Hi Dave - thanks for your comments which are duly taken on board. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy yourself yesterday as much as with previous events, and I'm sure that other members of the club are too.
I think there were a few mitigating factors yesterday which led to some tempers flaring, and in no particular order they could be:
1. Some of the heats had a few odd driver gradings which led to some quite significant speed differential betwen some of the cars in the heats. I know myself, Scott D and Jordan were in your heat and we all had our fair share of scary moments when suddenly closing in on a slower car. Perhaps JP can comment on how the heats were allocated but I suspect I was graded down due to not competing in the finals at the previous Sunday meet. Through nobody's fault, getting tangled with a slower car just causes a bit of red mist to appear when you know that the faster drivers in other heats are getting a clearer run.
2. The centre section of the track was undoubtedly tricky to marshal. This led to delays in getting cars recovered, with some drivers' views being obscured causing further problems. Again this is all frustrating when you have a potentially good run ruined.
3. Perhaps the marshalling could be a little better? I'm no expert, and certainly not the most fleet of foot, but I did notice yesterday a few marshalls daydreaming. And yes I'm guilty - I did bellow from the stage when before one of my heats had finished the marshalls decided to start leaving the track and blocking the view of drivers who had yet to finish. Just remember chaps that until that final buzzer goes the race is still running!!
Time for us all to take a step back and reign our necks in with regards to the bad language though, especially with ladies, children and potential new members amongst us.
Anyway - hopefully we can learn from this and make things better for the next meeting.
On a plus note it's nice to see a few extra pairs of hands putting the track away - albeit not everybody who should be!!
And finally a big thanks to those that set the track out, JP for being our computer whizz, Alan for being FORCC's very own shouty man, and of course Miss Moon for doing the booking in!
Edit - having now seen your post Goldy I really think we must look at the positioning of larger jumps so that they are not in the middle of the track and consequently causing a potential health risk to the marshals. I know we are limited with the size of the hall and how many variations we can achieve, but if people are being hurt then that is not acceptable.
I will ask Alan to say a few words on Wednesday evening before we race to remind people of the points raised here, with a view to restoring people's faith in the good name and nature of FORCC. I can only apologise on behalf of FORCC for anyone that feels aggrieved at recent events and hope that these will go down as isolated incidents.
See you all Wednesday.
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