BRCA Membership.
All clubs and all drivers should be fully aware but, just to re-iterate, drivers cannot score BRCA SE Regional 2011 Championship points unless they are in possession of current 2011 BRCA Membership, which can be attained either through their parent club or direct with the BRCA. Full details are available at:
http://www.brca.org/ and click on 'Join'
Also BRCA Membership forms should be made available to ALL drivers on the day!
Drivers 'NEW' to the sport do have a 3 race rule, whereby they can race, for a short time (at BRCA sanctioned events!), without joining the BRCA but we would actively encourage ALL drivers to seek membership as soon as possible.
Regional Championships, points scoring system.
Championship points for the 2011 season will be awarded for overall Final finishing position ONLY. With a single bonus point being awarded for the TQ driver. The winner of the A Final will be awarded 100 points, with points being allocated downwards on subsequent finishing positions. The winner of each Championship will be the driver that has the best '3 from 4' overall score, that is of the four rounds of each class, your best three scores will go towards your overall Championship position and also your 2012 Formula.
Drivers are reminded that though they can race in more than one region they can only score Regional Championship points in one! They can however score points for the two different classes in two different Regions, does that make sense?
Heat Listings, Seeding & Formulas.
With, I'm very pleased to say, so many new and returning drivers coming to 1:10 off-road in this Region the heat listings for the first SE Regional (2WD @EPR, Sunday 01 May 2011) will, as per usual, be based on several criteria: BRCA Formula; 2010 SE Regional Championship finishing position and known ability. Subsequent rounds will, where possible, also take into consideration drivers current 2011 Championship positions.
Junior Classes.
As in 2010 there will now be two separate Junior classes competing within the main body of both the two and four wheel drive Regional Championships. They are Under 13, that is under the age of 13 as of 01 January 2011 and Under 16, that is under the age of 16 as of 01 January 2011. As in 2010, trophies and/or perpetual shields will be awarded in relation to the final Junior Regional Championship positions. It will be the responsibility of all participating clubs to inform the Regional Rep. of the respective ages of drivers wanting to compete in both classes.
It was agreed that ALL Juniors (both U13 and U16) will race for FREE at ALL BRCA SE Regional Championship rounds during 2011.
Open Class.
Clubs should, as in previous years, be prepared to include an ''Open Class' for the category of vehicle that was not competing for points on the day, i.e. 2WD Regional @ ???, 4WD Open Class.
Truck Classes.
With the recent increase in popularity of 2WD Electric Short Course and Stadium Truck racing within the Region, it has been agreed that during this season we will continue to run ‘unofficial’ Championship rounds for these vehicles at ALL 2WD Regional events. The biggest difference this year will be that Short Course Trucks and Stadium Trucks will run in separate Championships NOT in combined heats and finals, with both types of trucks competing for separate Regional Short Course & Stadium Truck Championship, as with the buggies, 3 out of 4 rounds to count.
Obviously we cannot run mixed heats with the buggies as these vehicles could have an effect on other drivers qualifying and subsequent final positions.
Batteries.
Please be aware that there are some new rules governing the charging of LiPO batteries. Here are the relevant rules from the 1:10 Electric Off-Road Rules 2011 (found here:
http://www.brca.org/sites/default/fi...off%20road.pdf)
25.5 All competitors at BRCA Off-Road sanctioned events must comply with BRCA Electric Board rules, in particular rules 3.8 to 3.10 inclusive (found here:
http://brca.org/?q=content/regulations/1398).
25.6 LiPo/LiFe drive batteries must be charged in a ‘Lipo sack’ at all times.
LiPo sack is defined as a receptacle designed for the purpose of charging LiPo/LiFe batteries and of a suitable construction as to contain a LiPo/LiFe fire.
BRCA 1:10 Off-road End of Season Finals.
Yes we know the season hasn't even started yet but as before drivers should be thinking about the BRCA 1:10 Off-road End of Season Finals, these are aimed specifically at the lower Formulas, Juniors and Veterans. Dates and venues are detailed on the BRCA off-road calendar and should drivers require more details, these and entry forms will be available throughout the season. If you're interested but want to know more, please just ask!
Phew! Hopefully that's everything to date!
Once again I get the impression that a lot of drivers are looking forward to another exciting new season with an increasing number of competitors of all ages and abilities, as always everybody's welcome!
Steven Brooke
BRCA 1:10 Off-road Section South East Regional Representative