Regionals

[budfish]

Originally Posted by Chrislong

The region is a victim of its own success!
Shame it was not expected, and planned for (2 day events), as the way things are there seems to be some dissapointed people unable to get entry.

I know Batley is in West Yorkshire, but it is geographically close to us all, and is an extremely good track. For me I think it is closer than Keighley and South Lakes.

How many 'visitor' racers are entering the regionals? are there any?

Batley is further east than keighley and Kendal is in the northwest of England

[burgie]

Originally Posted by budfish

If you live in the northwest and want to race a regional you should be able to that's it

yea, then we could have a 2wd regional over 2 days.

It's unfotunate for those that didn't get in that the event at Southport booked up so quickly. But it's fortunate for the club and the sport that the situation arose.

I think that we could restrict drivers to racing only one class, but that is also unfair.

This situation is un-precedented in the Northwest in for as long as I can remember, only 5 years ago, if that, the only club in the northwest regionals was Southport as Bury chose to race in the North East.

But to say "If you live in the northwest and want to race a regional you should be able to that's it" is infantile. It's like saying I want to win the lottery every week so i should be able to do so - it's just not feasible.

You can't just stamp your feet because you didn't get in. Put some sensible, balanced suggestions forward that are within the current rules and that are fair to all and I am sure they will be listened to.

[Medders]

If you start restricting it by postcode where do us people based in Yorkshire race - we're not in the "north east" or in the "north west"?

Could have a Yorkshire region featuring Batley, Keighley and RHR

[mattb]

Originally Posted by Northy

This is not post code racing you know

Isnt it lambing season up in the yorkshire dales? why dont you help some of your local farmers instead of taking up valuble nw regional spaces?

[Chrislong]

There must be an answer to keep all happy. But personally I think here is a poor medium for the discussion as there are so many conflicting opinions and too much potential for offending somebody inadvertantly..

Its something for the regional rep with the clubs to thrash out on a more private level.

NW is a victim of its own success, if we had Uri Gellar as a regional rep then the situation would be different. Can 2011 season fixtures/planning be tweaked to satisfy the demand? Or do we continue and let the right people make some informed decisions for 2012?

[footey]

medders ive been thinking somthing very simlair for a few seasons now could call it the m62 region rhr / batley / keighley and even bury

[Stu]

Originally Posted by Chrislong

But personally I think here is a poor medium for the discussion.......

Spot on Chris.

It's too late in the day to change things before the weekend (which starts in 2 mins) so we can all talk trackside on Sunday, much better that on some stupid internet forum.

As your drivers representative I'll be all ears and I'll see what can be organsied with the clubs.

It's worth remembering that the first meeting last year had 13 heats, then as the year went along numbers dropped off dramatically.

[budfish]

Originally Posted by burgie

yea, then we could have a 2wd regional over 2 days.

It's unfotunate for those that didn't get in that the event at Southport booked up so quickly. But it's fortunate for the club and the sport that the situation arose.

I think that we could restrict drivers to racing only one class, but that is also unfair.

This situation is un-precedented in the Northwest in for as long as I can remember, only 5 years ago, if that, the only club in the northwest regionals was Southport as Bury chose to race in the North East.

But to say "If you live in the northwest and want to race a regional you should be able to that's it" is infantile. It's like saying I want to win the lottery every week so i should be able to do so - it's just not feasible.

You can't just stamp your feet because you didn't get in. Put some sensible, balanced suggestions forward that are within the current rules and that are fair to all and I am sure they will be listened to.

You make out that my points have only arisen from my bitter and twistedness well if that's your opinion (which your entitled to) your wrong. Another of my opinions is that if you enter the national series you shouldn't be able to enter regionals either! Give some of the lesser experienced drivers a chance to race the format instead of trying to be a big fish in a little pOnd!!

[johnnygibbon]

it does seem a bit strange how last year we all turned up booked in raced and had a good day , room for all. but this year . fully booked
no warning that it was gonna be differant. i personally didnt relise it got so strict on numbers . and as for finishing late , if you got a day off to go racing , at a regional , who cares what time ya finish its sunday. and if you do care, dont race
with missing booking for this regional at south port . where i would race 1 class 4wd
and being away for kieghtly regional means i would have to race all other 4 rounds .......
but there booked up and now if me and a few other bury members i no of, cant race regionals in the nw
mainly because people are doing 2 classes or coming from outside nw area
i no pre booking helps and the sport is getting popular but to go from how it was last year to being frozen out of regionals by panic booking and over crowding feels a bit shitty
2 day regionals and a sc class would work
or clubs stop being soft and book in BIG meetings if they got the balls
bet rog could run a meet with 200 drivers .
he needs to school these fools
gutted to miss this years regionals along with many others who might have been busy this week and not managed to beat the rush to book
if the sports popular then theres the £££££ and the time to run big events

[mattb]

Im gutted for you and si mate!! dont think rob mills got in any either as hes no internet due to moving house.

[Si Coe]

I should point out my 'plan' was never intended to be a dig at Batley. Its just that, as they already have a regional for the NE if I had to drop a club to go back to 4 thats the fairest option. Dropping any of the others would leave them with no regionals at all.
However if 2wd and 4wd were on separate days, then I guess they don't actually have to be at the same club either.

I am aware that at one point Bury was in the NE region, but I wasn't involved in the club then, and its not something I'd agree with. So its not double standards - times have changed, people have changed.

It seems clear that the current situation is unworkable in the long term. I gather Keighley is pretty much booked up and thats not even till June. I think the second Southport is filling up too, in fact only Bury hasn't because we haven't started yet. This concerns me because last summer some of the people I was talking to at the 2nd Bury and Southport rounds hadn't even been racing at the start of the season. This summers new recruits are now denied entry to all the regionals as they are fully booked, and the outdoor season has only just started!

