Curborough Entries

[Mark Durrant]

Plenty of spaces still available which is a bit surprising so get your entry in now . Remember you do not need to be registered for the club speed championship to enter this event.

 

An entry form can be found here and to help reduce the admin for Roger and Barbara you can enter your details here. Note: This does not guarantee you an entry and you must still send off the entry form

 

 

 

Mark D

Comp Sec

 

[Mark Durrant]

 

Mark D

Comp Sec

 

[Jason Plato]

Hmmm , numbers down again ?

 

Sounds like the Championship needs some promoting ?

 

Anyone any ideas

 

here is C7 TOP

South Wales AO

[Steve Robinson]

Personal opinion - maybe as well as more promotion we should look to drop the number of counting rounds to qualify from 7 to 6 or preferably 5. I'll struggle to do 7 and have found myself wondering about the point of competing in 6 and still not having a decent championship placing.

 

As it is I am driving MIRA and Curborough, but it was a close run thing for me. Maybe the bigger commitment needed this year has put others off ???

 

Steve

 

Edited by - Steve Robinson on 25 Jun 2006 19:33:40

[david nelson]

I think it not promo for the championship thats needed. We have about 100 regestered this year. Longcross 1 was over subscribed so what is it?

 

well this is likley to be my last year off sprinting. I find the balance between home and play difficult, and find the comitment for our champoinship to demanding.

 

I had not wanted to go to Pembrey but as Adrian is going, I had 2 options. 1 stop competing for the champoinship or 2. go. As this is going to be the last year I have decided to put all my effort into it this year.

 

I think like Steve if we had fewer rounds that counted we might get a greater responce. Or is it as we go to better venues and money is always tight going to Curborough 2 times is 1 time to many? ( I like Curborough as i go quite well there)

 

I have a few ideas for next year but will leave this till a more appropriate time.

 

 

David

 

SL #146

2:1

[Steve Robinson]

The loss of the marshalls events as counting is what has scuppered me. The chance to get 2 drives in one weekend would have made it possible to get my 7 in.

 

I found my motivation to race dropped the instant I realised that I would struggle to qualify for the championship. Like David I juggle home life with competing and next year is looking somewhat doubtful based on my difficulties this year.

 

David - interested to hear your ideas off-line sometime as it might influence my view of competing next year.

 

Steve

[DSL]

The finishing position in the championship does not have to be the be all & end all of attending the club events.

 

I tend to just take a view on the result achieved on the paricular event of the day, not everyone you are competing against will turn up at every event, we all know who we would like to beat to make ourselves happy, achieving things for your own personal satisfaction is far more important than letting your fellow competitors know how good you are via your class league table.......

 

Ultimately you only have to be satisfied you did your best on the day & continued to improve your skills to have made the effort / cost / inconvienence well worthwhile IMHO.

 

[Graham Perry]

I Would love to have attended Curb in Aug but sadly I have been bespoke for the last two years on that date for a mates 40th birthday 4 day weekend bash

[Steve Robinson]

DSL - I take your point, and agree in part. If I was only doing 2 or 3 events this year I would be driving them purely for the satisfaction of the event itself.

 

With the higher number of counting rounds I will probably complete 6 rounds (which is a fairly large commitment to the championship) but not end up with a decent placing. Once you get close to the number you need but can't complete enough I guess it becomes more of a frustration.

 

Under last years rules i would be dropping my crappy score from Longcross and have more to show for the year!

 

Steve

[smithj41]

Yes in the post (Mira too - Different envlopes). I was on holiday.

 

Cheers

 

James

😬

[Dannyboy]

Only reason for me, and perhaps a few others is that it's over the bank holiday weekend....and, due to the number of sprints in July *thumbup* the organic rev limiter 😳 has decided we're going away somewhere

 

 

 

Dannyboy

 

[Barbara Swift]

For the past 12-13 years Curborough filled with 80 competitors (with reserves) within 2-3 days of the entry forms coming out before the championship. We have 53 entries for the August Curborough at the moment with 27 places left!

 

My personal view is that there are too many sprints and we are diluting our own events ....... most people only have a certain amount of money and time to devote to just one aspect of the club

 

Barbara

[Englishmaninwales]

I take Darren's view, and given I'm not a top contender, I do it for fun. So will be doing both Club and Marshall's sprint, and Mrs EMW too! Anyway, painting the house/windows is very boring.

 

Malcolm

 

 

[robmar]

I think doing at least 50% of the rounds to qualify for the championship should be perfectly acceptable/reasonable and is what has been the case for the last few years....if you make it any less then IMO we could be devaluing the overall somewhat, and again ends up with peole choosing events becuase xyz isn't turning up, ratheer than in Davids POV who is turning up ....

