bl0498

Mikey, The simple answer to this is no. Up to 1600cc is Class 1. Over 1600cc is Class 2/3. Precisely as the regs state. I suggest that most people faced with this situation would not do a simple minimum rebore to 1620cc but look to take it up to 1700cc and improve the components etc to give more power/torque at that level. This would obviously put you into Class 2/3 depending upon tyres. All of the Championship regs rely on competitor trust and a largely self-policing environment through scrutineers, protests and appeals. However before you get too casual on this I suggest you read section O of the Blue Book. We don't want to see you in the back pages of Motorsport Now alongside the handbag waving Kart dads do we! We are meant to be having fun! Brian

Guys, I think we need to control our expectations a touch here on these new venues - after all most of these events could actually be on the same weekend and on one that we have already scheduled something else! The wider variety of sprints at decent race circuits is very welcome as these have traditionally been rare and very expensive - but there are only so many weekends in the season and hence clashes will occur more frequently as clubs try to align many calendars together. Brian

CT/Tim, To answer a couple of your queries: At most hillclimb/sprint venues (particularly hillclimbs) there are limited or no opportunities to practise outside the events. Frankly thats part of the fun! As to kit for the car the item you might have missed on the articles in Competitors Korner is a proper head restraint. Even if your car has tillets etc these are not good enough. There was a thread about this at the start of the 2004 season when this reg was introduced. The speed event season usually starts around Easter and finishes late September, early October - for everyone. Our calendar normally conforms to this. I compete (if thats the word!) in class 2 - lots of fun. I am not amongst the front runners in that class but there are several others with whom I have little battles, and alas usually lose! I also tend to drive to events rather than trailer if at all possible. There are usually lots of competitors at events in both class 2 and 3 so lots to look at! For speed events you really need to live in the midlands/north to have many local events. Brian

CHip, The bedrock of the 2006 calendar will inevitably be the club organised sprints - the ones we normally have at Curborough (2), MIRA, Llandow. After that there have been several invited events over the last couple of seasons or so that have proved very popular with competitors - so if reinvited it is likely we will pursue those - and drop any really unpopular events - I didn't go but I believe Elvington from 2005 falls into that category. Then to add sparkle and interest there will be some new venues - securing these invitations usually take lots of time and effort as we are dealing with clubs that don't know us. So look under the Regs page on competitors Korner and see the regs for 2003, 2004 and 2005. You will be able to glean a lot of the 2006 calendar just be simply looking at these and seeing how the championship has developed over the last 3 years. Wherever we go you will enjoy it! As to Silverstone Stowe, I have been to sprints there organised by the late Ian Bax of BARC SE. I think they still organise sprints there.The circuit is great but there are lots of delays as the day is shared with Silverstone Driving School practise/races. Scammonden Dam (alongside Pestalozzi in Sussex) was voted the worst venue when I did the Caterham Scholarship in 1998. Tiny paddock, tiny start area with Yorkshire Water mud everywhere. Beautiful views of the M62! I hope its improved. Oh and the signage was so bad some competitors fried their towcar clutches getting there after missing a key turn!! Definitely one to give a miss - we definitely won't be going there! Brian

Hi Alan, Not sure where you have been looking but you should be looking at the Competitors Korner part of the main www.lotus7club.co.uk web site within which you will find the Championship Regs for 2005. The answers to all your general questions should be within there.. Bear in mind though that these are the regs for 2005. For 2006 nothing is fixed yet and no regs have been published - Mark and others including me are working on the programme of events now (there may be more or less than 13 and more or less than 7 may count) - and there may well be some changes to general regs and specific Class regs. Normally the regs for each year will be published by the end of the preceding year - so for 2006 there may not be definitive regs until the end of 2005 or possibly into early 2006. The 'members only' rule for competitors is very unlikely to change for 2006 though! Hope this helps. Brian

