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?

[Legacy555]

Originally Posted by colmo

So, any ideas for a replacement?

IMHO a suitable person should meet the following criteria;

1. Be a regular racer in the class
2. Be a resident of the region (Northern Ireland)
3. Not have any commercial ties to the sport

Shouldn't be too hard to find someone.....

Mark Penney springs to mind..... experienced racer, motivated to get racing going, etc.

There is not alot of work required and it could all be done with email.
I know there are a few southerners who would travel too.

[Asdesigns]

Ok I'll put myself forward for this title. But first I must express my feelings to this forum. I'm the 1/10 drivers rep at BADMCC and at the start of this season I found myself gathering together my old offroad equipment to go racing on DIRT. I know I know what is this dirt I talk of, well it's fun fantastic stuff to race on and once mastered is great.

The down side is where are all these racers that say they will travel ?! The only person I know that travels is Mr McCloskey. The BADMCC Club done a fantastic job of making it happen and are prepared to do colossal work to the track if they see a major increase in numbers. Now to have the biggest offroad club in northern Ireland make that statement is great after all they hold the biggest race meeting of all Ireland every year and attract the English men over to race, but yet when comes to club level 1/10 no body shows which in my opinion is disappointing. I myself have travelled the length and breadth of Ireland racing not to mention the uk and Europe.

Next season you will see me at the national events (4wd) the winter I hope to do craigavon. So before we go for BRCA Regionals maybe the club racing needs to be supported better in the north !! Remember it's as far for us to travel to Dublin as it is for the Dublin racers to travel to us (BADMCC)

Phew rant over lol

[colmo]

The lack of attendance was more an issue of northern drivers not attending - the Dublin guys attended the one meeting (right at the start) that didn't clash with RCCAOI nationals. I was all set to attend both, then the BADMCC calendar shifted by one week (I suppose I was working on a preliminary calendar) and screwed it all up - I guess the move to host 1/10th at BADMCC happened too late to allow massaging of calendars to decrease clashing.

Unfortunately, a lot of the keener northern off-roaders were for various reasons unable to attend BADMCC regularly - time and money being the usual culprits. Some tried it and didn't come back - I'll have to get feedback from them as to why.

However, BRCA regionals would be great - one-off meetings people can clear the calendar for, much as our southern counterparts do for their nationals. There are only two off-road outdoor tracks currently in use in N.I., so those are the obvious first potential venues. The first step is to get a BRCA rep in place. The potential for RCCAOI nationals in the north is a separate, and equally tantalising prospect.

[Asdesigns]

Missed my point Colin. There is very few guys that race outdoors in the north !! The Dublin club didn't clash all the time !!

Ask any of the Dublin guys about the time they moved tracks from Lucan and see what answer you get.

[Legacy555]

Who are you Asdesigns?

William White here - speaking only in my opinion. I don't want to get into any sort of arguement, as I'm keen for all of the clubs to work together and make 1/10th offroad huge again. But at the same time I just want to give you some feedback on your posts.

Firstly, 1/10 racing at BADMCC was never going to get off the ground if it was relying on drivers who live 100 miles away. Without the support of the local drivers within a 30 miles catchment area it was only going to be a struggle.

Secondly, a couple of prominent drivers let it be known that the track was not really suitable for 1/10th scale cars, so any desire to travel soon evaporated down here after that. Ballymena, have a very suitable track and David Home has very efficiently (with great communication via oOple) organised racing there next Saturday and 5 or 6 Dublin drivers are travelling. At this rate I would imagine that a Natioanal round may take place there next year.

Thirdly, apart from the very first meeting in April (via Mark Penney), which clashed with an event down here, we have had no official communication from BADMCC. We would love to support an event there, but we will have to all work together to make it happen. There were only 6 Sundays this season that were not assigned to championship events back in January - so clashes were ineveitable.

It is important to remember that it is BADMCC that is trying to develop and explore new avenues to attract members - not the other clubs and/or RCCAOI trying to get BADMCC to host thier racing. Mohammad must go to the mountain in this case.

I can assure you that if the organisers of 1/10th racing at BADMCC come into the fold (either via the RCCAOI or with the DMCC directly) and seek co-operation that we will bend over backwards to help in any way possible. But step #1 will be to canvas Craigavon and Fivemiletown drivers.

I'd recommend that ANY club wishing to get more involved national scene should consider their position now and get communicating before the RCCAOI AGM in November.

Regards,

William

[h0m3sy]

Originally Posted by Asdesigns

The BADMCC Club done a fantastic job of making it happen and are prepared to do colossal work to the track if they see a major increase in numbers.

What are the plans for the track Andy?

[Asdesigns]

First off William I'll pm you mate seems we have alot to discuss. I'm interested by some of your comments but this is not for the open forum and I value your response.

Second David the meeting that took place tonight was about the end of season events day. Not what would happen to the 1/10 track that discussion will take place at AGM of the club.