It wasn’t actually quite that bad when back in February at the committee meeting, the topic of conversation turned to finding a secretary for the North Weald Sprint and the eyes of the committee turned in unison to me. Talk about pressure, what else could I say..... Anyone fancy a drink ?........ Dammit, that would have worked! Not much to do they said, most of it’s all in place they said. To be perfectly fair, it turned out to be quite a rewarding job, but I’m spoiling the story saying that now. Anyway, I ‘volunteered’ to fill the post not really knowing what I had to do.

The sprint was still 3 months away when Chin sent me a checklist of the sort of things that had to be got in place in advance, track licence, MSA permit, scrutineers and catering, most important that last one plus a number of other things which generally only involve a phone call or letter. I also thought I’d give Tina Moon a call as she’s an experienced lass, so I’ve been told....Neville’s not reading this is he ? She sent me similar stuff to Chin’s checklist, only a lot more detailed, a lot of which was needed for the West Raynham meeting they had organised and therefore could be ruled out for North Weald which gets used just about every weekend and is nowhere near the size of West Raynham.

The date had already been booked with the airfield and the deposit paid, one of the things that had been done. My first major job, major that is in the amount of time it took to get right, was preparing the regs. Fortunately, someone, I forget who, e-mailed me the previous years so I wasn’t starting from a blank sheet, but the RACMSA no longer being the RACMSA meant that every reference to them had to be changed, quite simple really. Trouble is, the Bs had also changed every rule number in the blue book, so I had to go through that checking every reference and including any new rules, which there inevitably are, in my regs. Notice how I call them ‘my regs’ now. You’ve got to do all this because there’ll always be someone who’ll spot an error and tell you about it.........didn’t hear from our South West correspondent so I must be alright. Don’t write in now Keith and spoil it for me!

Two months or so before the event, the regs were ready to be printed and the Biggles ‘Q’ branch photocopier came into operation churning out 400 copies. Trevor and Denise Jones had volunteered to look after the entry side of things and so one weekday, I arranged to collect the printed regs from Biggin Hill, where Biggles Jr works, and then take them up to Trevor at his work, the Angel, Islington of all places. I like to think that I’m a fairly patient driver but sod doing that journey every day! The regs were sent out about T minus 7 weeks and I now had a bit of a break, Trevor and Denise taking the strain. It’s definitely a good idea to have 2 separate parties, each one looking after either entries or official stuff, spread the load and it will become easier.

At about this time, the club were running the Lydden Sprint, so after a lie in, a benefit from using Lydden on a Sunday where you can’t start until midday or thereabouts, the Marshals of Mitchley Hill arrived at the circuit to score plenty of Chalky White points. Being on the startline means you’re kept busy, good if it’s cold, but you or at least I, invariably go home with a headache, noise and fumes getting the better of me. I felt like I needed a crash helmet when John Hewat’s Warrior engine decided to spit out a spark plug leaving the line. People were heard to say, “sounds like it’s dropped a valve”.........”Yeah, it’s dropped a valve”........”What d’ya reckon, valve?”. John knew better and if it had allowed the valve to come into contact with the piston, I don’t think John would have been quite so approachable! Solve your problems John by putting in a decent reliable Vauxhall lump.

During the day, I was able to blag some help for North Weald from Sue Billings and Vivian Brooker (now Elcomb, congratulations!). Sue had secretaried before and knew the results process well, so I was glad to have their help. It became clear just how important it was to have all the paperwork, time cards, signing on sheets and MSA forms filled out in advance. Leaving all that to the last minute would be asking for trouble.

The weeks continued to pass by and with just over two to go, I had to produce Final Instructions. Again, I used last year’s for guidance but since I only had a paper copy, much key tapping ensued. As Trevor was going to print these off himself, I worked to get them down to a single side of A4 and then sent them up to him on the information superhighway. Trevor and Denise were also doing the Provisional Entry List themselves, which was the best way as they already had all the competitor info. One thing I did find amazing was just how many people hadn’t filled out their entry forms completely, licence numbers missing, most of them because the speedy MSA hadn’t issued one yet, other things like no motor club, not signed, but by far the most popular was the omission of someone to contact in the event of an accident. This is required by the MSA and only has to be filled in at signing on anyway. That causes queues, normally in the rain at North Weald and potentially a late start and finish to the day. COMPLETE EVERYTHING!

At this stage Trevor had received about 80 entries and expected more in the last week. To those of you new to competing, the closing date stated in the regs is really a guideline. No one in their right mind is going to turn down a late entry if it fills a place, but some clubs do charge extra for late entries and some events fill up very quickly so you have to get in quick. Whilst on the subject of entries and more so the form you fill in, make sure that your name and address are easy to read. When I came to send out results, getting ahead of myself here but never mind, on more than one occasion I had to look up place names in the Great Britain A – Z because I couldn’t read what was on the form. Ideally print it and then if you don’t receive finals or results, the organisers can’t blame your writing!

In the last week numbers were up to 90+ competitors but also 4 or 5 withdrawals, which is probably normal, but certainly a good number. 70 is about the break-even point based on what we were charging. I think I’m right in saying that it was the first time the club had charged less to 7oaks members which I thoroughly agree with for events at club level. Others do it and why shouldn’t our members get some benefit for joining us and not another.................. “Get down of that soap box!” ..........who said that ? At about this time I thought it would be a good idea, actually a bit of advice from Tina Moon’s checklist, to ring around and confirm that everyone previously booked was indeed still coming. Much to my relief everyone was. I had filled out the time cards, signing on sheets putting marks against those who had information missing off their entry and printed off a small number of copies of final entry lists, mainly for the officials. I would have liked to have done a set for everyone but ink jet cartridges are expensive, besides I had been told that as long as there is a copy on the official notice board, I’d be in the clear.

