Post Silverstone – Bulletin 1
It is extremely disappointing to be having to write this bulletin but it is imperative that solutions are found to prevent the amount of car contact that occurred during the 24hr race at Silverstone this weekend.
We have, over the winter, put a number of rules into place to help remedy these things, one being the mandatory use of cameras. However, we can only act if we have the evidence to use in a disciplinary hearing, where possible we initiate reviews and we spent a lot of time during the race reviewing incidents that we either saw or our attention was brought.
We are now asking you to help us with this situation, your cameras have the evidence that we need to take the culprits to task with anything that occurred during the race. We have already received a number of video clips of incidents which we are now reviewing.
Specifically, within rule 2.22 the following statements are made
- Review of the footage is encouraged and anything that a competitor feels needs review be brought to the C1 Series Organisers attention.
- Where it is necessary for the C1 Series Organisers or Clerk of the Course to review footage after an event that such footage should normally be reviewed within a period of 7 days of the event.
If you need to remind yourselves what is expected from a driving standards point of view please read our Driving Standards Policy here.
We will do everything within our powers to take action and resolve incidents that are brought to our attention. As an example of action that was taken during the race one driver received 3 points on his licence and a £700 fine by the CoC for a totally avoidable collision.
Please be a positive part of the solution, with suitable evidence we can initiate a disciplinary procedure that still has time to be escalated to the CoC and Msuk. We also have the powers within our rules to take internal disciplinary action and apply penalty points onto members records, ultimately this could mean that a driver would no longer be able to compete in the C1 race series.
Any evidence that you send to us will be treated with total confidentiality and anonymity, send your clips to board@c1racing.club and we will take action.
Best regards
The C1 Racing Team
Scrutineering is going to be really busy as BARC have to safety and compliance scrutineer 100 cars, weigh and seal ballast trays on 100 cars and check the clothing, helmets and Hans devices for 425 drivers. It will start at 9am on Friday morning and run throughout the day. Please remember that the scrutineers are there to help you race safely and not to stop you from racing. These notes are to help you get through the process as quickly as possible.
Cars
All cars should be presented to the scrutineering bay full of fuel and in a ‘ready to race’ condition. This includes all series stickers applied in the correct positions. Please make sure the car’s log book is with the car before arriving at Scrutineering. If you don’t have a log book you can apply for one at Club HQ.
Scrutineering starts at 09:00hrs on Friday morning and will be finished by 20:00hrs on Friday evening. If you are testing on Friday, please bring your car to scrutineering after your last testing session.
The following list of items may, among other things, be checked by the scrutineers, so please make sure you are compliant with these safety checks.
- Roll cage
- Fire extinguisher and mounting
- Seat and mounting
- Harness in date
- Windscreen and window film
- Master switch
- Remote operation of master switch and signage
- Remote operation of fire extinguisher and signage
- Towing eyes and signage
- Left, right and interior rear-view mirrors
- Lighting (side lights, rain light, brake lights)
- Race numbers
- General condition
- Transponder present and location
- Central locking disabled
- Petrol tank guard
Things that often catch people out and you might want to check are as follows:
- Fire extinguisher must be in-date. That means that it must have been officially tested within the last 2 years.
- Your race harness must be in-date.
- Make sure both external pulls for the fire extinguisher and electrical cut-out are free and working correctly. They often get corroded in the Bowden cable when left over the winter.
- Check that your rain light (rear fog light) shows on both sides of the car.
The scrutineers may also want to check any other items for compliance with our regulations.
Tuff Jugs
All Tuff Jugs must be presented at scrutineering for checking. If the jug has a vent plug it will be checked and any with holes will be replaced. Every jug will have a seal applied and only sealed jugs can be used during the race.
Weighing and ballast sealing
Once you have passed scrutineering, your car will be weighed and your drivers’ race kit will be checked. It is in your interest for all your drivers to be present for weighing so that your ballast can be wire locked and sealed at this time. If some of your drivers are not present, your ballast will be wire locked and sealed and the missing drivers must present themselves for weighing by 19:00hrs at the very latest. Your car will not receive its scrutineering ticket until all drivers have been weighed and their race kit checked. If your car is subsequently found to be underweight you will have to refill your car with fuel, have it re-weighed, and the ballast adjusted and re-sealed before it will be allowed on track for qualifying.
