Discuss the various formats for historic racing

[John McKechnie]

Can see why Paul Morris (Aus )does not drive there then.

[Oldfart]

If that is the case then maybe Lord March should be picking up the tab for the stupidity of his 'named' drivers. I guess that the owners have a choice here and most decide to take the risk. Wonder if they are keen to return in the future after such an eye watering experience.

Read the reply from Steve above. It was Grant who told me too. It is not as if he does not have pretty good driving pedigree himself, and would not be a dissapointment, but I guess it proves fairly well the the "Cars are NOT the stars" at that event, and they should be.
If it needs the "named drivers" I would be surprised, I suspect that most spectators are there for the cars, and the drivers are a bonus, not the other way round.

[ERC]

Interesting drift for the thread. Having been to three Goodwood Festival of Speed (hillclimb) and two Revival (race) meetings, my own perspective may not align with others, but I go to see the cars, not the named drivers. Same applies at Hampton Downs or any other meeting.

Lord March's sandpit, Lord March's rules. There is absolutely no doubt at all that these two events are world class, but ironically, I have never been on the Sunday, (for various reasons) and my memories are of stunning cars, iconic noises (BRM V16 for example) and guest appearances by celebrity drivers, not as racers, but just being there. Practices are interesting and photogenic enough to make the trips worthwhile.

We all aware of the amazing restoration work done by Hall & Hall, Dick Crosthwaite etc., and we are privileged to be able to see and hear these cars being exercised. Whether at 6/10ths or 8/10ths is irrelevent for me.

As others have pointed out, the win at all costs attitude of some drivers, does the sport no good at all.

Here in NZ, with our ERC Series we don't take points scoring too seriously, but I'd like to think that the guys enter because of the camaraderie, a more pragmatic attitude towards the cars and an acceptance that we have the right to suspend or bar them if they get out of line with our aims and objectives.

Ask any of them who turn up for the annual awards dinner, and I doubt that any of them will tell you it has anything to do with the awards, other than the silly ones, and everything to do with a very social get together at the end of the season for a nice meal and a few laughs.

Few seem to remember that classic grids 20 years ago were somewhat mismatched, with bog standard GTs sharing the track with Owen Evans, Racing Ray Williams et al and there was very little for the amateur low budget racer at all. TACCOC dumped all series as their philosophy was as stated above, but grids were somewhat haphazard, other than Whenuapai which was a real annual event with great grids.

Whilst we have our critics, (who doesn't?) we still believe that if driver behaviour is well controlled, it counts for rather more than whether or not the car is 100% period. Democratically, if enough people believe a car is deemed to be outside the acceptance criteria, or the spirit of the rules, or the driver doesn't understand what we are about, they go.

Simple enough, but the costs of running a meeting are getting a bit too high to be too precious about every single aspect, about every single car, which is why we have allowed a couple of non-registered cars to run with us this weekend, at TACCOC's Pukekohe meeting.

No doubt there are wealthy drivers in any country with expensive, original cars, who can afford to get them fixed, and who drive with rather less care than the amateur with a good replica. Goodwood Revival is the classic example of purity not being respected and there are more dings there each year than there should be. So the hoary old argument about genuine classics not wanting to race against replicas doesn't really stand close scrutiny when you see what they do to themselves! There is NO level playing field anyway, when you can pitch a 7 litre 700 BHP V8 against a 75bhp 4 cylinder on the same grid.

[John McKechnie]

I remember well the grids from 20 years ago in TACAC . Porche had their own series , but wanted to run with the easier older cars. However, I loved the series as it was fun, nobody seemed overly worried about points,except Jim Chrystal. Whenuapai had a magic of its own, no track specialists there.Definitely a low budget era, you could drive to Hamilton Street race in your race car ,it was just like a bigger go-kart track. Ah nostalgia.lets do it again. Just look at Bruce Anderson, he keeps going,and going- a fine example

[ERC]

Ah, Jim Chrystall... He was equal winner of the BMC Trophy when I first ran our series. At that time, it was one scratch race and one handicap race, so inevitably, the winner was always one of the faster cars.

When I announced at the trophy presentation, that for the following season, both points races would be handicaps, Jim marched off into the distance, clutching the trophy (that he refused to return until shortly before his passing), muttering that I had turned the series into a lottery... Correct. And we have never looked back.

I did seek permission from his widow to rename the trophy, the "Jim Chrystall Memorial Trophy", which is still awarded to the driver of the top points scoring 4 cylinder BMC car.