Snetterton Impressions

[wldnas]

Ok I can see now that I am totally in the minorty here as regards to one of my previous comments (that I have now retracted), I would like to apologise to Ryan (if that is his name) for any offence that my comment may have caused to you or anyone else, its obvious that my feelings on the matter have no place on this board and I will keep them to myself in future.

SORRY EVERYBODY []

[netsmithUK]

I agree there were definately areas for improvement for the next event, although there is not much I can do about the weather I'm afraid. Who would have thought that the Spring drive would have been colder than the winter one ! That said you would not believe the turn around in the weather on the Sunday - I actually went home with a very sunburnt head! It amazing what it did to the atmosphere on the second day - its certainly much more fun than the first. The last two or three races on the sunday were definately the best of the whole weekend for me.

The off road track was definately a low point for me - far too rough for our needs. That said it was nice to see the scorchers whizzing around the track, the 959/celica races were great and the hotshot/boomerang race on Sunday was great.

Pegs/Frequencies is a tricky one as the number of people attending grows. We made anouncements about them, we went went and told people in person but we still had problems, sorry about that.

Ryan volenteered to do a job nobody else wanted to do, he never left his post and did his best to try and organise some sort of racing meet out of a bunch of middle aged guys that wanted to trade/talk/play instead. At no point did anyone offer to take over from him. At clumber park I think we had a total of about 6 or 7 races, at snetterton I think it was more in the region of 20 - 30, maybe more. Hats of to him I say.

I don't think these events will ever be the sort of thing where people can come along and sit back and say "ok, entertain me for two days" - thats not what it is really all about, its about everyone pitching in and trying to make the thing as good as it possibly can be.

I guess a smaller number of attendees is always going to make for a more 'personal' meet but I think these days are gone for the major club meet as I can only see them growing. Which is why i recommend any bunches of people that live local to one another get out and have thier own mini events.

I'm all up for things being better next time, and I'm sure they will be, but how about some ideas on how to do it rather than just pointing out the things that didn't work? Also more volenteers on the day would be nice []

Venue selection is a key part in any event, so we need people on the ground now looking out for venues that can cater us. They must have...

- On road and off road areas

- be in 'controlled' areas, ie not just turning up announced at a park

- have toilet and food facilities

- have parking for 20 - 30+ cars

- possibly have camping/hotel/b&b facilities very nearby

- probably have announcement systems

A number of people mentioned posible areas of the country for the next one, further north, further west, further south etc. etc. For any of these to become an actual reality we really need people on the ground in those locations doing all the work/arrangements - again volenteers welcome []

these places must be out there...

Cheers

Chris

[Moosey]

I totally agree with you Chris & if you want some help on the next meet then count me in.

These meets are a starting point for us all at moment, You can't expect everything to run smoothly. IT DOESN'T HAPPEN!!

And, If it wasant for Ryan things would have been a lot worse!!

He did a great job, He was even shouting me for my races!! I would have missed 2 if not.

All said & done the weekend is what you make of it.

I for one am still on a high from it all. And want to say a massive THANKYOU to everyone that made it happen.

[ukclaire]

I totally agree with Chris and Mark.

Things do go wrong and you can't plan for the UK weather - Sunday was fantastic and Ryan did a brilliant job [^] as did Chris's daughter [^].

I think the weekend was brilliant and cant wait for the next one...I am saving up already.

Claire

[Bibbo]

I agree with all coments really. I think these meetings are in their early stages so it should be easy to make improvements as everybody involved gets more experience.

I think whoever does the organising learns from their experience but also the people attending learn about the meetings and can make them run smoother. At the end of the day problems like the frequencies can be reduced by the attendees more easily than by the organisers.

One thing I thought of after the event was that maybe it would have been better to have it on a non-holiday weekend. I imagine a lot of people with families would have other comitments over the easter weekend. If it had been on a "normal" weekend maybe it would have been better attended. Although having said that I think the crowd, specially on Sunday, was about right.

It's deffinately wrong to indicate that the weekend was anything other than a success and I was pleased I went even though I traveled from Belgium.

[]I think these meetings are just one more great thing to come out of the Tamiya Club.[]

[netsmithUK]

lol - I agree with the bank holiday thing - bad coincidence that! When we were picking date a few of us were just working through our diaries trying to find a date we and snetterton could make - this was the only one free. It wasn't until weeks and weeks later that someone actually pointed out that it was Easter weekend! I was not a popular man at home, I can tell you.

