I write this as February draws to a close and Spring leaps ever closer (Hooray! say the speed competitors).
Another successful Kent Road Rally is over.  I say successful because amongst other things, the Travers look like they have beaten their Kent Jinx.  We managed to marshal at three time controls spread through the night and with a fair few road miles to cover without driving into hedges, ditches or badly reversed vans!!  We enjoyed it although the fog early on in the night was a bit horrid for all concerned, but once that cleared and being away from large towns and light pollution gave us the opportunity to see the stars in their full glory.
I received some sad news recently that a well known speed competitor, Wally Pratt died at home peacefully in his sleep.  Now Wally was not a Sevenoaks member, but I am sure many of our club’s speed competitors knew Wally.  He competed at our events and several people have contributed to an article of remembrance for this gentlemen clubman.
Our recent Competitor’s Forum evening was interesting but sadly not very well attended by new members.  Why not?  Is this something that we as a club need not do anymore?  Do competitors new to the sport now know more than they did?  Please let us know if this is something we should be doing, because it is a bit pointless for people to come along and preach to the converted!  The weather was a bit foul that night so I guess that didn’t help matters.  Please don’t sit on your back sides dear readers, let us know what you want from your club!
Again on the social side, John Hewat (he without portfolio!) is looking into organising an Off Road Day. It will probably be a weekend day and could accommodate 30 to 40 people. Please inundate us with your interest in this.  Watch this space.  Other suggestions for socials include an interclub bowling night  (Does that appeal? Should we challenge someone? Does someone want to challenge us?) Graham Baker awaits to go forth and organise!  How about karting? Sam Collins this month has issued a challenge to all us old fogies to get in a kart and beat him.  Your committee will be looking into it.
Talking of which, the Sevenoaks & DMC Annual General Meeting is on April 17th at The Bell.  Please come along and support your club.  Some of our “and District” members make the effort to attend, so it would be nice to see those closer to home, and our new members too.  If you have anything you wish to raise, it would be helpful if you email, phone, fax of write your question or subject in advance to a member of the committee and we can prepare a full answer for you.
Included this month is a loose leaf Sevenoaks Competition Calendar for the year and on the reverse the latest edition of the Weald Calendar.  Those of you not accessing our website, or email may find this useful to pin up somewhere for reference.  Although always check with the event organiser before turning up at club events in case of any changes.  For example: the Borough 19’s PCT last month at Meopham was postponed to April so the Travers Family have another chance to actually get to a PCT.  I was quite glad it didn’t happen as after I had mentioned we would be competing, we ended up decorating my daughter’s bedroom!  Ah me, the pressures of family life!
I see that  BBC 2 is showing two new programmes starting on the 28th Feb.  Is this to take over from Top Gear, which apparently has had falling viewing figure as people transfer allegiance to Channel 4’s “Driven”.  I also read that the BBC is trying to woo back Jeremy Clarkson for some obscenely large sum of money in an effort to revive viewer’s interest!
The new car programmes are called “Lifting the Bonnet” and “Wrong Car/Right Car”.  The first is a show aimed at exposing scams within the vehicle trade, while the second is offering advice for buyers of second hands cars, with experts surreptitiously helping with sales negotiations via a hidden ear piece. From the trailer I saw, they both could pan out to interesting and entertaining.  And with “Driven” clashing with “Lifting the Bonnet”, it could be a night for using the video recorder.  Let us know what you think. Check out the website Chit Chat on TV Motorsport too.    Anyway, enough of my waffle! Byee!

Dawn