Rob, Many congrats to you all! Brian

BTTT Brian

alanp, As the others above have mentioned your car will fit neatly into class 1 and two drivers is quite usual with any speed event car. Your graduates spec car should not require any change - but you may be interested in the two articles for newcomers to speed events that are located in Competitors Corner on the main L7CGB website. On there also are the regs for the events and championship for 2005. The various articles and the regs will be revised as appropriate for 2006 later on this year - but I would doubt there will be issues for you in Class 1. Enjoy yourself. Brian

Graham, I prefer the current date but most dates up to early November look OK. After that I am likely to be away on my travels in India again.. Brian

Guys, On the scoring side what some of you won't know is that BB (and I) selected the system that was then used by the Midland Speed Championship for the Lotus 7 Club Speed Championship. This was felt to be a system that awarded points to everyone and provided the correct level of incentive across the field - for the fast boys, the mid field - and crucially for novices. In general I feel it achieves almost all of those objectives. There is a potential problem at the top though with lots of drivers scoring 21.5 points or very close to that for each of their qualifying rounds. To address this issue the Midland Speed Championship changed its scoring very slightly a couple of years ago with the following amendments: The winner of the championship class would get 21 points (no adjustment for time relative to seond place). A definite incentive to win the class rather than come a close second. Second place 20 points and third etc as current based on time relative to second place. In addition to the above bonus points are awarded to each competitor who beats the class record for their class at an event. The bonus points awarded will be equal to the time difference between the class record and the competitors time up to a max of 0.5 points at each event. So if the first and second in a class beat the class record then both get up to 0.5 bonus points. Also bonus points awarded at ALL events will count towards a competitors score for the season - not juts the bonus points scored at a competitors best 7 events. No dropped bonus points. (For reference the 2005 Redline Midland Speed Championship consists of 22 events with 8 best scores counting - but with some restrictions - eg minimum of 2 hillclimb events scores to count.) So overall this adds something for the fast boys to aim at - across all of their events - even if only much slower chaps turn up on the day. The snag is that clearly before the season starts there needs to be a definitive class record for each class at each venue. Due to our classes this may be quite difficult to do at new venues but obviously it is possible. So I think this proposal keeps the best bits of what we have - and adds spice at the top end in a similar way to Dave J's thoughts. Obviously if its a wet event then there will not be any bonus points awarded - but the basic scoring structure as now remains. My two penneth - which doesn't throw out everything we have! Brian

Mark/Graham, 9th looks OK so far for me. Brian

Graham, Just to answer a few of these: Snell 95 helmets are acceptable this year only - scrutineers hace started reminding people that they won;t be OK next year. (Q10). Not sure if the scrutineers at Curborough will be carrying any stickers. FIA 1986 standard overalls are OK for non-international events. Isolation of the boot area is highly recommended (Q14.1.2 and probably others). Most scrutineers expect tghis area to be sealed off - erven with a bag tank. Normal race type stickering is required for the battery master (ignition switch if no battery master) and any extinguishant and tow points. ALso under the bonnet you need tape on the battery earth. In general look under the notes I have written under the Competitors Korner side of the main L7CGB website - the main recent change is that fixed head restraints are mandatory for all cars - including roadgoing. Do a search on head restraints under this area and you will find my original thread from last year. Hope this helps, Brian

Guys, Please see S1.7 of the Championship Regulations - an end of season Awards Presentation is referenced there. Date/location is I believe TBD at present. Due to the fact its held at the end of the season it will be October/November.... Brian Still very busy - last email occupied my lunch break!

