RCCAOI Nationals and BRCA Regional

[Legacy555]

Hi all,

First of all, its great to have a Northern Ireland section on the forum. Hopefully there is lots of activity here and 1/10 electric offroad really booms in the near future.

Historically, both RCCAOI events and BRCA events have been held in Northern Ireland. The RCCAOI National championship was hosted by clubs in both the North and the South and counted towards Euros and World Championship places. The BRCA Regional Championship events were only hosted by clubs in the North and allowed for drivers to achieve a grading (F3, F4, F5 etc) which in turn allowed them to compete in the BRCA Nationals and end of year Finals. No Euros or Worlds qualification could be achieved from a BRCA Regional championship.

It would be absolutely fantastic to have a club in the North participate in the RCCAOI and/or BRCA. There used to be three clubs that did - at Gilnahirk, near Belfast (UMCC) - at Eden, near Carrickfergus - and at Ballymoney. None of these club race 1/10 electric offroad at the moment.

This year, the RCCAOI National Championship has six rounds - see this oOple thread - http://www.oople.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61519
and I would hope that as many Northern competitors as possible will come down and enjoy taking part. Mark Penney, Stephen Carson and Colin Morrison are all regular visitors and valued competitors and I know that there is dozens of competitors in the South that would love to travel up to compete in the North if there is a suitable facility set up.

William

[eda]

Yup, I've raced buggies at Lucan, Naul, Navan, Craigavon, Fivemiletown, Aghalee, Ballymena, Antrim over the past 2-3 years. The potential is there, if we can just build on it.

[mole2k]

If we can get ourselves a proper track up North it will be a great benefit, then we can start getting regional's back up and running.

I'm sure Will, Mick and the other DMCC guys would be glad to be able to have somewhere at least on the same land mass that would allow them to gain up to an f3 rating allowing them to give them a stronger chance of getting entries into the nationals.

Also of course the extra racing against different people on a different track will help bring everybodys standard up.

[colmo]

I thought my efforts thus far down south thus far were more comedic than competitive - maybe I look fast between crashes/bizarre & embarrassing mechanical failures?

I really, really want to race on dirt (how it doesn't become mud, I can only presume is down to a low clay content track with awesome drainage...) - I started on the polished wood of CVMCC, and as well as being very slippery, is quite inconsistent (bouncy castles not withstanding!), while Craigavon has that unforgiving hard floor and walls...I know from my few experiences on outdoor tracks, that indoors does not prepare us for bumps and lumps in the track.

[colmo]

Sorry for the thread resurrection, I found myself revisiting this topic, and given my summer experiences, think there's new information to add.

I've spent the summer racing 1/10th at BADMCC, on a portion of their 1/8th track. It's not absolutely ideal for 1/10th, being rather bumpy (debris, mostly), having jumps the wrong way in some places, and lacking any tight, technical sections. Nevertheless, it was fun, though turn-out stubbornly remained very low.

I'll be attending a meeting of the BADMCC tomorrow and hope to have some input on the future of 1/10th at the club. Ideas of 'a track within a track' and so on, and more active promotion of the class could be offered.

I raced once at Ballymena, too - again, a nitro club, but smaller and on astroturf. IMHO, it's a superb electric track - in fact, probably better suited to 1/10th than 1/8th - I believe the laptime difference between the top nitro and electric that day was 1 second in nitro's favour, and that was with home advantage! I believe there will be another visit by electric drivers there next Saturday, though I'll not be able to go. While there is no regular club attendance for 1/10th there, their track would be ideal for a regional - certainly, the RCCAOI members liked it.

So, what would we need to do to run BRCA regionals next year?

Edit: I've emailed Michael Todd, the BRCA rep for N.I., with this question.

[colmo]

Originally Posted by colmo

Edit: I've emailed Michael Todd, the BRCA rep for N.I., with this question.

Originally Posted by Michael Todd

Unfortunately I now live in Spain, so I can't be of much practical help!

The first thing to do would be to propose a new BRCA rep for Northern Ireland. I guess my name is still in the BRCA handbook as nobody else has put themselves forward, but I haven't been involved in any 1/10 racing since 2006. With a new rep in place it should be relatively easy to organise BRCA regionals. Just get the clubs and racers interested, publish the dates, collate the results and send to the BRCA to update the licence gradings.

Good luck,
Michael

So, any ideas for a replacement?