Each car will be weighed full of fuel, to enable us to calculate the minimum weight of the car. It is in your interest to make sure the car is completely fuel of fuel, if it is not, you will need to carry more ballast to meet the minimum weight. Any car arriving at scrutineering not full of fuel may be turned away. Each driver will then be weighed with their race suit, gloves, boots, helmet and Hans device. The weight of the lightest driver will be added to the weight of the car and 28.4kg will be deducted. The resulting weight must be more than 910kg. If it isn’t, you will be told how much ballast you need to fit and you’ll need to go back to your garage to fit the ballast. You will not be allowed to work on your car in the scrutineering area. You can then return to the scrutineering area to have your car re-weighed and sealed.
If you do not need any ballast, a seal will be applied to a drilled cap screw that will be fitted to the rear near-side seat mount. You do not have to use a ballast tray if all your drivers take your car over the weight limit.
A ballast tray and its fasteners weigh 3kg. If you don’t need any ballast on the ballast tray, the drilled bolt supplied with the ballast tray must be fitted to the hole nearest to the B-pillar with the bolt shank uppermost, so that the lock wire hole is easy for the scrutineers to get at.
If you intend to run with alloy wheels, you must present the car with alloy wheels for weighing and scrutineering. BARC will identify cars so presented with a sticker and any cars running alloys during qualifying or the race without the identifying sticker will be subject to further scrutiny.
Should you need to remove your windscreen (and therefore the rear glass hatch) you must ensure your car still conforms to the minimum weight rules.
Clothing
The scrutineers will be checking that your helmet, race suit, gloves and boots are all in-date. They will also check the specification of your balaclava and socks.
If you haven’t raced before (or if you’ve bought a new helmet or Hans device) they will need to check the approvals on both. They will then place an MSUK sticker on the outside of your helmet and Hans device, for which you will have to pay a total of £5, so please bring some cash with you if your helmet or Hans device aren’t already stickered.
Parc Fermé
The pit lane will be used as Parc Fermé. At the end of qualifying and the race all cars will be held at the pit lane entrance. The pit lane will be cleared of all personnel and all garages doors must be shut. Please assist the marshals in getting the pit lane clear. Cars will then be released into the pit lane, where they should park on the left side of the pit lane next to the pit wall and as directed by the marshals. Some cars will be selected for more detailed scrutineering and they should carry on down the pit lane into the scrutineering bay.
Important note: When you finish qualifying or the race do not touch anything in the car. Just get out of the car and congregate as directed by the marshals. Do not put the safety pin back in the fire extinguisher.
We hope you all have a fantastic weekend and if you have any questions please come and see us in the Club HQ.
C1 Racing Club Board
Quite how all four of us could manage not to have noticed the typo in the summary timetable, none of us can now work out, but many apologies.
Here is the correct summary timetable, with one-and-a-half hours available for qualifying, which is still tight, but at least possible!
The correct important bits for us are:
| Start | End | Activity |
| Friday | ||
| 09:00 | 17:00 | Paid testing |
| 14:00 | Onwards | Signing on |
| 14:00 | Onwards | Scrutineering |
| 21:00 | 22:30 | Qualifying |
| Saturday | ||
| 17:15 | 17:20 | Pitlane open |
| 17:30 | Race Start | |
| Sunday | ||
| 17:30 | Race Ends | |
| 18:00 | Prizegiving |
Many apologies and kind regards.
The C1 Racing Team
Silverstone 24hr Essential Information
Here is some essential information and the timetable for the upcoming 24-hour at Silverstone. This will be the largest grid ever to start a race in the United Kingdom.
