[Mr Eccleston]

To ensure all points I would like to discuss are officially brought up at the AGM I have detailed some points below:
I feel with the success of the off road racing scene in Scotland last year, and the obvious growth we appear to have had over the winter months, I strongly believe we need to have a regional club organizing the racing in Scotland, if fact I don’t see it as optional, it’s going to be to much work for one person. Don’t take it the wrong way, I think last year was good, and well done to those that made it happen, but there are certainly opportunities to make it a lot better. Looking at the information available I thought the Sport Scotland (the national agency for sport) website had some excellent information

http://www.helpforclubs.org.uk/How+to+start+a+sports+club.htm

I think we are at stage 4, we are not a small club (less than 10), and would therefore benefit from a small committee and a basic constitution. The benefit of the committee is that the workload is shared, and everyone knows who is responsible for upholding the rules we agree to. The BRCA already has a club constitution template and I would suggest this is used as a starting point.

http://domain3190026.sites.fasthosts.com/BRCA/library/Constitution%20CASC%20ver%202.doc

I would suggest that a possible Committee would consist of Chairman, Treasurer, Secretary, Club Reps & BRCA Rep. I think this is the only way forward to ensure a balanced approach and maximizing the input from all host clubs so that we can make a significant improvement to the off road scene in 2011.

To keep it simple I would suggest that we follow the BRCA 1/10th electric off road rules to run our outdoor series as per our parent body. I think there are a number of points that would need to be discussed, namely:
As a region are we in strong enough position to turn drivers away that want to race, but don’t have EB lipo’s and motors. How would we stand regarding insurance. Well I’ve done some research and it’s not really an issue, just a little common sense and we can really see this regional series grow in numbers.

Motors, as we run to modified rules then there’s no problem, all our current motors and RTR version could potentially be legal.
Do we want to limit the tyre choice as per the National rules, again do we have enough racers to be selective, or could we limit the tyre choice to the National tyres plus those that are supplied in RTR kits. I doubt anyone would see an advantage here. The advantage of limiting the tyres is that you only need a small amount of tyres, no need to carry every single available tyre, thus reducing costs.

Should we only allow clubs to hold a round of the series if they do not put a club meeting on at the same time (for 1/10th electric off road), after all we want to encourage racers to attend our regional series. The BRCA do exactly the same at National level, you don’t have to choose between Nationals and Regionals, should you have to choose between a Regional and a club series.

I think that we should also look into how we are going to promote the sport so that we can grow again next year. One possible avenue is the Scottish Motor Show, probably our biggest opportunity to promote the sport. This is planned for the weekend of 21st & 22nd May.

I think we need to look into how we accept entries, I don’t think we need anything like central booking, but perhaps a simple email and txt system would be sufficient. Entries on the day would be fine as well, but I think they should automatically be placed in the bottom heat. Something else to discuss is what should be done regarding not actually paying for an entry i.e. not turning up. I would think that it would be perfectly acceptable to cancel an entry up until 9:30pm the day before a meeting, surely by that time anyone would know if they intend to go the next day. There would of course be exceptions, bit of common sense required.

On a similar topic, I would suggest we need to agree on race fees, and I would suggest that the current £10 per day is sufficient for the clubs as there is minimal outlay. This would also ensure that the large number of people that have two cars would not be put off racing both of them on the same day due to cost. It will be far better for us to look busy with lots of cars racing, as well as allowing more heats so that marshalling is not a problem.

Regarding prizes, I would suggest that it would be nice if we could have an annual cup for each class to compete for, as well as potentially trophies at the end of the series. This would obviously need funding, and I would suggest that each round that we run donates £20 to a central fund, this would be sufficient to purchase four large cups (2wd/4wd junior/senior). I would also suggest that if we decide to have end of series trophies for racers, that we have a £5 membership fee per class, this would effectively pay for the trophies. This would also give the regional club minimum funds to worry about, we don’t need a large cash revenue as ideally we would want the funds to go to the clubs so that our facilities are available to all club racers every week.

I think another point to discuss is how we are going to sort heats during the series. I would suggest that at the first round we sort heats on last year’s finishing positions, then F grades, then ability. For remaining rounds I would suggest that we adjust each class of car against the top performer on the day, as well as updating the overall championship positions. These rounds heats should then be calculated on ability, and in the event of a tie the current championship position is used.
Regarding the actual race day, I think we should be aiming to start the first qualifying heat at 10:00am as a guide.
I think we need to make more use of the available software i.e BBK. I think to aid communication we should have contact details (email and phone numbers) stored, as well as using it to maintain the championship points table, and producing web results which should be available for any host club to host. This is very quick to do, and a good way of promoting what we do, as well as letting drivers check their lap-times and championship positions very quickly.

Anyway, just some thought s, all of the above are seconded by either James Collins or Colin Nicholson (take your pick), and I will 2nd any of their suggestions so that they are available for discussion on the day.

I’ll see you on the day, and will be available as always to advise on any matters to help the series.

Regards
Derek Kerr
BRCA Association Rep. for Scotland.