Editoral Ramblings

Bumper issue this month, partly due to the our centrespread of Marketing Machine Championship News and partly due to the sudden upswing in motorsport events to talk about.  The first two Scatters of the season have taken place and 16th November is the club’s first 12-Car of the season. October also saw the Rally of Kent event take place and what a weekend that was.  We couldn’t have asked for better weather, with members of the working party wishing they had brought shorts with them on the Friday!  Well done all who turned out for this inaugural event and there were plenty to go round on both days for setting out and marshalling.
Friday’s setting out at Lodge Hill Camp was hard work but interesting. We were met by a squaddie who looked about 15 years old,  toting a loaded weapon.  (Is it a sign one is getting old if soldiers as well as policemen look younger than oneself?) As the base was on high alert that was understandable.
Later on we met a very likeable chap (NOT!) called Warrant Officer Golding, a man for who the title “Jobsworth” had been invented.  He obviously had NOT been to Army Charm School and got very irate because we were going to send nasty fast cars down his precious strip of sand he was using later in the week to teach squaddies road building!  It was probably the fact we didn’t jump and salute him or call him Sir that got up his nose!
Anyway the day wore on very pleasantly and then disaster struck!  Travers’ bad luck at helping on events it’s called!  I ever so carefully parked the Vectra out of the way on the side of the road and went to help Andy Elcomb bang in some spikes .  Ralph hopped into the equipment van and started to reverse it…...straight into the front wing of the Vectra with a horrible crunch!!  Ashen faced he inspected the damage while Andy and I inspected the van which was fine apart from a small go-faster stripe which had appeared! (Sorry David!)  Ahh well, what is an event without one of Travers having a go for the Battured Cup!  That makes us two a piece now!
 Saturday dawned even hotter than the day before! We were looking forward to being close to the action.  The stage was made up of very mixed surfaces with tarmac, gravel, grassy track, sand and soft mud.  Due to the base being on high alert, the crews weren’t allowed to recce the place and had to rely on the organisers’ pace notes. Some of the drivers weren’t keen because they didn’t know which tyres to run or how they should set the cars up. This turned out to be quite critical for the top contenders in the Formula Rally Championship. Martin Rowe went straight on down the escape road instead of doing a 90 right and complained to the stewards about the junction markings.  However, when we watched the Channel 4 coverage, it appeared to us that he just didn’t listen to (or trust?) his navigator.  Silly boy!  I personally thought it looked a challenging drive and the Kent Forestry Stages boys and girls seemed to get through our bit of the stage in great style and with not too many problems.
Time will tell if the whole event was a success and if it will return to Kent next season.
 N.B. SDMC were represented on the TV coverage by our own Social Sec Graham Baker, who was spotted at the start of the Isle of Grain stage sporting a 7Oaks poloshirt!
Back to grassroots and Ralph and I did our first Scatter for about 7 or 8 years.  We managed a very credible third, much to our surprise, as we have never been able to get the knack of A) visiting enough clues in the given time and B) actually making it back to the pub in the given time!  Perhaps it was because we had Graham Baker sitting in the back or perhaps it was because it was our wedding anniversary night and we were being nice to each other, but it all fell into place.  So chuffed were we that we decided to give the next one a go.  Ralph even over heard Ian Crocker telling brother Keith to watch out as the Travers did well last time!  HAH!! Well we couldn’t find the start which boded well for the evening.  We knew the navigation would be more challenging, with Colin Billings at the helm and we were certainly very rusty on tulips and herringbones!  Plus we lost time getting back because we ended up too far away!  So things were back to normal and I was not a happy bunny by the time we got back to The Bell.  Ian and Keith had nothing to fear.  We are determined to do better and not let this small hiccup get us down.
Unfortunately our daughter’s social life prevents us for entering the 12-Car on 16th of this month (we always did quite well on those because once you have worked out the navigation you have to follow a route, rather than find your own way and I enjoy yelling out the code boards far more than grubbing around in a hedge for an SV number!)
Anyway, if you have not done a 12-Car before, give it a go, Chin has said he will be gentle with you all!
More grassroots news with details of a PCT appearing on my doormat via Chris Judge.  Details on this event can be found at the end of this issue.
And finally, our thanks go to Colin Rodger, who  has secured a speaker for the Dinner Dance in January in the shape of David Grace, 5 times winner of the British Hillclimb Championship and Chief Executive of the UK’s newly opened ChampCar oval circuit; Rockingham Motor Speedway. Colin has also appropriately written an article this month on the Rockingham circuit.
I have rambled enough this month but I will just mention that from 1st November, I have changed my e-mail address. It is now dawn.travers@ntlworld.com. Any mail to the old one is supposed to be forwarded for a while, but I wouldn’t trust that.
Please keep that copy rolling in, the phone calls buzzing and the mail plopping on my doormat.  It makes me feel popular!  Take care!

Dawn

P.S.  Have decided to resurrect the caption competition this month.  Phone, write or email me with your suggestions to this month’s photo, or send me any pics we can use.

The Acorn : November Edition