Timetable
BARC have published the timetable, which can be found here. The important bits for us are:
| Start | End | Activity |
| Friday | ||
| 09:00 | 17:00 | Paid testing |
| 14:00 | Onwards | Signing on |
| 14:00 | Onwards | Scrutineering |
| 21:00 | 21:30 | Qualifying |
| Saturday | ||
| 17:15 | 17:20 | Pitlane open |
| 17:30 | Race Start | |
| Sunday | ||
| 17:30 | Race Ends | |
| 18:00 | Prizegiving |
Location
If you haven’t been to Silverstone before, the circuit has an excellent set of maps and instructions that can be found here.
Don’t forget the speed camera on the A43 just before you get there.
Access
Access to the circuit will be available from 1900 hrs on Thursday 25th April. Tickets will be required to gain access to the circuit at all times, including Thursday evening.
4 tickets will be issued to each driver directly from BARC. Tickets will not be required for support vehicles or motorhomes. If your team needs more tickets these can be purchased from the Silverstone ticket office.
We will have to vacate the area behind the garages by 2300 hrs on Sunday 28th April as Silverstone have another event on Monday. You will be able to camp at the circuit on Sunday night, but will have to move to the Centre 1 Car Park behind the motorhome park. Please remember that the electric hook-up in this area is 3-phase, so you’ll need a splitter.
Paddock
The paddock is going to be very busy with 100 cars sharing it. Here is a link to a map setting out what you can park where. Please be considerate of other teams, it is not a land grab and everyone has to fit in somewhere.
Car parking for all drivers, mechanics and team members will be in the area marked A on the map
Trailers must be parked in the trailer park marked on the map. Trailers will NOT be allowed into the area behind the garages. If you are towing a trailer, you must drive to the trailer park, unload your car and drive the car to your garage, leaving your trailer neatly parked in the trailer park.
Motorhomes. Each garage (not team) has been allocated an area behind their garage and garages 1A to 9C a bay in the motorhome park. Garages 10A to 12E have an extra area for motorhome parking behind their garages. Each bay in the Motorhome Park can accommodate up to 6 motorhomes/campers depending on their size and the space needs to be shared with up to 3 teams. Please be considerate to the other teams in your garage if you’re the first to park your motorhome.
Electrical hook-up is available from the garages for those parked immediately behind the garage. Those parked beyond the service road behind the garages will have access to the 16-Amp blue round-pin single phase sockets and 32-Amp red round 5-pin 3-phase sockets on the side walls of the ‘pods’. Those parked in the motorhome park will have access to one 32-Amp red round 5-pin socket that is available for each bay. This means that a splitter will be required to go from a 32-Amp 3-phase plug to 3 x 16-Amp single-phase sockets so that everyone from the garage can hook-up. Teams sharing a garage will have to liaise to decide who will bring the splitter.
Garages & Facilities
The garage & Paddock plan has already been sent out separately to each team.
Each garage has the following electrical supplies:
2 x 13 Amp square pin sockets on the back wall
2 x 10 Amp round pin European sockets on the back wall
3 x 16 Amp blue round pin sockets on the back wall
1 x 32 Amp 3 phase red 5 pin sockets on the back wall
1 x TV socket for live timing on the back wall
1 x 16 Amp blue round pin socket on the front wall
1 x TV socket for live timing on the pit wall
1 x 16 Amp blue round pin socket on the pit wall
There is no compressed air available in the garages
Other Facilities
Loos and showers (both male & female) are marked as WC on the map. Behind the garages there are 14 ‘pods’ which have a shower, loo and wash basin. There are 4 male and 2 female showers in the main paddock toilet block.
The café is shown on the map. The opening hours are as follows:
Friday 0700 – 1900 hrs
Saturday 0700 – 2100 hrs
Sunday 0700 – 1900 hrs
Testing
Testing is available on Friday. It can be booked directly with Silverstone circuit here.
Fuel
The fuel station is shown on the map. It is unmanned and is open 24/7. You will need to pay for your fuel each time you use the pumps using a credit or debit card. The only fuel that will be available during the race will be 97 RON. The other pumps (99 and 102 RON) will not be available.