T minus 1 day.........meet Chin at the container, fill HIS car to the bump stops with fire extinguishers, drive to farm where the caravans are kept where we meet Biggles saying, “Hurry up, it’s Grand Prix qualifying in 2 hours”. Two hours!? How long can it take to hitch up a caravan and load some things into it?....................Two hours later......need I say more? Trouble with keeping caravans in an open field unused for nigh on a year, is that the lights won’t work, the tyres need air and the wind up legs tend to rust in place, down that is. For me and Chin it was back to the container to fill our container, best description for it, with cones, cement dust of the solid variety and anything else that was on my list, kindly provided by Andy Elcomb. Then it was back home to get the indicators working on the caravan and then a check to make sure all my paperwork was together.

The weather forecast looked good for Sunday and they got it right! I, along with my ever-present Dad arrived at North Weald at about 6.50am. There were probably a dozen or so competitors already there including Chin. Chin doing a sprint? How beneath him! Would he be able to handle the pressure of no co-driver? Those who saw him try for a third lap later in the day will already know the answer.

Within minutes of unloading the caravan and setting up the signing on table a queue began to form. Go away I thought and just at the right time, Trevor and Denise turned up and took on the signing on process, what a relief ! Thanks you two. Within half an hour the scrutineers, timekeepers and MSA steward had arrived. Colin and Andy were designing the course layout; hence the boy racer 911 charging about on track and a large queue had formed at signing on. John White, the MSA steward, couldn’t have been more helpful, he knew it was my first time at doing the secretary job, and I think I won him over when I handed him a folder with all the necessary paperwork in. “I’ll get out of your way” he said and went off to his car to check what I’d given him. In what seemed like no time at all it was 8.30 and Colin was doing the drivers’ briefing. John had come back to me with a smile and a load more papers, the most important being the one, which provides details of the Rescue/Medical cover, and the one that had to be completed before practice started. Half an hour to go, no problem I thought, only where were CAM RESCUE? Jim Mucha, pronounced Moocha, the paramedic was there and told me that the rest of the team were on their way and would be here by 9.00am. I needn’t have worried, they arrived in time and the form got filled in and handed back to John.

Practice started and my workload suddenly dropped away, Sue and Viv were getting stuck into the results, periodically going to the timekeepers and picking up the 1^st practice times and then transferring them onto the cards. Trevor and Denise had moved to the start line and Colin and Andy had sat down watching in despair at the number of people missing the second chicane. This was still 1^st practice and the time to make a mistake but also to learn from it. Fortunately, that’s what most people did. There were 30 WR’s in 1^st practice, 14 WR’s in 2^nd and only 9 in all three of the timed runs. Of those 9, 7 did it only once, the other two were obviously driving with blindfolds on as they failed to even score a time. It was encouraging to have competitors coming up to the caravan asking where they had gone wrong, certain that they hadn’t, and for us to be able to point out to them their mistake. They all said thank you and went away determined not to do it again.

The sun continued to shine for most of the day and even the wind was light, very unusual for North Weald. No real hold-ups meant timed runs came and went and the awards presentation dawned. Colin Billings’ foghorn voice is ideal for this, sorry Col. I’ve been at plenty of these things and not heard a word, just clap when everyone does. I’m sure sometimes the clapping starts off when someone tries to squash a fly. We had a bit of a fright when one competitor, possibly Clive Stephens came out of the crowd doing his Tarzan impression. Colin was left speechless! Peter Cartwright gave his FTD speech, his first ever and hopefully not his last, well done Peter, and then everyone began to leave after a successful day. Mine, Chin’s and Gordon’s day had not yet finished however. The two of them set off back to the container to unload forgetting that I had the key. I don’t think they had been waiting long when I arrived and Gordon had unloaded already anyway. After that, it was a seemingly never-ending drive back to the farm to park up the caravans. Half an hour seems like an eternity when you’ve already been up for 14 hours. The car breathed a sigh of relief on the way home. Back indoors it was feet up with a glass or three of beer. I dare say Jim Giddings was wetting the vocal chords as well!

The next day I began to look through the results, checking times that had been written on the cards against the sheets that the timekeepers themselves fill in. There was only one discrepancy with John Bleachs’ 1^st timed run being two seconds quicker than was on the card, which jumped him up one place in the class. Worth remembering that, I’ve sometimes completed a run that I could swear blind was quicker than previous only to be disappointed by the time on the card. If you’ve taken someone with you, make sure that they are watching the clock so that you can question your time if it is displayed wrongly. Even if you haven’t and you’re certain you were faster, go and ask the results people to double check. Remember to ask nicely though and don’t get upset when they tell you the time is correct. Not many mistakes happen.

With the results done and posted and the MSA fees having been paid, that was my lot. Although I have no intention to stop competing, I had enjoyed doing something different and felt pleased to have been able to give something back to the sport. I know Trevor and Denise had also felt happy about the job they had done. It really isn’t that bad, there’ll always be someone with knowledge on hand to help so to you competitors that only ever compete, give it a go; at least you can’t bend your car officiating. Ahh, that brings back memories!

Finally, for those interested in the Chevette, I’ve still got it, it will be back soon but I intend to let the paint dry this time!!!

WAKE UP! WAKE UP! I’VE FINISHED!