Editorial

Originally, I allocated the time I am currently using to write this editorial to the writing of race reports, but events at Donington Park decreed otherwise. Earlier, before the meeting, I had decided to delay writing the editorial until after the Donington meeting; two reasons, the first was that the last editorial had been published a few weeks ago, the second was I had a premonition that something worthy of comment was going to take place at the BRSCC meeting at Donington, a view reinforced when race day was moved from the Saturday to the Sunday. With the advantage of hindsight, we had been given the short straw.

Donington Park is (I should probably now substitute the past tense), was a popular circuit with the membership. Use of the past tense being justified by the events of Sunday the 7th and that the modifications being made to the circuit to ingratiate it with BE and render it suitable for the F1 circus, may make it less attractive for the club driver. We will have to wait and see, one must presume that the alterations to the circuit will be finished, that they have now progressed to the point that the project must be completed. The circuit’s history is attractive, it hosted the British GP twice before WWII, but lost out post WWII to Silverstone, Brands Hatch and Aintree (of all places), only hosting one European GP, a race with a memorable first lap where Ayrton Senna cut through the field in a way emulated by Kat Impey at Mallory in our last round. Undoubtedly, Donington Park is a magnet to competitors, something to look forward to, this makes the events of Sunday 7th even more disappointing.

The move, from Saturday to Sunday generated no comment on the Forum, something that caused me considerable surprise, because the change of day was the cause of an appreciable amount of communication amongst the directors as, they registered their displeasure with regard to the change in date, and the race programme when it became available. Thus, in my eyes at least, this meeting got off to a poor start, once again the BRSCC were blatantly using our entries to fill gaps in their programme. With the advantage of hindsight, the move from Saturday to Sunday was disastrous, but prior to the weather intervening, directors were concerned when they saw the timetable for the 2 litre race with a projected starting time, of 6.35pm. I was not the only director who thought that these competitors would be exceptionally lucky to get a race.

Competitors’ problems at the circuit were compounded by the poor organisation of the paddock. Our competitors were forced to occupy two distinct areas because the designated area was partially occupied by vehicles belonging to other classes. This is not the first time that Startline has commented adversely on the BRSCCs organisation of a paddock (see Cadwell 2006). If one could enforce a contract on race organisers it would include the provision of decent paddock conditions. There is a strand on the Forum written by competitors that I did not meet, one presumes that they were situated elsewhere, probably in the designated paddock area. Such poor provision may be tolerated by experienced members who have learnt that it is futile to expect better. But imagine the impression created with the recently recruited when they arrive with their highly polished machine and contemplating the conditions they are unloading into. I only discovered one of the two new 1800 members as I drove out of the circuit. What impression would one have if Donington Park was your first meeting, and you found your team isolated from the majority of the club you intend to race with?

The section of the club that I discovered was occupying what geographers might call a ribbon development, tarmac on one side and hard core on the other. After about an inch of rain, the area began to take on the ambience of a shanty town during the monsoon season. Deficiencies in our section of the paddock included it being outside the range of the PA system, as a result rumour became a major conduit of information.

To be fair to the BRSCC they were not responsible for the atrocious weather, or the contractors who bodged drainage at the newly built section of track. The Monoposto Club raced in similar weather conditions at Donington Park four years ago, we raced in rain comparable to the height of the rainstorm this Sunday, on that occasion, conditions were so poor that four cars decided not to race at the end of the Green Flag lap! It continued to rain all afternoon and we had to drive through a ford to leave the circuit. The paradox for 2009 was that the meeting was abandoned as the rain stopped. So while the BRSCC did not improve our competitors’ experience, the main culprit for the abandoning of the meeting is the contractor employed to modify both the circuit and its drainage.

In these circumstances one must have a certain amount of sympathy for the officials. They arrived at the circuit to run a race meeting. Optimism must be an essential part of their psychology; the rain was forecast to stop, they thought that pumps would clear the flooded track. However, even they cannot manufacture time and at midday it became obvious that there was not going be sufficient time to compete the meeting. On this occasion the more realistic approach was to be a pessimist, look at the conditions and the clock, and leave the race car on its trailer or in its truck. In many cases our race cars travel surrounded by spares and tools, which have to be unpacked into the flood before the car can be unloaded. Drying out everything after unpacking in a downpour adds appreciably to the workload of our lightly crewed teams. On this occasion the pessimists, or more correctly the realists, saved themselves significant additional work.

Our twelve race series contains only two discards. The reinstatement of this lost round is essential for those who have suffered misfortune elsewhere. It was surprising to find two examples of this under the same canopy, Jeremy Timms and Richard Evans both suffered engine failures at the start of the Mallory doubleheader and lost both Mallory races, leaving them without a discard. It was interesting to note that Richard blamed his engine failure at Mallory on the inability of the wet sump, fitted to his Formula Renault, to provide adequate lubrication around Gerards, a strange defect in a single seat racing car. Richard had good reason to be especially disappointed with the way Donington went, he had spent many evenings and an appreciable amount of money replacing the engine in his Swift. Jeremy Timms had failed to replace the engine in the Dallara that carries number 1, but hired or borrowed a replacement, the ex-Mark Harrison championship winning Dallara, another car used to carrying number 1. A third disappointed driver was Peter Bragg. After using his 1800 to play with the 2000s, Peter has acquired the ex-Gregory Mygale-Novis with the intention of doing the job properly, his new toy sat forlornly outside under a rain sheet.

The Race Committee will currently be trying to negotiate a replacement round on the behalf of our competitors. I anticipate that this will not be as straightforward as if the Donington round had been run by CSCC. Our competitors paid the BRSCC individually for the Donington Park race, thus their contract is with the BRSCC. One can anticipate the BRSCC offering a replacement round rather than a refund A different situation to that which would pertain if the round had been organised by the MRC/CSCC . We will have to await developments and notification from the Website or Forum.
To something a bit more cheerful, Chris Woodhouse has raced his championship leading Speads in the EuroBoss series. This means that his 1000cc was racing against relatively recent F1, F3000 style cars. Chris did swap the front end of the Monoposto field for the other end of the EuroBoss field, but was not outpaced in what is a very expensive formula.

And finally, as the saying goes, ‘Its an ill wind’; Nigel Bland was standing in as Paddock Coordinator at Donington Park, I believe that he had an interesting day!

Patrick Huston

9/06/09

I Bodgit & Sons, builders, at work, messing up the tunnel. (For legal reasons we emphasise that this is humourous ribbing and we believe the builders to be consumate professionals of the highest standards.)

Happier days. Who could forget Senna at Donington 1993? That was a bit wet, too

Donington, 1936, was dry. Arthur Dobson leads Hans Ruesch (LAT). Sunny days, ERA's, jumpers for course markers...

Ex-Neil Gregory Mygale now acquired by Peter Bragg.

A lack of illustrations means an excuse to show a beautiful Michael Turner painting of Aintree, from Aintree.org