You may not believe it, but December is a very busy time of year for a good few people. For those that simply compete, and I am not against that, the season for many disciplines has finished and thoughts of winter mods to be made ready for the next season abound. However, for the organisers, be it of road rallies, stage rallies, speed championships, scatters, the list goes on, this time of year is rather hectic! In February we have the Kent Road Rally and Chin and Ian Gibson have been working on this for some time already. We will soon be delivering the PR letters to all properties on the route excluding anything on a B road. Volunteers will be required.
Not to be confused with the Kent Road Rally, the Rally of Kent (multi venue forest stages) now has a rescheduled date of March 16th 2003. The ball has started to roll on this one as well, and it’s a very big ball too. Together with Bexley and Maidstone, we will need everyone’s help on this, not just on the day, but also on setting up the day before. If you can’t make the day of action on the Sunday please try to help on the Saturday. I don’t know why I said yes, but I have taken on the role of spectator safety and with new regulations from the MSA, I can tell you now that there will be a lot more barrier tape out there which will need putting up and taking down preferably without leaving a band of it wrapped around the tree. This is just one reason why we need a good number on the set up day. Pencil it in your diaries now.
Dear Karen Webber has been desperately trying to sort a calendar for the 2003 Marketing Machine Speed League. I have to confess that she has been getting most grief from me. Why? Well, Lydden has had question marks over it for some time now. A month or so ago it wasn’t even known whether the circuit would be in use at all next year. It now appears promising that it will be for the next two years at least. After two years, some changes may happen as planning permission goes in, for what I don’t know. It’s all if’s, buts and maybe’s and it’s that kind of thing that can make planning a championship difficult. We decided at committee and with the BARC(SE) with whom we co-promote this one event, that we would change from our usual early season Sunday afternoon sprint. We have seen numbers declining in recent years and felt a change would be worth chancing. However, at the time of writing we don’t have a confirmed date for any sprint at Lydden. Our intention was to move to October 11th, a Saturday and have a sprint in the morning with a BARC race meeting in the afternoon. This was ideal as BARC central could provide championship races on that date …… wait for it …….. but Lydden isn’t available to us then! Having now seen Karen’s provisional calendar for next year, the only possible October date would be the 18th or 19th. I don’t know yet what we will be going for, I need to co-ordinate with John White of BARC(SE)  to see if that date is agreeable. All I can say is watch this space. The sprinters out there will notice that this date is our usual wet n windy North Weald date. Neville and Tina will be happy and correct to assume that we won’t be going to North Weald in October next year …… unless this all goes tits up in which case the booking I already have with North Weald for that weekend can stand as a back up event …….. aarrrgh!!!
I was getting ahead of myself then, thinking about October when closer to home we have the continuing Scatter and 12car rallies. Andy Elcomb’s December scatter will have happened by now as will the Croydon 12car. The next round of the 12car series is on January 10th and starts from the layby opposite the Oasis café at the bottom of Wrotham Hill, 188/626587. The event will use only map 188. Ring Chris Scudder for an entry to this one. Our 12cars are actually getting very near to having 12 cars out on them! Two days prior on the 8th, Ian Crocker is in the chair for a scatter rally starting at the Chaser, Shipbourne at 8pm. Again, map 188 only will be used. Scatters don’t seem to be as popular as the 12cars, which I think is a great shame. The organiser of a scatter puts in a fair amount of time going out into the lanes to collect clues and when only 4 or 5 crews turn out, it can be a bit disheartening. The November event had six crews out which is OK’ish but only last year we were getting into double figures for these events as well. I can but only reiterate that they are good cheap fun and if you want to experience that from the back seat before entering proper, then get in touch and we can accommodate you. The February scatter will be organised by Colin Billings, start venue TBA and will probably use the top of 188 and onto 178 but I will confirm that next month. March will more than likely be me and I have already collected some clues on the bottom of 187, an area that we don’t normally use.
On December 7th, myself, Sam Collins, Darren Russell and Ross Savile (spelt with one ‘l’ although spellcheck offers servile or saliva!!) will being doing/ have done a 2½ hour indoor kart race at Aldershot in aid of the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust. We will also be joined by another team of 4, Ralph and Dawn Travers, Ian Crocker and partner Jenny, sorry Jenny, don’t know your surname. Hurry up and marry her Ian!!! I don’t know about the others, but it will be my first time in a kart but Sam keeps trying to impress on me that a kart is just a small Chevette! Should be fun then. As this is all for a very worthy cause, any of you who feel that they would like to sponsor us, your cash will be gratefully received and thank you to those who already have. Get in touch with any of the aforementioned names and we can add you to the sponsorship form.
New venues. I mentioned a couple of months ago that Ian Clover had given me some info on a possible new speed venue. He had visited a place called Parham Park in Hampshire and had thought what a good place for a sprint. I have written to and received a reply from the park, which unfortunately leads to a dead end. Fallow deer run freely and the risk to animal and competitor alike is deemed to be too great. But never mind, we tried and with your continuing efforts we may come across a new Valence or Crystal Palace. Ross and Darren have also mentioned that they are investigating a couple of places. One of them was at Knockhatch Adventure Park, Hailsham. I was able to have a quick look around there myself recently and my feelings are that the MSA would not let us use a good proportion of the winding road into the place because of stout fencing and a cattle grid with a fairly substantial drop off one side of it. That would then leave a possible maximum of a 600 metre sprint. Bearing in mind that Valence was only 720 metres long and only took 30 seconds to do, would it be worth the effort. Committee decided no and I have to agree. The 600 metres included running past a small animal enclosure that the owners of the place might object to anyway. However, don’t stop looking and inform us of these places, they’re always worth a look.

Mark Dawson