[mark-rc]

Ok my turn!

If your a club member, your membership gives you the right to voice your thoughts and opinions on all aspects of the club. In my opinion, from what I have read, there are alot of valid and not so valid points been raised. I have been racing at the club almost on a weekly basis for the past four years, and have been racing in general for almost 27 years, at many different clubs and in many different classes. I'm not going to go over what everyone has said, but will just list my points and thoughts.

The Track: The system of the track now in the way it can be raced on by both on road and off road cars, with just a change of moving a barrier is good and it works! The problem I see is that the club is growing in numbers all the time! and the track is becoming to small for the number of cars in a heat, so if there is a way of having more carpet down and a bigger track, this will make it better for all, over taking, easier to get round with new drivers, and we would hopefully see alot less car breakages! As at the moment there are far to many cars getting broken because of the high speed, and the number of cars trying to get round on to tight of a track. Having a bigger track will also allow the use of more jumps, rumble strips etc, for the buggies, and that is what buggies are made for, and that's what make them so much fun! Everyone from the beginners, Anna and Arron right up to my level, buy and race buggies because we all love jumping and driving them on varying 'off road' surfaces. That's where the challenge and real enjoyment comes from racing a buggy!

Tyres, Foam: There are both good and bad points to both foams and rubber tyres. Yes, in terms of cost, foams 'will' last longer and you will get more race meetings out of them, 'BUT' foams are also easily ripped or chunked, and most times when that happens they are only good for the bin! 'FACT' Foams are faster on the track, you get the amount of grip you want by the amount of additive you put on them, and this makes general car setup not as important.

Rubber tyres: Rubber tyres make racing closer across all levels, they are slower around the track! This is because you get the right balance of grip through car setup 'you can drive a poorly setup car fast on foams but you can't on rubbers'. Yes you get less meetings out of rubbers, but for the beginner to mid level drivers, they don't have to worry about ripping or chunking them, and there skill level is often not good enough to make the most out of 'new' tyres, in fact, in most cases, new tyres give to much grip for them. As for ware rate, Anna and Arron had a new set of rubber tyres in October, they are still on the same set and they still get round the track at a good pace for there level! If your a good race level driver, you will ware out both rubber and foam tyres faster! and if you want to compete you need to have good 'new' tyres on your car be it foam or rubber! I know I can send Arron and Anna out to race, they crash and get crashed into, and I don't have to worry about the cost of having to replace foam tyres on there cars or tell them there night is over coz they have no tyres to race on!

Buggy- Mardave - Touring car: What is the class you are racing?? It's very simple, if your racing buggies, then the car should be set up as a buggy! If I 'Know' I can go faster on the track by changing my cars shocks and suspension on my buggy to be more like a touring car, is it right to say 'I'm just setting up my car for the track conditions'? If that's the case, Am I equally ok to think 'I know I can go faster than a buggy set up like a touring car, 'IF' I race a touring car with a buggy shell on it? What if I turn up with a 1/12th circuit car and race it against the Mardaves? There both onroad cars right? and they both look similar to each other. When I book in to the club on line, I am booking in to race in the 'Buggy' class. If I raced Mardaves I would book in to race Mardaves! Buggies should be ran as Buggies, this means the car should be within the limits of ride height, shock travel and all the basic guiding outlines that state what a '1/10th off road Buggy class' should be! If I want to run my 'Buggy' as a touring car, then I should go out and buy a touring car and race it with other touring cars! I race my car at other tracks, not just Layland, So now if I want to compete at Layland, I need to buy a full second set of shocks to set my car up with very little shock travel and set it sat on the deck! I can't keep taking apart the shocks on the car and putting them back to full travel for other tracks, as this would ware out the shocks and would end up costing more money to keep buying more shock oil to refill the shocks! So I would have to buy a second set of shocks. Now, the guy who is trying to keep pace with me, see's how much faster I am going with my tour car set up, and then realizes that if he wants to keep up with me he has to do the same! And then the guy who is trying to keep up with him, you get the point. There has to be a basic set of rule for each class, because if there isn't, where does it end? At some point, someone will turn up with a touring car with a buggy shell fitted and race it in the 'Buggy' class.

Fun club or Race club: The fact is, times move on, and so as the club. It is no longer just a beginners family fun club. the club is now made up of equal numbers of beginners, Ribble Vally regulars and good level racers that race at numerous other clubs! The club can no longer just cater for the the beginner family fun group. It has to look at everyone, and look at how thing can be changed for the benefit of all who race there. I go there with my family and we go there to 'race' and have fun! But, the club is growing, 'which is a good thing' but there are now that many cars on the track, with as much horse power as they can buy, going to fast, on a over crowded, tight track, this is leading to cars being smashed up far to much! I spend more time fixing broken cars than I do getting them on the race track, and I'm not the only one! over the past number of weeks, you would loose count of how many cars are getting broken, due to the way things are! I don't believe the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' point at this time. Because cars are getting broke, on an ever increasing rate! And I don't see how this is meant to be 'cost effective fun' for the parents who have to keep spending to repair there kids cars every week.