I agree that Oople may not be the best place to discuss this, but I'm afraid talking about it on Sunday isn't a great idea either. Because most of the people that feel very strongly about how things have panned out won't be there as they didn't get booked in................

Edit - Actually Stu, if you do want to talk about this on Sunday please PM me. As I'm not booked in I'm not racing but I will come over if need be to represent those people that have asked me to.

[AndyG]

Even if Batley wasn't in the NW, then you would still get people from the Batley area preferring to participate in the NW series, instead of the NE series.

- Less total mileage (the tracks in the Newcastle area are a long jaunt)
- A series with more events
- Preference of tracks
- Dates in NE calendar clash with personal commitments (this is my personal issue)
- Both classes in one day (from an individual's point of view, that can be a bonus)

It's all conjecture now, but I would certainly say that it's a fair expectation in this day and age that people can access an internet site to see what's happening in the regional series.

That said, looking at these things from all perspectives, I would suggest that some advance notice could have been given to all, about how and when regional booking will take place.

...all these observations with the wonderful benefit of hindsight of course.

[DianneH]

Originally Posted by johnnygibbon

it does seem a bit strange how last year we all turned up booked in raced and had a good day , room for all. but this year . fully booked
no warning that it was gonna be differant. i personally didnt relise it got so strict on numbers . and as for finishing late , if you got a day off to go racing , at a regional , who cares what time ya finish its sunday. and if you do care, dont race
with missing booking for this regional at south port . where i would race 1 class 4wd
and being away for kieghtly regional means i would have to race all other 4 rounds .......
but there booked up and now if me and a few other bury members i no of, cant race regionals in the nw
mainly because people are doing 2 classes or coming from outside nw area
i no pre booking helps and the sport is getting popular but to go from how it was last year to being frozen out of regionals by panic booking and over crowding feels a bit shitty
2 day regionals and a sc class would work
or clubs stop being soft and book in BIG meetings if they got the balls
bet rog could run a meet with 200 drivers .
he needs to school these fools
gutted to miss this years regionals along with many others who might have been busy this week and not managed to beat the rush to book
if the sports popular then theres the £££££ and the time to run big events

Do you ever think before you engage brain? You make such offensive remarks - so flippantly!

I object to being called 'a fool'. I do not need any 'schooling from Rog' on how to run a meeting. I, along with other volunteers at our club, am quite capable of doing that.

I am pretty sure that each club could run a meeting with 200 drivers - the skills required are the same regardless of how many heats - the only difference is the length of time to host the meeting.

I would suggest that you turn up on the day - very rare for everyone who books in to turn up (especially when they have not pre-paid). If you do not get a place then maybe you could volunteer to get some 'schooling' and help to run the meeting - every club is always looking for volunteers - especially at big meetings.

[johnnygibbon]

i often make flippant remarks not intended to be directly offensive to any one , especially not to you dianne as i no you are no fool - please dont take it personally
allthough i bet rog could teach ya a trick or to in a few other areas ....lol( flippant)
as for the rest si has volunteered to be our voice of reason and diplomacy in all this and he does "think before he engages his brain" and even he hasnt managed to get in the regionals .

[DianneH]

I have made a suggestion to Stu that Batley track is big enough for 11 car heats and we can see how things go at Southport as to whether it is possible to run 13 heats/ This is something that will probably be discussed at the regional tomorrow.

Hopefully we can try to get everyone in that wants to race to avoid any disappointment.

I still think that it will be very unusual if everyone turns up on the day, although it is the start of the season when everyone is keen to start racing outdoors.

Anyone not going to Southport Regional can always come to Batley for a practice! Track preparation at 10 am and racing starts at 11am. I still run meetings for club members who do not want to do regionals.

[ianjoyner]

Originally Posted by DianneH

I still think that it will be very unusual if everyone turns up on the day, although it is the start of the season when everyone is keen to start racing outdoors..

This is my main concern with all the no deposit pre-booking. It will be interesting tomorrow how many of the original pre-bookers make it, but even that probably won't reflect how many will make it to the later rounds, where people are pre-booking weeks or months ahead. It will be sad to see people missing out because they think there's no places when inevitably some pre-bookers won't show.

I'm not sure what we can do about it, other than asking people to gamble on the reserve list and urging pre-bookers to let the organisers know as early as possible if their plans change.

It's something we have to monitor, but if last year is anything to go by (it might not be!), while tomorrow will likely be full, we're unlikely to see 120 at the subsequent rounds.

It does seem wrong for people to be in two classes over people being able to enter at all, perhaps the later rounds this year people should nominate a preferred class and should only get a place in a second class if entries allow.

[ianjoyner]

Another thing to note is that I think pre-booking, certainly with South Lakes last year, started as a way to get drivers details onto the club's computer to speed up booking in on the day, I think this is probably true with Southport too, rather than it being a way to control who get's in. But it's become pre-booking since the realisation that if everyone who pre-registered their details showed up the meeting wouldn't be able to cope.

[Si Coe]

Yes Ian - the problem with Southports first round last year wasn't so much the number of people as the time it took to book them all in on the day.

[Chrislong]

How do-able is pre full payment with prebooking? This must really help the club, im assuming dishing out change becomes time consuming, but it'll also mean there'll be less people not showing up, and the heat list can be prepared the day before? Only an idea.

Not everyone has internet, but those who don't surely have friends who'll help?

[footey]

maybe a option for this season is if u pre book and dont turn up u get put on the reserve list for the next round then people who havnt got a entry have a chance of getting in