HuTags
The C1 Series runs with HuTags, which are a second transponder worn by every driver on his / her right wrist, in addition to that fitted to the car. The purpose is that we have a constant record of who is in each car at all times. TSL can then publish this on the timing screens and there is no need for teams to fill out driver change and pit stop forms, hand them to marshals etc etc. If you are not familiar with HuTags, please attend the New Drivers’ Briefing, where their operation will be explained in detail.
Signing On
Signing-on will be in the first-floor office in the Race Control building shown on the map. You will need to have your Club membership card, race licence, HuTag and one driver from each car must have their BARC membership card. You will be breathalysed before signing on, anyone failing the breathalyser test will not be allowed to sign on until they pass the test. Remember the limit is zero.
We will be breathalysing drivers and pit crew throughout the weekend. If you have finished the race and want to have a drink, please feel free, but hand in your HuTag to Club HQ first, and collect it at the end of the race. Anyone found or photographed with drink in their hand wearing a HuTag will lead to their team being disqualified.
If you haven’t got your Club membership card or HuTag yet you will be able to collect them from the signing-on office above Race Control before being breathalysed, after 1400 hrs on Friday.
Scrutineering
Scrutineering will be very busy. BARC have 100 cars to scrutineer, check for safety and weigh in a relatively short period. Please do not assume that you will be able to turn up at the last minute.
Scrutineering will start at 1400hrs on Friday afternoon in the scrutineering bay which is marked on the map. Cars will be weighed at the same time they are scrutineered at the circuit weighbridge.
Please present your car full of fuel, with all the drivers together with their race gear; and with the lock wire post facing upwards located in the corner of the ballast tray nearest the B pillar.
Drivers’ Briefings
The time and location of the Drivers’ Briefing will be posted outside Signing On and distributed on the Club’s WhatsApp broadcast.
The new driver’s briefing will be outside Race Control or in the garages under Race Control if it’s raining. Timing will be posted outside Signing On and distributed on the Club’s WhatsApp broadcast.
Pit Lane Etiquette
The pit lane can be very busy with 100 cars on circuit; as they tend to come in for driver changes and fuel at broadly the same time. The Club therefore operates a 40 kph speed limit in the pit lane at all times and enforces it rigorously with the Club’s two speed guns. The penalties for breaking the speed limit are deliberately harsh; as it is there for your own safety and the safety of the other teams. The penalties for speed limit infringements and other misdemeanours are set out here.
A maximum of 2 people per car can be on the pit wall at a time and must be wearing a high visibility vest.
Pit perches may be used, but they must not cover any access holes in the pit wall safety fencing.
WhatsApp broadcast group
We will be using the WhatsApp broadcast group for a variety of updates and messages over the weekend. At the very least, your team manager should have provided their telephone number to the Club. We would suggest that all Team Managers and Drivers should join it.
If you’ve not joined, or if you would like additional numbers added so that you can receive information over the course of the weekend, then please let Nick know by sending a WhatsApp message to the C1 Racing Club phone (+44 7586 460197). In that message please include: team name, car number, and your name. To receive notifications from us on WhatsApp, you will also need to have the C1 Racing Club phone number in your WhatsApp contacts, or you will not receive the broadcast messages.
Cameras / Driving Standards
New for this season is the requirement to have a forward-facing camera in every car. The principal purpose of this is so that there is evidence of any driving-standards indiscretions. However, if you don’t tell us about it, we won’t be able to do anything about it for you.
If your car is involved in, or behind, an incident, please can you tell us about it, with the time, point on the track and as much other information as you can. We will watch it and, if appropriate, bring it to the attention of the Clerk of the Course.
Club HQ
Club HQ will be behind the garages, opposite the burger bar as shown on the map. It will be manned 24/7 during the race weekend. We will have our usual welcome for you including tea, coffee, soft drinks and biscuits throughout the weekend. Please come and say hello!
You can contact any of the club directors as follows:
| Caryl Wills | caryl@c1racing.club | +44 7919 260 223 |
| Meyrick Cox | meyrick@c1racing.club | +44 7768 392 962 |
| Nick Paton | nick@c1racing.club | +44 7771 123 899 |
| Philip Myatt | philip@c1racing.club | +44 7736 906 090 |
Spares
We will be taking a small quantity of spares to the circuit. Drive shafts, wishbones, light brackets, lights, 1144 and F4R brake pads and Tuff Jug spouts will be available from the Club HQ. Small Cars R Us (www.smallcarsrus.co.uk) will also have their usual cornucopia of parts at the meeting including wings, struts, engines and so on. They will be in bay 1 in the Motorhome Park.
