Season coming to an end but lots going on!

[keiran]

Okay everyone with only two rounds remaining the season is coming to a close but we've quite a bit to look forward to as a club.

As a result of the Union Square GP event we will be acquiring the carpet and track markers. This is the proper Prima Felt carpet that is used at all the big events so is an opportunity we can't miss. The down side is there will only be 3x 25m lengths. I need to source where you can buy the carpet from and see how long the rolls are when bought, as I propose we extend them to 30m lengths to make better use of the hall.

We are going to need as many people as possible to help us get the carpets swapped over at Inverurie, hopefully on the 25th April. I'm going to get in touch with the sports centre manager and see if we can get the hall for a bit, they owe us for the double bookings so hopefully can work something out. This leaves us a problem, what are we going to do with the old carpet? I think we should probably hang onto the pipes for now until we are sure that the markers are going to work for us and if we have enough.

I'm also looking for people interested in joining the committee and helping run the meetings. This season I've pretty much been the only active committee member at the race meetings with Mark tied up with work commitments and Bruce vanishing! I feel there is too much reliance on me at the moment to run the meetings. I'm looking for more people to get involved, be it helping out with running the computer (more people need to know how to use it) or event orgainising/PR/.... the list of jobs are endless.

So to summaries:
- Mark 25th April on your calendar, its your club as much as anyone elses. Without people sparing there spare time we don't go racing.

- More people to take an active roll within the club.

- What do we do with the old carpet?

Please get in touch with me either through the forum or email me at keiran@grampianrcc.co.uk

[Topher2]

If we can get the old carpet up there, it can go in the roof above my garage but I dont think we will get it up as a roll at a time, we may need to cut it to smaller rolls - enough to be able to man handle it, probably just cut each lenght into two.

[Dan]

Good post Keiran!

With primafelt and proper markers I think we can hold events and be taken more seriously.

I may even try to arrange an event or 2 if you'll let me!?

D

[keiran]

Thanks for the offer Chris, but I'd like to get shot of it as I'm sure you don't want to hold onto it! I've talked to my Mum, worse comes to worse she doesn't mind me storing carpet at hers for a couple of weeks. The skip in Inverurie is open on Sundays, so I'll try see if I can call someone about it and see what the scoop is. The only issue is Jasons vehicle marked up with a company on it? I know skips can be iffy if they feel your dumping for a company.

For sure Dan! It's something I've wanted to try do for a while. I'd like to make a bigger deal out of the endurance race, lets get more variant in teams from all over the place! If we get guys coming from Shetland, why not further South!? Lack of exposure!! I've a couple ideas but lets get the union square well out of the way before we talk about anything else .

I just see this all as a perfect opportunity for the club to really pull its self back to the days where we had 40-50 people attending each meeting!! But we need the man power behind it to make it all happen, so lets see some fresh faces step forward and start pushing the club back out there. Being based in whats a fairly big and growing town gives us a huge advantage that we are not taking full advantage of.

[Dan]

You are doing something right already as there have been a lot of new faces there over the past few months!

D

[Topher2]

Keiran,

The council pick up bulky items for a fee, take it home, dump it at the front of the house and pay the council to come and take it away (£20 ish I think), if they ask just say you are re-carpeting your house!

[marcbaynham]

Hi guys,
Some things I would like to suggest with regards to the club, the idea behind these suggestions is to get people thinking, and to try and encourage the club to move forward. We seem to be bucking the trend in that we are attracting interest and new members regularly, but there are a few things I, personally, think would help to improve things massively.

Firstly, the new carpet will make a big difference. Until you race on the new carpet (i have raced quite a bit on this type of carpet) you will realise it is much better mainly much more consistent and it rolls out flat, so no annoying bumps!

Suggestion 1:- we decide on 3 (or more, or less) track layouts, and mark these on the carpet (e.g. 3 different colours of tape) that way we can build consistent tracks. The reason for this is so that we can see how much we are improving by, week on week. This is key to developing driving skills and car setup. If after a meeting you see that you are 0.5 secs quicker on track "2" than the previous time, you have improved! Carpet is much more consistent than tarmac and can allow a more direct comparison.

Suggestion 2:- look into some summer racing. There are quite a few drivers who don't race at stonehaven, so are only limited to racing during the winter, if there was racing on all year round, there would be no risk of loosing club members. There are also a few racers who only race at Stonehaven, so we should try to encourage them to race at inverurie also!

Suggestion 3:- (allied to above)- look at racing midweek, or if it suits, friday evenings. This would depend on availability of the hall and if the members wanted to do this. This means the club could race all year round, and not conflict with other events which some members race at (SRCA, SCC, SDRCC etc).

Suggestion 4;- Encouage several people (5-10) to run race control. If we are running 6 car heats, 1 marshall from each heat can easily run race control allowing Kieran to work on his car, at a previous club I did this and it is not too difficult once you learn the software.