You are right about learning and getting better, its something I am going to work on improving. I definately need ideas though - this event organising thing is all new to me. And I'm just like everyone else I want to go there to take part and meet people not just organise. I think thats the problem - if you want to help run the thing you have to basically sacrifice the idea of taking part as much as others, this is wh volentees are hard to come by. You may have noticed my racing was limited to a few runs of my Terra Crusher. I just couldn't leave my parts for too long as people just wanted to keep buying stuff []

One of the improvements for next time will be trying to organise a timetable for the day and distribute it in advance - so everyone knows the running order. This of course will require people registering thier rides and frequencies in advance though...

Chris

[terry.sc]

The Easter weekend stopped me from going []- the rest of the family thought I would be happier spending Easter with them (really?[?]).

Being someone who actually organises a model car club, running a meeting is a real sacrifice. Considering we race every week, I have only managed to race 3 times this year.

We also suffer a lack of volunteers for laying out and packing away the track. I usually solve this by standing up and shouting at everybody. seems to work.

[BiggusDitchus]

I would too would like to say a big well done to Ryan he managed to keep a large group of mainly 30 year olds in check, a task many older race organisers often fail to do.

Unfortunately the peg board situation was a pain, frequently i had to risk racing without the peg as it had been missing for so long and frequent requests didnt provide a result.

Yes it was cold, but hey it was fun, though i do feel for some reason that it wasnt the same as the first one, but this often happens. I have had this with car shows to do with my full size car shows, the following shows improve with practice and organisation.

I feel a big thanks should go out to Chris, Mike, and Ryan. [^]

[WhiteVanMan]

Hi Everyone.

WOW, what a blast that was (despite our early problems....), it was great to put names to faces. OK, so I only came for the saturday, but to see the pasion that people have for their cars was fantastic. Highlight for me was the Mini race, plenty of door to door action there, the TXT race was fun, but I must change the gear ratio, way too much torque and not enough speed. What a line up for the photo-shoot......

Special mention to Ryan on race out of control. Great job, and never left his post, we are proud of you. Peg board a pain, but hey, at least we had something.

Heres looking forward to the next one.

[PurpleBugsy]

[] Hi all, Had a great time no matter what anyone says i'm still buzzin []

Pegs were a nightmare but some of us had never done it before so I am overall pleased with the two days.

The weather did not bother me in the slightest and numb fingers or not with the cold i still raced.

Great to see everyone and put a few more faces to names and see who were dealing with and you lot are great []

Last of all a big thanks to Alans son Ryan [^] and Chris's daughter [^]??? (don't know name sorry) for running around and organising races and the marshalling and keeping us on the track all day []. They both worked there socks off and anyone saying different must be sad so cheers you two.

Great time had see ya all soon Bugsy

[Twmaster]

OK darnit! I am really feeling bummed out for missing this. I am going to start saving my change and such for next year's event.

Two things I would ask though.

1. Nearby lodging??

2. Are US 75 MHz radios permitted in the UK?

Did anyone from this side of the pond show up to represent Team USA? []

Thanks!

[minijosh]

I showed up for the racing. I am from Arizona so I count hehe. I hope next year will be even better. I was all over everyone's cars and my friend who I brought was making fun of me. Kid in a candy store from what he said. Oh well tuff, get over it. Tamiya makes me happy and so be it. Why are people complaining? Even at my local racing club bury buggy club, we lay down the track, tape it down, clean it up and put it away and still people complain who did nothing but brought their own ****, raced on my track, and then packed up before the A final and left with out doing as little as putting up their chair. Maybe there should be assigned duties from the club members. Have 3 or 4 different people doing the crystal thing. Let a few be the microphone commandos. I loved it even though I didn't race. The whole time I was there, Saturday, I loved the spirit that was there. The Tamiya gods were happy!

[minijosh]

yes 75 mhz is illegal here in the UK. It is a police band. You can stay at my house if you have a valid driver licence or passport hehe. I am military so I will hook you up next year.

[gingerboy98]

I would like to add to Ukclaires point about Chris's daughter, she too did an excellent job of track Marshall and has hardly had a mention. She put my car back a number of times and once even brought my car back to me from the other side of the track after I had a few problems with it. So [^]

As I mentioned in my post on Snetterton I also think that Alans Son (now known to be Ryan) did a fantastic job and was very humerous with it, its not a job that I could have done thats for sure, I hope he was given some more pocket money, or perhaps a new car......

I will have a word with my mate at DMS racing to see if he can suggest anywhere to check out for future ventures, he has raced up and down the country so should be able to, its a hard life being sponsored.

[AndyP]

Special thanks must go to Ryan, for his organisation. I saw how late he was up Saturady night trying to organise a timetable for Sundays racing. Also more thanks go to Chris's daughter for many rescues of my mini (normally from the furthest part of the track) and the final thanks goes to Chris who we seem to forget started it all.

Anybody got any photos of Chris’s Terracrusher trying to mate with my mini?

Nice seeing you all.