Vauxhall VXR Racing Driver of the Year

[Matt2101]

Did a quick search and couldnt find anything on this...
So, anyone else going? Im off to Milton Keynes this weekend to try my hand. No idea what standard to expect but nothing ventured and all that. Anybody competed before?

[996 Nobbys]

i was ment to be going but im of to spa instead. i raced for 10 years so i expect there will be a few people there with experiance

[mikey_p]

Yeah I'll be there at MK on Sunday. I think I'm in the afternoon quali session. Looking forward to it, I hope I can at least get into the race. But as matey up there ^^^^ says, i'm sure there will be people with a lot more racing experience then myself. I'm also not very good at driving those arrive and drive type karts, there is a certain technique that I just can't work out. Will be good fun though.

[stockhatcher]

I was intrigued to see this competition advertised here on PH and other places to. I have entered these sorts of competitions before but a long time ago now. I read the rules and found out more about it, checked and checked and then took some time to enter. However i had a niggling doubt that this competition would have some restrictions on entry. But as I thought it was a long shot, when i entered, i pretty much forgot about it.

Anyway I got my email telling me I'd made it through to qualification round, and so did some googling on the competition.... only to find that you have to be over 21, and not have held any sort of competition licence.... i am fairly sure this wasn't clear in the initial advertising, but if you check the rules it clearly states, that you can't enter if you have a comp licence, and they will be checking.

so i don't think there will be any racing drivers there.

if you know anything different let me know, maybe i can still go...

shame really as i was looking forward to it, and would of loved the 'boot camp' stage.

[mikey_p]

stockhatcher said:

I was intrigued to see this competition advertised here on PH and other places to. I have entered these sorts of competitions before but a long time ago now. I read the rules and found out more about it, checked and checked and then took some time to enter. However i had a niggling doubt that this competition would have some restrictions on entry. But as I thought it was a long shot, when i entered, i pretty much forgot about it.

Anyway I got my email telling me I'd made it through to qualification round, and so did some googling on the competition.... only to find that you have to be over 21, and not have held any sort of competition licence.... i am fairly sure this wasn't clear in the initial advertising, but if you check the rules it clearly states, that you can't enter if you have a comp licence, and they will be checking.

so i don't think there will be any racing drivers there.

if you know anything different let me know, maybe i can still go...

shame really as i was looking forward to it, and would of loved the 'boot camp' stage.

I'd love the "doing a season in a VXR stage" .

[jellison]

Well it ain't going to be Chilton!

[Matt2101]

stockhatcher said:

I was intrigued to see this competition advertised here on PH and other places to. I have entered these sorts of competitions before but a long time ago now. I read the rules and found out more about it, checked and checked and then took some time to enter. However i had a niggling doubt that this competition would have some restrictions on entry. But as I thought it was a long shot, when i entered, i pretty much forgot about it.

Anyway I got my email telling me I'd made it through to qualification round, and so did some googling on the competition.... only to find that you have to be over 21, and not have held any sort of competition licence.... i am fairly sure this wasn't clear in the initial advertising, but if you check the rules it clearly states, that you can't enter if you have a comp licence, and they will be checking.

so i don't think there will be any racing drivers there.

if you know anything different let me know, maybe i can still go...

shame really as i was looking forward to it, and would of loved the 'boot camp' stage.

If this is true it rules me out as Ive held a licence for the last few years. Im sure I checked all the terms and conditions as this type of competition is usually for complete novices, and found nothing to exclude those of us who already race, I wouldnt have entered otherwise! It always strikes me as odd that experienced competitors are excluded from these competitions, somewhat akin to professional football teams only offering trials to people who have never played organised 11 a side before.... But I have an annoying habit of riding a high horse up onto a soapbox about this so best left there.
I think I might still go on Sunday, just to see what the standard is and if I can get to play anyway.

[stockhatcher]

see here
http://www.parcferme.com/content/view/3046/2/ 

and here

http://www.carkeys.co.uk/news/2007/june/01/13330.asp 

or here

http://www.vauxhall.co.uk/vx/microsite/rdoty07/index.html 

see terms and conditions

[mikey_p]

So how did people do?

I stupidly went out the night before. Was going to drink little and slowly, but it didn't really happen. Queue sitting in briefing forcing myself to not run to the toilet to throw up, and dreading the thought of strapping a helmet to my head and going for a bumpy ride round the circuit .

Once in the kart I actually felt fine and put in a few OK laps, was second fastest in my group and was in 8th place on the grid for the race but got knocked off by people in the later quali sessions.

All in all it was a good day, just wished as I hadn't been so stupid as I could have enjoyed it a lot more and am completely confident I could have had a decent place on the grid for the race.

Ah well, such is life. Hope everyone else had fun and did well.

[custardtart]

i got stuffed, found it really difficult to get any feel for the kart so fair play to the guys who got through.

having said that, i really enjoyed it and will make more of an effort to learn to drive a kart, it can't be any coincidence that lots of top drivers were also top karters.

[Oliverp]

Hi, I'm going to Kings Cross Sunday. Not holding out much hope so were there any freebies given out at the other events?

[308mate]

Got to the Semi final at Thruxton. Had 5th fastest time for the morning by the end of my heat.

By the time we got to the GP, Id been bumped down to 12th. Moved up to 11th due to disqualification of a driver who had an MSA license.

GP was loads of fun but carnage. Finished 10th after a few battles.

Guy who won it raced the Thruxton circuit regularly. NO disrespect to him though, he was quickest and met the criteria, if you dont like the criteria, dont enter.

Considering up until the previous Tuesday, Id never raced a kart of any sort outdoors and only driven dodgy indoor snotters, I thought I did ok. Fastest lap was .8 sec slower than the winner, no double pedalling or kirbing.

Will be going back for more.