5 Jul 2014 | autotest, comment, news
The entry form for the annual autotest at Coulter (nr Biggar) on 20 July is now available on the events page.
For those of you who haven’t entered before this is an event held on grass which is suitable for all cars (standard road and competition). Sometimes having a memory helps but the fact that nobody had one of those last year (see the event report on an earlier post) didn’t stop the fun. The question this year is will Andy remain as supreme autotest champ or will Sam steal his crown? Worth coming along to see the majesty of a Bentley being driven sideways at speed, and a less majestic but no less entertaining Hillman Imp!
6 Feb 2014 | autotest, hillclimbs, news, production car trial, track night
Hurrah! The 2014 Season opens on 2 March so we are just over three weeks away from this first event – a Production Car Trial (PCT) at Forrestburn, with the second PCT event at the same venue on 30 March 2014. You should download the Supplementary Regulations and Entry Form now without any further thought. It should be a good day out and, if you’ve led a very sheltered life, its fantastic opportunity to meet some very eccentric people and their weird cars.
This event is also the first in the MSCC Championship 2014. All members of MSCC are registered automatically for the Club Championship to encourage members to compete in a wide variety of motor sport events run throughout the year. Obviously if you are not a member you will not be able to participate so why not join now – online? It couldn’t be easier.
At the end of the year, awards will be presented for:
- Overall Club Champion, 2nd and 3rd place
- Ladies Champion
- A “Scratch” Award
- Thoroughbred Handicap Award
- “Spirit of the Championship”
(A person may win only one of these)
The rounds for 2014 are as follows:
MSCC Production Car Trial 02 March
MSCC Production Car Trial 30 MARCH
MSCC HILLCLIMB 28 JUNE
MSCC HILLCLIMB 29 JUNE
MSCC AUTOTEST 11 MAY
MSCC AUTOTEST 27 JULY
MSCC HILLCLIMB 16 AUGUST
MSCC HILLCLIMB 17 AUGUST
MSCC Production Car Trial 05 OCTOBER
MSCC Production Car Trial 02 NOVEMBER
Only the best 3 scores in any one discipline will count. A competitor’s best 7 scores out of 10 rounds to count, best 7 scores can include 3 sets of marshalling points. Any competitor entering a single event in more than one car must state clearly to the organisers beforehand which entry is to be used to evaluate championship points.
Championship Points Scoring:
All championship points will be awarded on an overall basis; with all competitors having an equal standing, irrespective of class entered. The maximum number of points per event will be:
- 20 points for overall 1st place. Each placing below scores one point less, i.e.
- 19 points for 2nd place ….
- 18 points for 3rd place ….etc
- every entrant is awarded 1 point for competing
Grass Autotests and Trials:
Points will be awarded on a competitor’s score as a percentage of the “Index of Performance”. IoP is calculated as the average of the top 5 scores in each class or 50% of the class if more than 10 entered. If there are less than 5 competitors in a class, then multiples of the top score will be used to make up the average. This ensures the IoP is always based on 5 or more scores. This method allows overall placings to be calculated when several different classes of vehicles compete.
Hill Climbs:
A competitor’s championship placing for each hillclimb will be calculated as a percentage of their IoP. The IoP is calculated as above using a competitor’s previous fastest time against their fastest official time, or for historic classes a competitor’s target time against their nearest official time. In non-historic classes, if a competitor is competing in a car for the first time on this hill, the class record will be used instead of a previous fastest time.
Marshal’s Trophy:
Points will be awarded to club members who assist at a championship round. The same number of points are awarded irrespective of duties performed. First time assistance will be awarded 15 points with 7 points awarded thereafter. A maximum of 3 marshalling scores may be used in conjunction with the championship table.
In order to recognise the commitment of those who regularly assist in the running of events, a Marshal of the Year Award will be presented to the person who has assisted at the most events throughout the year. This award is open to all marshals and officials who are club members. Competing in events is not a requirement.
Scratch Award:
Points will be awarded to club members at each event based on the best results of the day, i.e.:
- Fastest time of day at a hillclimb = 20 points
- Lowest penalties at a trial = 20 points
- Points are awarded down to 20th place = 1 point
- Every entrant is awarded 1 point for competing
12 Jan 2014 | autotest, hillclimbs, news, production car trial, track night
Hello everyone – best wishes for 2014! All the very best to our members, those who have competed in our various events and to those who are thinking of joining us this year.
We start the year with the news that you can now become a member of Monklands Sporting Car Club online. If you are an existing MSCC member, the shocking news is that you can now renew online – that’s right! I know this will be a dagger in the heart of the Club’s luddite fraternity but really this is progress – it will reduce costs and make things easier for us. If you are struggling with this idea, as advised before, a young person will most likely be able to help you. You can find the form here.