 

the question of are we doing too many rounds is a good one, however what would we drop 🤔, I don't think there are any venues we go to that are particularly poor such as Elvington last year... also factor in that we would be likely to have more people wanting to get to non championship rounds so they will be more likely to be even more over subscribed, and more people would be dissapointed for those events....

 

Steve you say

 

Under last years rules i would be dropping my crappy score from Longcross and have more to show for the year!

---

 

last year was 7 of 13 rounds, this year it is 7 of 14 so you have more opportuity to get those 7 counting scores

 

I personally am very sympathetic to all those who cannot do 7 rounds, but if we are having a 14 round championship then 7 IMO should be the minimum level to qualify...

 

as for what to do with club events that are potentially under subscribed we could consider inviting one of the other clubs who invite us to there events to ours 🤔

 

Rob

 

PS Barbara, I should be sending my entry off this week after some negotiating around family hols...

 

 

My MSN Space and Blog - Syndicate Using RSS

[Steve Robinson]

Sorry Rob - meant the year before when it was 5 counting. Forgot last year was 7 counting.

 

Although the larger calender is a good thing in terms of variety of venues it would be a shame if it results in pressure on our own events due to poor turn out.

 

Maybe when we get to the end of the year the question we need to be asking is whether things were better with a 10 event calender than a 14. I'm sure a change back would make Mark's job easier if nothing else!

 

Like I say, I'm always happy to go with the majority view on these issues, interesting to see how it goes once the season starts up again in July.

 

Steve

[robmar]

once the season is over I will do some stats on % of entrants doing 7 rounds or more

 

lies dam lies and statistics as they say 😬

 

 

My MSN Space and Blog - Syndicate Using RSS

[Jason Plato]

I wonder if members realise that you can do the Club sprints - Llandow , curborough and Mira without entering the championship @ £15 ? - a lot I speak to dont

 

Maybe we should offer a "toe in the water championship" which only includes the club events and then also a full blooded "away every weekend" championship for the drivers that have jolly decent wives ?

 

Maybe we should scrap the championship entry fee and take it out of the sprint profits or club fund ?

 

I found that the articles in Lf brought out new faces and increased the numbers of entrants at llandow , this year took a big slump though ☹️

 

just some thoughts

 

 

[bl0498]

Guys/Barbara,

 

Its not just Lotus 7 Club that are seeing the problem of reduced entries - it appears to be something across the board in hillclimb and sprinting. MAC are noting less entries for their Curborough and MIRA events (they dropped Llandow this year after years of lowish entries and rising costs) and even for Shelsley Walsh the numbers rejected are reportedly less! Similarly for other clubs I believe.

 

So I think the problem is more generic rather than necessarily with our own club championship - although of course better promotion and understanding of how much fun it is always helps.

 

I myself have been unable to date to compete in any of the events due to clashes with either work overseas or other dates. I was hoping to compete at MIRA but that may have to go - probably Curborough will be OK...

 

My two penneth,

 

Brian

 

 

[MikeW]

I remember going to Curborough to watch a L7C event ( Clash of the Titans) before I owned a Caterham. HUGE event and very sociable. When there were a limited number of sprints it seemed to be much more of an occasion, bigger build ups and there was always a scramble to get entries in for Curborough.

Whilst I recognise you can't please all of the people all of the time I do wonder whether the Championship has become too important/serious and 'the intro to sprinting' feel of a limited number of events has got put to one side. It's always going to be the more serious sprinters who will be more vocal and it may be there are a few less people interested in giving it a go.

 

 

MikeW

Mega Grad Race No 9

[MikeW]

Picking up on Dave Jackson's 'toe in the water' championship. My personal view is that it should be a lot more about encouraging people to take part, sprint for the first time etc -some of whom may want to go on to compete more seriously in a recognised championship. The Club track days do a great job of getting people out on track for the first time

 

 

MikeW

Mega Grad Race No 9

[david nelson]

Mike

I think that interms of se7ens the club champoinship is the champoinship to be in.

 

My idea is to have 2 sub champoinships on for sprinting and another fro hill climbs.

so if there were 5 hill climbs in the overal champoinship say 4 counted toward the "king of the Hills" for sprints also have a number that would count for the sprint champoinship say 5 to count. for the overal class champoin they would need to do say 3 hills and 4 sprints. This would allow people with limited time of money or just want a toe in a chance to compate.

 

I think this would be a good idea as for those with the time can go a full program, those with limited time can either do the hill climbs or sprints and gives the new entrent something to have a go at.

