Multivenue/Lanes Championship

I know I raised this suggestion a few years ago but it never got too far but I have been chatting to a few competitors from both sides of the border at recent events and think it might be an idea to take the suggestion a bit further for next year and organise a little championship. What I would suggest is 3 lanes events and 3 multi venues with the best 4 results to count, 2 lanes and 2 multi venue.

Looking at the cars running at the moment maybe have the classes split as follows
1. All Minis and derivatives
2. FWD up to 1400cc
3. FWD 1401cc and over
4. RWD upto 1600cc
5. RWD 1601cc and over

Of course the class structure can be re-jigged but it is just a guideline to get a few ideas going.

Rounds to count
Lanes
Derek Walker or Dungannon Sprinfling
QUBMC Summer Lanes
BADMC Autumn Lanes

Multi venues
TDC JJ's event
TDC Declans event
ALMC or Birr event

If people think it's a worthwhile exercise I'll contact clubs mentioned above to get their views and see if they are interested in being part of the championship

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Peespeed Photography

I also thought this was a good idea but during conversation with others more experienced the me they pointed out that if there was a championship some people would build & enter purpose built car which those of us on small budgets would struggle to compete with.
At the moment at the right event I can still get a reasonable result but if more expensive prepped escorts, mx5's etc appear I have no chance also you can still get a good finish in a midget, 2002, mini etc at the moment. At the moment I think there is a good selection of cars in the events and most of us are having fun at them. Long may it continue.

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I beg to Differ

Well I would hope people would continue to use the cars they have at the moment and remember that it is just a fun championship, not like there's going to be a seat in a WRCar at the end of it. With most people doing all the events mentioned it's just a little something extra to aim for

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Peespeed Photography

	Peespeed wrote:
	Well I would hope people would continue to use the cars they have at the moment and remember that it is just a fun championship, not like there's going to be a seat in a WRCar at the end of it. With most people doing all the events mentioned it's just a little something extra to aim for

Peter,

TDC have had a look at this idea, in the recent past. The feeling is TDC is primarily an autotest club. Our members have Hewison and Northern Ireland Championships at the serious end of competition; and the quality there is immense.

After that, there is also Munster and TDC Beginners to keep you occupied and give national coverage. Thats the high side of 30 seperate events per year, allowing for dual counting events.

There are then the variety of events grading in degrees of difficulty and accessability (entires wise) of the Endurance/Retro/Lanes/Multi-venue type. These spun out of the classic rally scene in the 1990's (the now defunct Retro Trials format events)with JJ Farrell then suggesting the half-way compromise of multi-venues. The autotest drivers enjoyed the selectives/tests on these rally events and we have moved on so much from there that the Retro style event with navigation have ceased in this country (very popular in the UK and we are all aware of Frank Fennell, Joe Reynolds et al adventures in the 'big events' in Europe).

I think recession and affordable motorsport are also part of the equation.

But bottom line is that these are our 'fun' events; there is such a disparity in event formats, and that a Championship would change the perception of events to the detrement of entries that TDC are not supportive of a Championship of these types of events. We are still wondering where the other half (TDC and UAC running events this year) of the Retro Championship went to.

I also think we are having too much fun as matters are to mess around with things like standardising formats for Championship reasons.

And that is before the issue of specialised car(s) and the cost implications ! ! come into play.

And the skeleton in the cupboard : who is going to want to be championship supremo ? Unlikely to be a TDC body as we dont like the idea in the first place !

Thoughts from TDC/ Tim F

I agree with the idea of a lanes/Multi-venue Championship. Here are my reasons why

1) With a championship supported by Motorsport Ireland the profile of these events will increase even further.

2) With the number of entries these events are getting it seems a shame not to have a championship - especially with the revenues that are being generated for the clubs.

3) Although the argument is that people will spend more on the cars if there is a championship I believe that people are already spending more. Cars will develop all the time if there is a championship or not.

4) With the current structure of Multi-Venues/Lanes it is an attractive proposition for a company to sponsor prizes/championships etc.

5)It can still remain a fun based championship provided that the structure is set out correctly to keep to this.

However, if the majority of people/drivers do not want a championship well then there shouldn't be one but I just think with the current interest in Multi-Venues/Lanes a Championship would be brilliant !!

Ed P

COROLLA ESTA wrote:

I also thought this was a good idea but during conversation with others more experienced the me they pointed out that if there was a championship some people would build & enter purpose built car which those of us on small budgets would struggle to compete with.
At the moment at the right event I can still get a reasonable result but if more expensive prepped escorts, mx5's etc appear I have no chance also you can still get a good finish in a midget, 2002, mini etc at the moment. At the moment I think there is a good selection of cars in the events and most of us are having fun at them. Long may it continue.

One of the better arguments for having chamionship is that it will raise the profile of the sport. I don't feel that it will cross over with the Hewison autotest rounds because most multivenue competitors don't actually compete at the expert autotest level. And also, different times of the year.

The development of cars for multivenues are at present, for the drivers enjoyment and not to achieve a high result. The beauty of multivenue autotests is precisely that throwing money at a car won't necessarily give good results like rallying or racing, the car still has be driven. Pylons can still be knocked, codeboards missed etc...

I wouldn't be worried about the car development side of things, more to do with organisation and running side, like Timmy said, who's going to do it?

Sorry Peter !

Now a dead issue.

TDC tend to be anti- anyway, because championships bring changes in perspective that are out of line with the general, fun based, theme of these type of events.

There is also not enough commonality between organisers ( lack of understanding of what events are about ? )

No interest expressed at autotest committee meeting.

So a non-runner

Tim

if this was ever going to happen it would have to be either a north or south championship not mixed.

Some of these events are dear enough to run (£100 plus petrol) and some or even most of us cant afford the drive down south to compete especially with the convesion rate at present, petrol down etc.

Currently up north there are four lanes events from four different car clubs but i doubt very much that all clubs could work together to run a championship, plus another lanes event would be needed