We have now published our Events Programme for 2014. It’s available here and currently contains 16 events. These will doubtless be added to as the year progresses so it looks like it will be a record year of activity. We expect Knockhill Track Nights and perhaps an Easter Away Weekend to be added to the list.
Meanwhile the first ‘non-competitive’ event of the year will be the Annual General Meeting of the Club on 9 February 2014 at Summerlee Industrial Museum in Coatbridge. We will remind you about that in a few weeks time.
24 Jul 2013 | autotest, comment, news
A report on the Coulter Grass Autotest held on Sunday 21 July 2013 written by Donald MacDonald (anyone who writes for these pages is a hero of mine – wm). Thanks also to Shonah for the images.
For some of the entrants, usually of a certain age, who on occasion have found themselves at the mid-point of a staircase unable to remember whether they were going up or going down, this was the Autotest from hell! With a total of 30 “Wrong Directions” (WD) recorded, the tests laid out by Brian Hopkins clearly placed a greater emphasis on memory power rather than horsepower.
Through all the carnage the autotest maestro, Andy Baillie kept a clear head and a clean sheet to emerge as outright winner and the winner of class 3 for rear wheel drive sports cars. He also managed to keep his hands clean, wearing a pair of leather gloves in the 28 degree temperatures – perhaps that’s the secret! Pushing Andy hard was the serene Sam, stealthily steering swiftly around the buckets to record another clean sheet to give her second overall and in class 3.
In class 4, for cars with limited slip differentials (LSD’s), Dougie dug deep demonstrating the Toyota’s diminutive dimensions disdainfully dismissed disparate disciplines with ease to record a class win. Several of the sages present were making mental notes regarding the suitability of the little MR2 for the type of events run by MSCC.
No report regarding class 4 would ever be complete without mentioning Scott Clements with his long suffering Hillman Imp. Scott definitely won the entertainment award for the day. The Imp appears to have a switch in place of a throttle pedal and bets were being placed on when the pistons would make a break for freedom.
Fraser Ewart tamed the fearsome Bentley Special to win the Bentley class from a hard charging Jock McKinnon. Fraser’s efforts netted fourth place overall.
The Ladies award went to Aileen Parr as her competitor for the ladies award managed no fewer than 4 WD’s on six tests and managed to hit a bucket on one of the remaining two! She has been muttering about it ever since.
What, you may ask became of the test designer? Intent on challenging for outright honours with Marion’s latest MX5 complete with LSD, he managed 3 WD’s, hit a bucket on one test and destroyed a bucket on another! (Scott – you shouldn’t have told him about the DSC button)
All competitors would like to thank the marshals who stood out in the blazing sun and timed each of the tests, even if they did insist on liberally adorning our time cards with “WD”.
For those who didn’t attend, (strangely there were no class 1 FWD saloon entries) you missed a great event with a lovely garden party atmosphere and excellent banter.
9 Jul 2013 | autotest, comment, hillclimbs, news
Despite teething troubles with new equipment, wiring, computers, display panels, timing technology and what some would describe as typical Forrestburn weather, the first double-header of the year on 29 and 30 June went reasonably well (once we got started) – a very late start on Saturday but more or less like clockwork on Sunday part from competitors’ excursions into the landscape. After the fire a few weeks before the event, it was important for the club to get a lot of things working again – things that we have taken for granted for 20 years. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who contributed their time, money or materials to help us run the first events. As the Clerk of the Course said, it ‘restores faith in human nature’ – the Scottish motorsport scene is full of thoughtful, generous and considerate people.
Photographer Paul Scarlett made his first visit to Forrestburn and loved it. “I was quite blown away by how cool the track is and for photography it’s good fun with all the ups and downs“. Paul has generously allowed us to use many of the images he took over the weekend and if anyone wants a higher resolution version or print they should get in touch with Paul at scarlett.pjr@gmail.com . Here is a selection of Paul’s images.
If you missed the June event either as a competitor or as a spectator do come along to the August event on 24 and 25 August. The bacon and black pudding rolls with tomato ketchup are highly recommended. We will introduce more changes to the way in which results are displayed in realtime but I doubt if we will be able to actually publish them on the web any faster than the record breaking 90 minutes for the 29 June event.PS Remember the Grass Autotest on Sunday 21 July at Coulter near Biggar. You can grab the regs and entry form here.
3 May 2013 | autotest
After the track night on the 9th May, the next Monklands Sporting Car Club Event is the annual autotest at Forrestburn on 12 May. Entries are now open via the entry form which you can download from here. As usual we will be looking for marshals so can please let me know if you are planning to marshal. We look forward to receiving your entries and payment before the closing date of 7 May 2013.
It’s a bring your own food day but there will be barbeques available for those who want to make use of them. If you have any queries you can phone me on 01236 724355 before 9pm.
Ros