 

 

David

 

SL #146

2:1

[DSL]

Mike you are slightly misguided by saying you may want to progress on to a more serious championship, at the pointy end of our championship we are very serious indeed 😬 😬, so much so when we go to other more "recognised" championship events as you put it, our top guys generally do the business & win their relative classes's often beating existing records by a considerable margin *thumbup*

 

This has been bourne out by my experience this year. I have also entered the Midland speed championship, my Busa engined car has no reverse gear & I have had to run in sports libre class, alot of the cars in this class could be considered to be much more capable than my car yet out of the three events I have done with them I have managed two wins & one second place. Yet against our guys in class 6 the best I have managed is 3rd.

 

What I am trying to say is that the championship has the ability to be all things to all men (and women 😬) an easy friendly introduction to sprinting with an incredibly knowledgeable & helpful group of people, right the way through to testing yourself more or less, against the best of the best *thumbup*

 

Spread the word, I do *thumbup*

 

[MikeW]

Sorry guys I wasn't trying to put down the L7C Championship at all and I know it is very serious at the top end. My point was really more about emphasis and in a way it 'seems' that the Championsip is becoming more suited to the dedicated hardened sprinter than the 'average' club member ( if there is one)

Now it may well be that the Club wants to make the sprints and the championships the place where the best of the best compete and thats fair enough BUT I do think that it is very hard to balance this with the needs of the novice sprinter who is looking to take part more than compete for a win ( but doesn't want to be last by a mile either)

There is a noticeable contrast from a few years ago when there seemed to be a limited number of Club sprints ( which were oversubscribed and seemed to attract large crowds) and the 14 round championsip of today.

This doesn't impact me directly- with 14 plus races a year in 4 countries I've got plenty of opportunity to compete- I'm just trying to put a slighly alternative view from you guys embroiled in the thick of the competition. And I guess in truth I'm more inclined to view that the club should be more about getting people to experience different aspects of a Caterham rather than aiming for 'the best sprint championship for Caterhams'

 

 

MikeW

Mega Grad Race No 9

[Graham Perry]

If this event is going to be a problem with numbers next year, the club could always consider inviting the WSCC as has been suggested elsewhere, although agreeing on a class structure would be interesting 😬 That would certainly get the numbers in

 

There is a thread running over at the WSCC boardroom suggesting something very similar at the moment

 

Edited by - Graham Perry on 27 Jun 2006 18:59:09

[Bilbo]

Hi

 

Well I register for the championship purely so that I can go to the non club organised events. I also only attend about 4 a year. That's for 2 reasons the main one is I only go to those south or in the midland as its difficult to get away on early on Fridays and stay overnight. Going well North on a Fridays a pain anyway and getting to them for 08:30 on Saturdays just not practical. The second one is the free time to go.

 

It may be that with the ever decreasing finishing times the just for a day out members are put off. Also the fact they need a helmet and track suit neither are cheap. Also FAI roll bar, isolation switch, twin return springs and lately head restraint. Not cheap for an odd go just for the fun of it.

 

Then there is the will I do well syndrome, I never do but still really enjoy myself.

 

In the last few years most have bought a trailer. No this is not a in 🙆🏻 go at them

 

However, there has been a lot of posting on 'it makes sense' and 'what will you do if you trash the car 'or have a 'mechanical failure'. A lot may read its near inevitable and do not want to go without one. A lot like me still attend without one but this does not come across on the postings. It also ignores the fact you can attend and drive just a tad faster than on the road or just the same as you do on the road still having a good day out. Ok its not quite the point of sprinting but does relate to having a go to see if you like it or just as a one off bit of fun. Still somebody will say the serious sprinters may miss out but the events are for the whole club. If more start to go on a one off basis than serious competitors well at worse its just an amendment to the number that count in the championship.

 

Then there is the yearly argument on classes well if your not in the championship its irrelavent but may not be read that way.

 

Then again we all post about the 'days' in this part of Blatchat lots may never read it. So maybe moving the "Thanks for a nice day" to chitchat and more in Low-Flying that's about the 'spirit of the day' rather than just results might promote it more.

 

Just to remind all I am always last in group 5 but I still keep going as its FUN 😬

 

Still this is getting to be a thread high jack by me and other and perhaps better discussed in Chitchat

 

'Can you hear me running' ......... OH YES and its music to my ears 😬 😬 😬

1988 200 bhp, 146 ft lbs, 1700cc Cosworth BD? engineered by Roger King, on Weber's with Brooklands and Clamshell wings, Freestyle Motorsport suspension.