Guys, There is also a balance here that needs to be struck when organising a calendar. As Graham has said the first priority is to achieve a set of events that construct a suitable schedule over the period from Easter to early October. This is much more difficult than it sounds as the various clubs firm up dates over quite a long period - and dates often change - particularly when the high level date changes - FI Silverstone this year for example forced changes all the way down the calendar. For next years events the clubs involved in the national hillclimb/sprint championships will have already/be fixing their dates now. This then filters down to the lower level national/regional championships and those clubs etc etc. This can mean that some elements of the timetable remain provisional for quite a long period - and there were 2 examples of this in the 2005 L7CGB Calendar - Shelsley Walsh - which ultimately we had to withdraw from, and MIRA whom were relatively late in confirming their commercial arrangements and thence our date. Although liaising with the organising club Comp Sec sounds trivial Graham will tell you that it isn't necessarily and there can be many phone calls over many months to get the dates in place - and even then we get forgotten when the regs are produced as happenned with Longcross this year. Its not just the date - we have to get approval for the necessary number of entries - which for our championship is pleasing high at invited events. Sometimes venues can not cope with 40+ Caterhams adding to an already congested potential entry list. But we also need to take a view as to how many events we want to have as part of the Calendar and how many of those count within the Championship. It is not sensible to increase the number of events on the Calendar without increasing the number that points are counted from. To do otherwise would mean that the L7CGB entries for some invited events would be smaller - which would make it less of an 'event' for our club, but it may also lead to some off track competition where rivals didn't actually compete against each other very much by avoiding events their rivals are attending! If we are already having some competitors complaining what we have with 13 events is too many then the balance and number of events we have in 2005 is probably reasonably correct. More doesn't necessarily mean better. This may mean of course that if in 2006 two Longcross were deemed a good thing and could be fitted in that perhaps there may be only one Llandow or some other such compromise (not picking on Llandow for any special reason Dave!). As Mike has pointed out there are plenty of other championships - national and regional - that most of our competitors - with perhaps different tyres for our List1B tyred competitors - can competitively enter. This year when doing my Clerk of Course duties I have regularly seen Caterhams sporting our Championship sticker competing in other championships so it does happen. For whatever we do in 2006 we need good role delegation and coordination between the various organisers to ensure all activities are done with minimal overlap and I am sure Mark will be kicking some of that off shortly. Hope this helps, Brian

Guys, I am sure you know but just to remind you that if you are unable to attend an event you need to let the entries secretary know asap - in the case of Loton - this is Phil Gough of Liverpool Motor Club. The earlier you do it the more chance of getting your money back - see the regs. Only the entries secretary can rellocate entries - the withdrawing competitor has no influence on this as there may be other competitors on a reserve list etc. A private arrangement resulting in a change of car and driver on the day will not be allowed either! I have also received an acceptance for Loton! Brian

Paul, You are next to me again - I am 20. Brian

Paul, I am also there on Saturday - car 20 (class 2). If you need any help you only have to ask. There are two documents for newcomers to speed events on the Competitors Korner part of the main Lotus 7 club web site. I have not updated them for this year but they are still valid. It may be worth looking at these if you haven't spotted them already as these help with the procedures for the day also. Brian (Clerk of the Course sometimes!)

old4art, Richard is correct - overalls must meet the requirements of Q9 in the Blue book under 'for all other events' rather than the 'karting' reference to N.11 - the scrutineer will not allow your karting overalls - these are only OK for karting. Brian

Hi, Graham will be sending out the Final instructions in the next few days. Brian

Steve, No news is no news. I also have not heard. I was away on business for 10 days when the regs came out so I was late applying. I rang up the comp sec afew days later to find out if I had got in - I am on a reserve list that will be looked at when the closing date has passed (can't remember when that is) so we might not hear for a few weeks. He sounded confident I would get in though. I presume you are in a similar situation? Hope this helps. Brian

Mike, Not sure about that record - but the outright hill record was broken - by 1/100 to 23.86 by Martin Groves in the Top 12 run-off at lunchtime. Sue Young reduced her ladies record too. An excellent couple of days - and only a few minutes rain on Saturday too! Brian

Graham, Still one XL for me please. Thanks, Brian

Just don't turn up with Oakley sunglasses and expect those to be OK as a visor replacement.... This happened at Curborough a year or so ago! Brian

Graham, I am not sure Ive said it explicitly but I am more than happy to expand the little I have done behind the scenes for the last couple of years as part of a team next year. Brian

Guys, Assuming we manage to get into Shelsley Walsh next year we will need a third set of numbers also on the top of the nosecone by the Caterham badge facing the front near side - as per MAC rags. The Shelsley control/timing hut is almost in front of a competitor on the start line. This causes quite a bit of grief with some single seaters with limited amounts of vertical space to affix numbers! Brian