles in a single venue (or possibly spread over two venues.... but with no road-miles between the sites
4. Do something completely different..... like an AutoCross or an AutoTest
5. Do nothing.... just let the whole thing rest for a year (or two)

Even after three months, I really don't know which way to jump.

Number (1) is dead easy, but lets be honest - are there really enough cars out there? (and the Hill Rally club cannot afford another expense like we took in July 2010)

Number (2) is the preferred option for a couple of people I know.... but this does require us finding new land.... something we struggle with even for the standard Perthshire

Number (3) has the merit that it avoids the whole "road-legal" issue, but (to me) it avoids one of the major tests a Hill Rally throws at you: the Navigators role in keeping Time and Distance under control.

Number (4) is interesting, and something I've already put out some feelers for.... but is it right for us?

Number (5) worries me most: will we be able to come back? Will the land be there? Will the competitors want to come back? Will Cross Country move into a whole new area?