Suggestion 5;- depending on the length of the new carpet, lay the track out over 3/4 of the hall, then use the remaining 1/4 as the pits. This means all racers are together, and it means the more experienced drivers can share information with the newcomers/less experienced. After all, despite how competitive the A-final may seem, we are all more than happy to help and share tips on both driving, setup, maintainance etc.

Suggestion 6;- Look at the possibility of some alternative classes, mainly Mardave V12. These are 1/12 scale cars, which are really cheap to run and buy. They cost a similar amount to a readyset type car but with some tuning are both quick and fun to drive and in my view offer a better route into r/c racing. Other types of car to consider are offroad (already many cars in the area), F1, 1/12 pan, 1/10 pan, Micro touring cars etc.

Suggestion 7;- (for next season) Run 13.5T motors and rubber tyres. Even look into a control tyre (Sorex 28 or even the new Nosram/LRP carpet tyre). Allow additives on rubber tyres. If the members would prefer to continue with 10.5T and foams, investigate running these two classes along side each other. I believe 10.5T will be too fast for most people to control. Rubber tyres should last a season, and there is no risk of chunking them.

Suggestion 8;- Run 3x4 minute heats. I believe this will make the meeting run quicker (i.e. less turn around time between heats) and still gives the same amount of track time.

Okay, thats enough from me, just some ideas to get you all thinking.

Marc

[Topher2]

My comments to marks excellent email:

1. Good idea, cant see any reason why we cant do that, what about three tracks and run them clockwise and anti clockwise? - just to stop it getting very "samey"

2. I am a fan of summer racing at Stonehaven to get out in the fresh air, free tyres for all new stoney members if you join (whilst stocks last!).

3. I can see why this may be a good idea, only issue is possibly duration, the centre dont want to lease the hall out for 4 hours as it is so on a night I dont think they would be happy with more than an hour - not worth setting the track up is it? I guess it doesnt hurt to ask! We did Wednesday night racing at stoney last year and it was more relaxed and much more fun, lack of numbers though....

4. Yep, 100% I will help if someone will tell me how to!

5. Agree

6. cant comment, dont have any experience with other cars

7. I would be happy to go this route - not sure about the additives (have never used them so dont know how much difference they make). If we go for a control tyre, the new Much More ones are meant to be quite good - perhaps we can ask people who are racing in the rug racers series how they are getting on with them

8. agree

Feel free to ignore my comments!

[keiran]

1. Yea, most tracks tend to follow quite a close pattern so we'd not need to tape every little bit either.

2. That had crossed my mind when I was writting the original post, but left it out. This will only work if we get more people come forward for race control, I don't want to find myself being committed to GRCC over the summer too!!

3. We'd not get the hall for the length of time needed on a week night I'm afraid, would have to be Sundays.

4. More than happy to show people how to use the computer, although I think it would be better to have selected people. The software we use is very easy and straight forward.

5. That's a very good idea, new carpet lengths are going to be 25m. We're going to have to buy a new roll anyway but hopefully would have some offcuts to extend them if need be.

6. Mixed thoughts on this one, the biggest concern is you start to dilute the classes. That's what happened to karting when I was racing, so many new classes were coming on the go that some people got left behind leaving you with a decent entry but poor grids in some classes. Bit weary of off-road as a car managed to put a hole in our old carpet!!

7. I think this is probably going to have to happen. I'm sure people probably wont be happy having to buy 13.5ts but since going Li-Po and back to brushless I've really noticed the speed increase from the brushed 19ts and cells. Also hoping to try out a new software update for my speedo which has a 'supercharger' function, and watching other speedos with this sort of feature it makes a massive difference.

I'm keen to go rubber tires to, keep inline with the rest of the R/C world.

8. Yea agreed, it's too crammed running 4 rounds.

[Dasbo]

For what they are worth.

1. Great idea.
2. Personally, I would only do outdoor racing only in the summer, but I know a few at GRCC would be interested. It would also mean the clubs would be competing with each other.
3. This sounds interesting, but I think my attendance would be very poor as I dont know if my already stretched brownie points could cope.
4. May I suggest we get a group together and have a lesson on the first day of next season? I'm in.
5. Again something which may be better for "bonding", but if we push the track against the walls, it doesnt leave much margin for error, and I sometimes need a huge margin.
6. We proved another class could be run when we gave offroad a go. Unfortunately, I dont think we should risk damaging the new carpet by doing it again, but Mardaves etc should be fine. Any new class would have to be supported by numbers first with a possible rule of one class per person per meeting only.
7. Best idea yet. It brings the club in line with the norm, whilst giving those who dont want to swap over to 13.5, run their current setup without the additional cost.
8. Go for it.