Racing Scholarship

[racingdude009]

Was on the web when I came across this.

www.racingscholarship.com/

[5mudge]

Had a look at this. Looks good but dunno if its worth the £300 for the 1st 2 rounds. And the £8k damage budget for the whole season could be a bugger if you have a nasty 1st corner shunt in the first race!

[stew-typeR]

i did it this year.
i wont be doing it again.

imo, the first round was ok. its based on driving ability and improvement.
the second round was timed, and i have to say its totally unfair. 6 mg ZR's, 6 different size instructors, and one time to aim for, so if you have the big chap with you, instant handicap.

and last time it was only £275 per round.

[mark69sheer]

stew-typeR said:

i did it this year.
i wont be doing it again.

imo, the first round was ok. its based on driving ability and improvement.
the second round was timed, and i have to say its totally unfair. 6 mg ZR's, 6 different size instructors, and one time to aim for, so if you have the big chap with you, instant handicap.

and last time it was only £275 per round.

My experience exactly.

And that wasn't the worst aspect of that particular scholarship.
Entry conditions stated that to be elligible you had to have no more than 6 races on a National B licence to qualify for entry.

The winners own website indicates he had for more experience than that.
http://www.andrewbentley.com/

I think I might write to ask for my entry fee back .. I didn't realise I was paying good money to see a previously selected inelligible driver win.

[DoubleSixRacing]

mark69sheer said:

stew-typeR said:

i did it this year.
i wont be doing it again.

imo, the first round was ok. its based on driving ability and improvement.
the second round was timed, and i have to say its totally unfair. 6 mg ZR's, 6 different size instructors, and one time to aim for, so if you have the big chap with you, instant handicap.

and last time it was only £275 per round.

My experience exactly.

And that wasn't the worst aspect of that particular scholarship.
Entry conditions stated that to be elligible you had to have no more than 6 races on a National B licence to qualify for entry.

The winners own website indicates he had for more experience than that.
http://www.andrewbentley.com/

I think I might write to ask for my entry fee back .. I didn't realise I was paying good money to see a previously selected inelligible driver win.

I have just come across this topic and I would like a chance to reply. Firstly the Terms and Conditions for the 2007 competition (the one that Andrew won), were that you must NOT have a National 'A' licence. We only introduced the 6 race rule for the 2008 competition which Rob Boston won and he had no previous car racing experience. Mark69Sheer - I'm not sure what you mean by a "previously seleced inelligible driver win" - are you suggesting that the winner was already known - it certainly was not the case!!

Secondly in terms of the way the 2nd round was timed - we took on board comments made by competitors and did change the way the timed laps were worked out for our 2008 competition. We had 3 cars in use for the second at Croft and each competitor got to drive each car and with each instructor. This meant that everyone was at a level playing field. We also introduced an autotest into the second round which helped us determine drivers car control.

The scholarship has been vastly improved with instructors of Phil House, Micky Doyle (BTCC) and Paul Rivett joining the team. On top of this we now use the Croft International Race Circuit for Round Two and the Final. Rob Boston is testiment that a novice driver with the right instruction can perform very well on the big stage.

[mark69sheer]

DoubleSixRacing said:

mark69sheer said:

stew-typeR said:

i did it this year.
i wont be doing it again.

imo, the first round was ok. its based on driving ability and improvement.
the second round was timed, and i have to say its totally unfair. 6 mg ZR's, 6 different size instructors, and one time to aim for, so if you have the big chap with you, instant handicap.

and last time it was only £275 per round.

My experience exactly.

And that wasn't the worst aspect of that particular scholarship.
Entry conditions stated that to be elligible you had to have no more than 6 races on a National B licence to qualify for entry.

The winners own website indicates he had for more experience than that.
http://www.andrewbentley.com/

I think I might write to ask for my entry fee back .. I didn't realise I was paying good money to see a previously selected inelligible driver win.

I have just come across this topic and I would like a chance to reply. Firstly the Terms and Conditions for the 2007 competition (the one that Andrew won), were that you must NOT have a National 'A' licence. We only introduced the 6 race rule for the 2008 competition which Rob Boston won and he had no previous car racing experience. Mark69Sheer - I'm not sure what you mean by a "previously seleced inelligible driver win" - are you suggesting that the winner was already known - it certainly was not the case!!

Secondly in terms of the way the 2nd round was timed - we took on board comments made by competitors and did change the way the timed laps were worked out for our 2008 competition. We had 3 cars in use for the second at Croft and each competitor got to drive each car and with each instructor. This meant that everyone was at a level playing field. We also introduced an autotest into the second round which helped us determine drivers car control.

The scholarship has been vastly improved with instructors of Phil House, Micky Doyle (BTCC) and Paul Rivett joining the team. On top of this we now use the Croft International Race Circuit for Round Two and the Final. Rob Boston is testiment that a novice driver with the right instruction can perform very well on the big stage.

I am absolutely thrilled that Rob Boston won your scholarship this year.

I am glad you have rethought the car weight issue.

My car carried my weight 85kgs and M's at a self declared 18stone (114kg) so 199 kgs a greater weight than I even estimated myself at the time.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Given the other istructor was so small and some of the other lads smaller than me is seems nearly 70kgs could easily have been my weight penalty against someone like the winner Andrew.

All I ever asked you right from the start was wether the competition was fair.

The reason I am thrilled Rob Boston won your scholarship is because the previous year Rob struggled to keep up with me driving in Ginettas as we both did our assesments for that scholarship.
We were on track at the same time.

When we came into the pits we chatted and he told me my car turned in better than his. It didn't really I was having trouble with understeer too but was driving round it by feathering the throttle just before turn in.
I was told I was the fastest car out by my assessor

Rob is a great lad , and so is Phil. So are you Marc essentialy and I am glad you have improved things. I was never going to be the winner of the scholarship in reality but I do believe I was worth a place in any of the finals of all the scholarships I have entered..

I must have been mistaken about the entry terms so I will admit I may have been wrong on that score. I have entered a few scholarships so perhaps that is where the confusion came from.

I am mostly sad that remarks were taken as personal insults by myself and my apologies weren't accepted when I was only trying to point out technical issues.

Malcolm was a great bloke to me as were you Marc , however somehow things went a bit pear shaped in the mix.

I guess though it is now accepted that giving someone a 60-70kg handicap is a bit stiff when they have paid out around thousand pounds when travelling and expenses are taken into account and for that I can only praise you.

Fate has thrown me another chance . This time I may not win but I can at least know I went out fighting on as equal terms as possible.

As for your changes , again all praiseworthy.

Edited by mark69sheer on Tuesday 12th August 10:30