MG LIVE at Silverstone. 23rd and 24th June 2012

The MG Car Club are delighted to confirm that agreement has been reached with Silverstone Circuits Ltd for the Clubs premier race event to take place on the Grand Prix Circuit on the dates above. For 2012 Silverstone Circuits will run host the test day on the 22nd for those competitors wishing to drive the circuit prior to the Saturday qualifying. Access for other race competitors will be late on the Friday.

The decision to go to a two day event for the event has been driven by ever increasing costs and the present economic outlook. We are making every effort to minimise costs to competitors and hope that we will be able to, at the least , maintain the race costs at close to 2011 levels.

The Club are planning a very full programme of races for the event, containing as usual all of our Championships and Series, along with invited groups. Very few Clubs can offer their members the opportunity of driving the GP circuit which only a few days afterwards will be hosting the British GP. We will continue to use the original paddock and race control as previous.

We look forward to welcoming all of the Clubs members to our 62nd year of consecutive race meetings at Silverstone

The Clubs 2012 race programme kicks off on Sunday 8th April at Donington Park, we hope to see you all there

Best regards

Ron Gammons

Not for the faint hearted, some photos of the Dinner/Dance will also be included.

I have sent out the Agenda for the AGM via email to you all. If your email has changed or you did not receive the Agenda please let me know & I will send you a copy.
Jonesey

Seem you’ve got some debate going.

The post of Coordinator is vacant.

I personally don’t like regs written around permissible part numbers for a series where the vehicles manufacturer no longer exists and hence factory parts are not available for reference. What happens even when the manufacturer exists and they change parts supplier? the new bit looks different but has the same part code, does it behave the same?

Perhaps we should just have three classes - slow, medium and fast. Win slow twice and you get bumped up into medium for the rest of the year.

And my closing comment on TV coverage - all the companies that have approached club racing offering to get you on TV want to be paid to turn up, then they walk away with the rights to what we’ve done and try to sell it to someone. If you want to pay £500 each to have a race televised….. I can do a trackday including trailer hire and all fuel for that much.

Re number of classes, the drivers who pay their entry fees, turn up, and race have asked for the class structure that we have.

We have long had the situation where reasonably well specified cars have not been driven to their full potential. One case in point was the MGC where the regs were originally written around a slow driver in a fast car, as soon as a fast driver turned up in one the true performance was apparent.
One of the major gripes of late has been that cars of identical specification seem to go faster in other championships than they do in ours. Claims of technical inegibility are rife to justify the performance differences…

Finally, I think you’ll find that the range of disciplinary options is prescribed by the MSA. I believe 1kg under weight should be exclusion, a fine and possibly even a licence endorsement. Sadly the rules are written for high level, high stakes and high-cost championships and don’t take much account of club level racing funded from people’s own pockets.

On the regulations, here’s an anonymous opinion on where we should be heading…

Regs should be locked down to components and part numbers, and should go in to much more detail. See other championships (Ma5da Championship Regs: http://www.ma5daracing.com/mk1/eventguide/2011/autumn/files/regulations.pdf & Trophy Championship Regs http://www.mgcc.co.uk/images/stories/trophyregs.pdf etc.)

There should be as few classes as possible; cars should be placed in the classes based on the fastest times by a car of the same type set in any championship. If the car has not been raced in any championship before, the club will review the car and decide how fast it could reasonably go, then place it in an appropriate class.

A ballasting rule shall be enforced and ballasting kit be made available through the club. Ballast may be added to ANY car at any time at the discretion of the club.

Current class A should be made class B.

Current classes B and C should be amalgamated to class C.

A new class A should be for true road-going cars. No head mods, stock suspension all round etc. There are cars from the BCV8 and MGOC championships that will be eligible for this.

Class D should be poised to accept MG ZR 190 when the Trophy championship no longer caters for them.

Cars not complying with the new regulations will have 1 year to comply.

The technical officer for the championship must be replaced with one who is proactive and visible at ALL race meetings. The technical officer shall be given power to check any car at any time and have a number of disciplinary procedures at his/her disposal.

Whether or not my opinions are shared, and whatever your personal opinion as a reader, one thing is for sure; without change the club WILL lose more racers and WILL prevent new racers from joining.

A Racer.

Regarding your comments about the rules structure etc the format is prescribed so we can’t do much about that, there have been significant efforts by the class representatives (which is why we have them) to clear up the regulations. The number of classes has been the subject of much discussion but some competitors don’t want cars running to the same technical regs from other championships in with themselves because they go faster, others want some cars pushed out of a class just because they’re different…perhaps classes that are poorly supported may be amalgamated at race meetings or just excised altogether - just how many people do we want to upset? Is it better to have more competitors out racing or fewer
of them in a reduced number of classes?
The only solution is to go down the Top Hat/HRDC/Tin Tops route where there are virtually no technical regulations and it’s just a glorified trackday where who spends most has greatest chance of winning.

Some discussion points for over a beer or two maybe, as if we need an excuse to venture to the bar!

Well thought out write up as usual and should get everyone thinking.

Race calender looks better than the first provisional one. Nice to see Thruxton on there again. It would be nice to add another venue so we don’t end up with all double headers again!

James