Sprint at RAF Lossie 14/08

[Numptie]

Anyone doing this?

N :)

[Kiltie]

I'm doing the Lossie one mostly because I dislike Fintray so much.

I understand that the RAFMSA date was fixed prior to GAC announcing the Fintray date.

My entry only went in the post yesterday and Friday was the closing so fingers crossed.

Cheers,

Eric

[Numptie]

tuscan_thunder said:

... what is is about Fintray you don't like?

OK, maybe "dislike" was too strong. I think "don't enjoy" might have been better.

Now this is tough as I'm always harping on about suppoting Scottish motorsport and particularly in the NE. It sticks in my throat to knock any venue.

Nevertheless, here are a list of personal reasons why I "don't enjoy" Fintray.

• I've been off there more times than anywhere else

• It's slippy - especially in May but not much better in August (and I'm not overlooking the valiant efforts of the GAC volunteers in preparing as best they can)

• The track is affa narrow - you mostly drive in the middle all the way up

• I can never get the hairpin right

• It doesn't matter if it's been dry for a month, the hairpin is always greasy

• I hate the finish and, on occasion chicken out and lift before the beam

• From any position, spectators can only see a limited amount of the course

• There is no shelter for spectators

• The grass could usually do with a cut and when walking you have to keep your eyes down to avoid cow pats

• The paddock is tight, there's no room for a pagoda unless you're there at the crack of dawn - and certainly no room for a support vehicle

• It is known that some wily competitors rearrange the paddock layout on the Friday night to give themselves a nice position

• Access / egress to the site is less than perfect (Saturday morning / Sunday night)

• All the warnings about not pissing off the land owner kind of send the message that motorsport isn't really welcome there anyway (not how I remember it as a kid)

That's it and yes, I will compete there in the future, I'm sure. I stress, these are personal observations and the reasons why I, personally, don't enjoy it. I would never suggest that events stop being run at this venue - quite the contrary.

Cheers,

E

[Kiltie]

t_t,

I'm wishing I hadn't brought it up. Your last reply makes me embarrassed to maybe have been seen to have criticized certain things that you and the club's other volunteers are clearly putting a great deal of effort and planning into. More power to your elbow mate.

Fintray and Alford remain the only two venues within easy reach of Aberdeen. As such they should be promoted and I apologise if it seems like I'm pissing on GAC's chips.

Again, the points I raise are purely personal and not meant to knock anyone or anything. There are more competitors and spectators who like Fintray than the number who don't - and that's great. It's a personal thing.

As you suggest, I'll write to you, when time allows, to put forward some constructive points.

Cheers,

E

[Kiltie]

It was good thanks JP and all part of a graet weekend

Steph and I set off for Lossie on Saturday afternoon - we had a room booked in the Skerry Brae Hotel. Drove through some horrible weather up the A96 to find Lossie bathed in sunshine. We actually had dinner outside!

After a walk on the beach, and a swift sedative we had an unusually early night.

Left the hotel on time and got to the base at about 07:00. We had to sign in and get passes before being escorted to the paddock. First of only a couple of minor niggles of the day - no paddock layout ... a free for all.

At this point, the weather wasn't looking good ... but it brightened up by mid morning and stayed sunny for the rest of the day. I've got a red snib today to prove it.

Scruteneering wasn't in-situ, it was actually in a hangar type building. I was a wee bit worried because the regs were obviously ones from Englandshire and made specific reference to 1A tyres and no aeroscreen in my class - but no problem

We weren't allowed to walk the course so there was a series of convoy sighting runs.

After a few hiccups with the starting procedure, things got going before too long. It was strange but it was a case of tipping up to the start in any order - just when you were ready. Not sure about that one. On one hand, it's nice to get the opportunity to watch other people in your class. On the other, at some times, there was a big queue and at others, nobody at all.

On a fully subscribed event, that'd make for slow going but with the entry only being forty or so, I actually got seven runs!!! (two practice, a re-run and four timed). Now that's good value in anybody's book.

The entry was quite varied with a few of the local rally boys in Mk2's and the like. There was one fella in a Skyline who was an utter hooligan drifting, smoking and squealing

Most interesting for me in the entry, was that space frame 'busa engined Z-cars mini. When I saw it in TRC magazine last month, I said; "I gotta get me one of them". Not so sure now. He lost it on a fairly flowing bend, got it sideways and rolled twice. Don't want to say too much but I'd like to know why it rolled - it didn't look to have hit a kerb or anything.

I think there were three or four single seaters. The Laws, the Robertsons and James Brimms were certainly there. JB got FTD.

Many of the usual suspects there as well who maybe didn't get a Fintray entry or fancied a change.

The only 7 type cars were (I think) Matthew, Lawrence Hoy and me.

The course was interesting with limitless latitude on most of the bends. Surface varied between tarmac and concrete and it was fine. It was nice to really push the car on a bit more than one does at the more twisty events.

Couldn't get any in-car footage (crown property / no photography) but Steph did manage to get some surreptitiously from the banking. I'll try to post some up later. IIRC, it consisted of ...

• Start

• Small straight

• Round an island

• Medium straight

• Right / left combo

• Medium straight

• Left / right combo

• Medium to long straight

• Chicane

• Long straight

• Wide 90°ish left hander

• Medium straight

• Tightening 90°ish left hander

• Short straight

• Finish

I think the total length was about 1,600m and FTD was about 48secs. I did a 57 and Matthew did a 53. He was really fast.

The class amalgamation they decided on seemed to lack logic. I was in a class with Lawrence Hoy and that white Davrian (GSX1100 engine) that was at Boyndie. Needless to say, Lawrence took the class but I was pretty pleased with the gap between us. Matthew was in the class above - and took that comfortably.

That's about it for a quick steam of consciousness recollection. All in all an enjoyable event for me.

It was a good effort for the organisers' inaugural event too - hats off to them.

A high heid'yin RAF fella was giving out the prizes and he said he saw no reason why it couldn't happen again next year. Fingers crossed that'll be the case and the date(s) will fit around other events.

Cheers,

Eric

>> Edited by Kiltie on Monday 15th August 17:09

[Kiltie]

OK, got the times through.

1) James Brims (Jedi) 45.94
2) Mike Law (OMS) 47.18
3) Dave Robertson (Ralt RT30) 49.12
4) Andrew Dawson (Megapin) 50.40
5) Rey Mackay (Metro 6R4) 53.30
6) Matthew Rae (MegaBusa) 53.65
10) Lawrence Hoy (CateringVan) 55.45
13) Eric Kiltie (MegaBlade) 57.73

Spoke to Steph last night and she made some points worthy of adding to to my observations above.

• To go for a slash, we had to walk through a hangar full of fighter jets

• In the 'ladies' there was a porno mag with nekid wimmin - she'd prefer one with nekid men

• The best place to watch was on top of a bund with grass banking - if it'd been wet, climbing up and down the bank would've been dangerous

• If it had rained, there was really nowhere to go

... and some further thoughts from me ...

• Not sure about spectators for future events with the requirement for everyone to be escorted to and from the base gate

• The only timing board was at the start so not visible to most spectators and definately not drivers - could maybe do with one at the finish and one elsewhere for spectators

• The speed trap was at the finish - it might be good to shift it to a nominal braking point on the longest straight

I repeat though, cracking effort for a first go.

Cheers,

E