Greetings Race Fans,
Or should I say where have all the drivers gone?
We are back at Donington at last following their F1 fiasco where they dug a load of holes and then went bust.
I hear the track is as good as it ever was so how come we have only got 16 cars shown on the grid?… 9 of them –by far the biggest class - are all in class A?
If we are not careful this could be an amalgamated race and no-one likes that.
Class F is once again just the Silver Fox, Class B just two drivers and Class C only a little better with four…..what’s going on?
I know times are hard but this must be our worst showing for a long time.
In class C it seems the regular drivers have just thrown the towel in and left Dan Ludlow to it…if it wasn’t for three new drivers he would be the only class C entrant!!. I am not good at maths but he may already have clinched the class and overall title anyway, but if not, on his current form Donington should seal it….I have had to guess this as we have not had an update to the official table since Silverstone so working this out has proved a bit tricky.
Class B is just as bad, with only Car 78 Alistair Bell (is he new too?) against old stalwart Dave Brown.
So I have to concentrate on Class A who are keeping the standards up.
New to us is Jo Phillips in his much talked about MGB. This is expected to be quite trick and the last I heard weighs no more than a feather…. I am sure the scrutineer is keen to look over this car….or he would be if we had a scrutineer, or an eligibility rep, or a co-ordinator….well at least we have a driver’s rep and I know you have to get up early to get past JD.
Of course we are getting up pretty early with a crack of dawn “sign on” and no doubt hernias all round as we try to quietly push our cars all over the place to avoid waking the neighbours.
Kevin Hewer is back with Black Bess after re-wiring the Olympic clock.
Primrose is back having resolved the head gasket issues, I am back still sporting the James Walpole performance drop link which inspires me with a lot of confidence but does nothing to improve my ability, maybe I should read that book Mr Ludlow mentioned a little while back?
Nick Arden will be looking to continue his winning streak after Thruxton, but the Blue Streak (see what I did there?) James Darby will be doing all he can to stop him.
Normally at this time of year I would be delving deeply into the points table and the fight for overall and class championship bids, but while I wait for the update and my Christmas dinner I have spent my time leafing through the Oxford Dictionary and came up with this little reference:
“Coordinator” can refer to a position within an organization with significant responsibilities for acting as a liaison between departments, stakeholders and information sources, which requires many non-administrative competencies. Somebody responsible for organizing diverse parts of an enterprise or groups into a coherent or efficient whole.
I always wondered what they did….
See you at Donington…try not to spread out too much with all the parking space we have reserved for us!
Jonesey
Here is a nice piccy of Mr Arden trouncing the opposition at Thruxton.
Courtesy Jamie Peters Evans
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17 visitors commented in " Pre - Race Report Donington 2011 "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI’m very much looking forward to my first race in the PBIC. I’ve still got a few things to do on the car and while it won’t be 100% finished it will be good to finally get it on track and have a race.
I wouldn’t say my car is ‘quite trick’ but it is true that I haven’t weighed the car yet so there is a possibility that it might weigh less than the 1900lbs minimum limit.
See you all at Donington.
Joe
Thanks Joe & WELCOME!!
Let us know a little bit of background about yourself & the car when you get a chance.
Jonesey
I started doing track days in my MGB GT in 2004 which lead to me buying an ex-BCV8 class B racer is 2006. I raced it a couple of times in 2008 before fully stripping it and slowly rebuilding it into the car it is now.
The car now is hopefully a competitive class A car. I built the engine with my mate and it’s got all the usual race parts. The only thing we did was design our own cam profile and it was made by Newman Cams. Knowing what we know now I think we did an OK job but we definitely left some power on the table and I expect to be at a disadvantage to the front running class A guys. We’re using an overdrive box and a 4.3 diff for Donington. Wiring loom is custom made and we have fitted a Racetech dash 2 but no data logger. Suspension is all just standard race stuff. The car did have Fabtek front and rear ARBs but they have now been reomoved. I still have the rear one if anyone is interested in buying it. Dampers are lever arms front and back supplied by World Wide Auto Parts. That’s it really, no need for the scrutineer to look at the car now
Jonesey are you thinking that we should get one of those “Coordinator” type persons to organize the PBIC?
I know I am probably being thick but can somebody bring me up to speed?
I note the reference to our lack of co-ordinator, eligeability rep etc, has Dave given up or is this just a “Jonesey” dig?
From the little I have seen of the latest school girls squabble many seem to have gone off in a huff but I do not know where most of the dissagreements have taken place other than Jonesey’s Web site.
For what it is worth my view is very simple, if any car obeys the current regulations then it should be allowed to compete, rule changes should be proposed and voted on at the drivers meeting at the end of the season not part way through when the cars are finished and being run and when time and finanace is commited to racing and having a life.
I vote Wreghitt for president!
Do you think a co-ordinator could work in the PBIC?
From what I understood, changes could be made during the season if a car was seen to have an unfair advantage.
Is this correct or not? It was clear to me at Brands the way class C would pan out & recent results have proven me to be correct.
I had a chat with my class rep at Silverstone, so my views on unfair speed differences are known to the powers that be.
Championships change & evolve, PBIC may just be going in a different direction, which is fine for me, as luckily have alternative championships to race in, others may not have the same luxury! I don’t win anything there either btw, but that’s not the point…..
Apparently, even if rule changes are accepted at the next drivers meeting they cannot be implement until 2013, if this is the case, then next season could see a further drop in grid numbers, which is a shame as up until recently & have enjoyed racing with PBIC.
I wish the championship good luck for the future, & may common sense prevail!
Probably not, This may down to the previous success of the championship & being over helpful in accommodating any vehicles that were made by MG or invented by others.
It probably needs a bit more of a dictator to get the regulations & drivers back inline?
Then we can all turn up at the circuit have a bit of banter & most of all enjoy our motor racing.
As I said before I think that the class representative should liaison with the drivers for their own class & then get together with the coordinator to make any changes to the regulations that are deemed necessary & then add them to the agenda (published beforehand) for all to vote on at the AGM. Only items on the agenda to be discussed, peoples holidays etc can be discussed under AOB.
You never know if you help the coordinator things may just improve?
I like the idea of agreeing an agenda & then sticking to it. This would prevent the world & his wife getting their 10 penceworth in at the AGM and turning into a complete free for all.
If this can be striclty enforced then it sounds like the ideal system…. I hear some bloke called Gaddaffi may have the attributes we need and he’s looking for a new job…
I hear a certain Col Gadaffi is at a bit of a loose end these days, he could be just the man for the job!
Great minds think alike Jonesy, we must have posted at the same time.
Love it!
How spooky is that!
Good to see you back on the telly by the way, but you are looking a bit older!
Actually I was going put Col Gadaffi but did not want to see jonesey arrested when his web site got flag-up by MI5
Apparently its only after you mention Gadaffi 4 times a website gets flagged.
Oh hang on. . . . . .
It is not too late to amend rules for 2012. Generally speaking the MSA want proposals by the end of November, which is why an AGM as late as the PBIC’s doesn’t really work. That said, I have previously found the MSA to be quite helpful on late rule changes. It is, after all, in their interests too. As ever, the options are with the drivers, but if we sit around much longer, I fear other potential / current drivers will also find other series in which to race, some of which are very well run indeed!
A bit of a late update and a chance to use some puns, hopefully I won’t drop a clanger here, but Alistair Bell is - I am told - driving the Old Pat Fenn V8 and hoping to ring the changes in this well known car. Only chime will tell!
See you all at Donnington, I will be performing safety car duties for the club, hence I am not out this round due to holiday.