Ardent Raceway Winter Series to include 10th off-road?
 

Hi 10th Electric Buggy Racers,

We are launching this series initially aimed at the on-road world (as we are an on road carpet track) www.ardentracing.com/winterseries but I would like to invite the 10th Scale Buggy racers to the party and change our 480sqm permanent track into an awesome buggy track once a month.

I would pick a weekend that didn't clash with the mighty Worksop and it would be a 2 day event starting Saturday and finishing Sunday. Saturday would be 2wd and 4wd practice with 2 rounds of qualifying. Sunday would be 3 rounds of qualifying and 2 maybe 3 finals depending on numbers.

The buggy drivers would share the £8K prize pot with the on road classes which includes passenger rides in the Kick Energy Rally Ford Focus cars, VIP access to the Kick Energy Rally show at Chatsworth House, hot air balloon rides etc..

I would do it over 7 rounds with a twist for the final round. It would actually be part of the Chatsworth Rally Show (outdoors on short grass) and it would expose the sport, its drivers and the series Sponsors to the 5000 people that attend the Rally show over the weekend (in June). take a look at http://www.ardentracing.com/winterseries/livevideo.php for more info on the Raceway and Rally Show.

The overall winner of the series would be invited to have a go at getting into the Guinness book of records for the longest ever RC jump with our 1/8th scale 22v lipo powered brushless HPI Vorsa and with a 40m carpeted runway. (we should be able to clear 30mtrs easy!!

Before I take the plunge I just wanted to gauge if this is of interest to anyone?

Cost per weekend would be £10 for the two days of practice/racing. If you can't make the Saturday Practice then the track will be open for practice on the evening of the Saturday, to give you some extra prep time.

Fancy it anyone? I'd also do a 15% discount if you book and pay in July.

Sounds awsome! Ill be there.:thumbsup:

count me in!! sounds great!

Sounds good to me too. I would def be interested.
Are you chaps planning on building a permenant off road track up there any time?

Oh, can i ask to be clear. Will this be done on the same weekend as the onroad championship as I was planning on racing in that. For example are you putting in a few ramps for the buggies inbetween on road races or is this going to be done on a totally seperate weekend?

Where about in the country are you located??? This may help people decide if they want to go???

Its in donington Dave.

If you're going to do this properly; like it sounds like you are, you need a good enough track to match, simply putting jumps under bits of carpet won't be enough to get good entries, there need to be proper (I don't mean big or difficult) well profiled jumps, rhythm sections, slippy areas etc to attract racers. Also full carpet kills buggy tyres so some form of multisurface areas would be beneficial. Also putting on 7 two day meetings might be a bit much, I'd stick to sat or sun not both. The chatsworth meeting sounds like a great idea too..
Just my 2cents from what I've learnt at worksop :p

I wish it was in Coventry tho :thumbsup::lol:

Is this the North??? Everything above London is north to me haha

Yes north mate but not as north as worksop. Its about 10 mins off junction 24 of M1. Near East Midlands airport.

Yep, permanent buggy track is in the plan for later this year. :-)

Totally separate weekend. :-)

good feedback, Saturday is a bonus day for those who can make it and they will get more track time (even a 1 day event at £10 isn't bad) so lets say it's Sunday only but Saturday is free for buggies to come and set up their cars and practice.

Surface would be a combo of wooden flooring, carpet, astro, to be honest ramps and layout would be like Worksop which I believe everyone is happy with? OSB boards, tables, hard board to create a smooth arc leading into a flowing jump with a down ramp for those who don't think Air is the fastest way around the track. Can't ship loads of soil in unfortunately :-) Chatsworth would be a great finale!

Thanks for the interest everyone, for the first day of posting I am impressed by the enthusiasm. I think I will be announcing this on Monday as a goer!!!

John Dawson.
Ardent Raceway

Yep, count me in, sounds excellent :thumbsup:

Depending on dates I'd be interested, would definitely prefer being able to just do Sundays if I choose to, so practice sat/race Sunday sounds good to me!

i'm with dave g, sounds goooood:thumbsup:

I agree, need big air though :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Count me in be up for this too

Sundays best for me as some Saturdays i have to work :thumbdown:

What tyres would be used? As mini-pins fluff up the carpet and loose grip for the onroad stuff

Different carpet, so don't worry, use razor blades if you like :-) maybe not that would just be stupid and against health and safety. Mini Pins will be fine. I will be looking for a Tyre Sponsor/control tyre, I will select one that most people already own so as not to impact peoples beer funds and hopefully get a deal where we can all benefit on savings in our pockets ££!! If I can't then I will leave it open. Won't have one for the sake of having one, there's got to be something in it for all of us right? :-)

i assume you mean so long as it's not the 1st sunday of the month as you will be at broxtowe:lol:

sounds like it could be good....

however, IMO, a 2-dayer seems a bit intense for a winter series and having practice all saturday for those that that don't have other commitments (such as work, family etc) perhaps provides too much of an advantage.

maybe a straight 1-dayer would be a fairer series...?

correct date selection is going to be important too.

the winter is going to be pretty busy this year :thumbsup:

Agreed

I am up for this, and i am sure i can get some of the hinckley guys to come over as well :thumbsup:

As others have said a two day meeting could be tricky for some and i would be able to just make the one day most of the time.

If you ran minipins, or maybe have schumacher minispikes as a control tyre, as lots of people will already have these from the racing in the summer. So save a bit of cash for people.

Will you be planning on maybe having a off road meeting before the winter series starts?, so we can see if there are any problems and to see if anything needs to be fine tuned ?. Happy to pop over and help out :)

if you run a pre-series meeting as Jonathan suggests and the date works for me, I think I would pop over for a run :)

as for winter series dates, you would need to try and avoid clashes with other local series in the area for best turnout, such as Broxtowe and Coventry (avoiding the legend that is Worksop, well that goes without saying, unless you wanted to run a the series for those that don't fancy racing/can't get in there).

Ok so Here's the cunning plan:

One weekend a month we will lift the on-road carpet to reveal a 480 sq.m wooden base. On this base we will paint a track layout using green and red floor paint (green where you drive, Red where you don't) and we will mix in some very fine grit so as not to cause too much wear on tyres. Track markings will be in the form of old hosing. Then we will cover approx 70% of the track with a mixture of carpet and astro turf that will go over jumps and bumps that we will make with OSB boarding, tables, with thinner ply to achieve a smooth take off and landing. A few of us (me included are old buggy racers so we get a feel for what you are looking for but open to listen to advice).

The dates I have in mind that avoid Worksop and Broxtowe are as follows:

Please note the track will be available from Saturday lunchtime on the day before each of these dates, but just for open practice so you can get some testing done ready for the Sunday. This would cost £5 for as much track time as you like and open to everyone, not just those racing on the Sunday.


Rnd 1 - 24th October
Rnd 2 - 28th November
Rnd 3 - 19th December
Rnd 4 - 23rd January
Rnd 5 - 27th February
Rnd 6 - 20th March

With a Series Finale and personalised trophy collection and demo race at the Kick Energy Rally Show at Chatsworth House on an outdoor track in front of 5000 people to promote buggy racing! Date to be announced.

Any comments? Feedback? Open to ideas/suggestions.

Sounds promising!

Any plans to "test" the track surfaces prior to the first round?

Are you planning on control tyres? And how many rounds to count?

Nov 28 and Feb 27 clash with the MAM series run between Coventry and Kidderminster (they clash with 2 Coventry rounds) which might force people to choose which they series they run, rather than running in both. :(

So how about:

Rnd 1 - 24th October
Rnd 2 - 28th November
Rnd 3 - 19th December
Rnd 4 - 23rd January
Rnd 5 - 20th March
Rnd 6 - 10th April

Best 4 to count.

We would do a one-off trial race in September most likely the Sunday 19th September. Any one fancy being the first to race buggies here.

Sunday 19th is the 4wd End of Season finals for F3/4/5 @ Silverstone...

So that would be OK then if it's just a trial race, even if we get 10 people at least we can have a shake down for the start of the series. Do the other dates work? Any other clashes you can think of?

Really appreciating your help here, thank you :-)

will you be running an SCT heat as there are alot of people who own them:thumbsup:

Guys, they can't avoid all of Worksop/Broxtowe/Batley/MAM etc, it jut doesn't work, these dates look a good compromise although just maybe avoiding the players with round 1 would be good?

MAM is best 4 from 8 (2 at each track to count), Batley allows dropped scores too, maybe we encourage people to drop the odd round at places and try different tracks etc? Remember you only need 4 counting rounds here as well!

Personally I am tempted to do just enough rounds to count at all of WBMCC/Batley/Ardent/Broxtowe plus then Worksop and enjoy racing all over the place!! Either way I like the sound of this series!!

So how about:

Rnd 1 - 28th November
Rnd 2 - 19th December
Rnd 3 - 23rd January
Rnd 4 - 20th March
Rnd 5 - 10th April
Rnd 6 - 1st May
Finale - Kick Energy Rally Show at Chatsworth House, date tbc (Does not count towards title)

Best 4 out of 6 to count.

We would do a one-off trial race in September most likely the Sunday 19th September I know this clashes with an event at Silverstone but sure there must be some buggy racers free to test our facilities :-). Any one fancy being the first to race buggies here?.

I should be able to make that, the Silverstone event excludes F1/F2 grade drivers (although rightly many team drivers go and support people there) so some should be available, plus many who haven't entered Silverstone!

Personally, I think you'd be better having the final round in April rather than 1st May - can you squeeze one into Feb instead?

I would also prefer to see the series starting in October rather than end of November...

Can't make that one personally (at the Silverstone meeting), which is a shame. I must pop over at some point to check out the facilities though, as I am pretty local...

Just want to check I have this right as Feb is pretty much Broxtowe Worksop Worksop Broxtowe.

Is Broxtowe on the 6th Feb
Then Woksop on the 20th Feb
Then Coventry on the 27th Feb
Then Broxtowe and Worksop on the 6th March?

If so that only leaves 1 weekend the 13th and unfortunately that is the weekend of our on-road winter series.

if I have any of those dates wrong then I will definitely do a Feb round so we finish the series earlier. Also as far as starting earlier is concerned what about we start in September (5th) or is that too early? the only date I have free in October is the 31st or the 24th but that clashed with Coventry I think.

This is the hardest part of doing a series but again I REALLY appreciate your help :-)

September 5th is the F2 End of Season finals, so that's probably a non-starter too!