Tyres
You will need to bring all the tyres you will need for the race; you will not be able to buy them at the circuit. Tyre fitting services will be available from Amigo Motorsport in garage 6C and RAW Motorsport in garage 6B.
Journalists
Peter Scherer has been doing race reports for us during the season and these help us promote the series. Peter may well be contacting teams and drivers to get their impressions of race preparation and the race. He is acting on behalf of the Club, so please help him to write an amazing report on this iconic race.
Dan Trent and Matt Prior will both be driving one of the Club cars, and may want to interview you during the weekend. Dan will be writing for the Goodwood and Jalopnik websites; Matt for Autocar and Pistonheads. Please support them, since we all like reading about our series.
Finally, we’d like to thank you all for your support this season and especially for this race. It’s pretty amazing to have 100 cars going to a 24-hour race at one of the greatest circuits on the planet; and breaking records in so doing. Thank you all and look forward to racing with you.
Good luck to you all and we look forward to meeting you at Silverstone. If you have any questions or need more information please give one of us a call.
The C1 Racing Team
Stop Press – Silverstone 24hr
Today we secured agreement with Motorsport UK and Silverstone that 100 cars can compete at our 24hr race, April 26th-28th.
We would like to thank Motorsport UK for allowing us to run the largest ever grid at a UK circuit race.
The effect of this is that all previous reserve entries can be elevated to fully accepted entries, and we now have one space available for this epic race.
If you would like the last available space, please contact Philip (philip@c1racing.club).
The C1 Racing Team
Entries Update
The first C1 race of the 2019 season was last weekend, despite the worst weather possible it provided two very close races and throughly tested the skill’s of all the drivers, one event completed nine to go.
The entry for our next event at Silverstone on 26-28 April is full. If you aren’t racing try and come along to see the biggest grid ever for a race in the UK.
The entries for the next 4 events are already open and receiving entries, these are as follows
25-26 May Anglesey 4hrs
8-9 June Pembrey 2 x 6hrs
28 July Mallory 3 x 20mins
11 August Snetterton 3hrs
A few spaces are currently available, visit our calendar page here to fill in the entry form and secure your place on the grid.
Anglesey 24hr entries are opening this weekend
Entries will open this Sunday 24 March at 8pm for our second 24hr race of the year, this is at the demanding Anglesey Circuit on 6-8 September and will prove to be a spectacular race.
Follow this link after 8pm on Sunday to get a place in the race.
Thank you to everyone for your support in making our series so special
Croft 16th March
The journey begins…
We are all just about to head off for the long journey up to Croft, so a few final points.
Everyone is welcome at Croft
We have Croft to ourselves for the weekend, so everyone, friends and family, is most welcome. There are no tickets needed, so please just come and join us.
Many are testing there on Friday, so there will be plenty of C1s around before the weekend as well.
Don’t forget your membership card for signing on!
You will need your C1 Racing Club membership card in order to sign on with BARC on Saturday morning, so please make sure you collect and sign it, from Nick at the C1 Club HQ on Friday evening.
WhatsApp broadcast group
The WhatsApp broadcast group has already started. If you would like additional numbers added so that you can receive information over the course of the weekend then please send a WhatsApp message to the C1 Racing Club phone number (+44 7586 460197). In that message please include: team name, car number, and your name.
Timetable, final instructions and entry list
BARC have published the final instructions, which can be found here, and the entry list, although there are bound to be some last-minute additions, which can be found here.
Checking your car
Caryl and Philip will be at Croft all day on Friday. If you want your car checked for compliance with regulations, or weighed prior to scrutineering on Saturday morning, please see them.
If your ECU has not been read, we can read it at Croft to add to our database; and also so that you can check that it has not been tampered with. It would not be the first one that has been. Be warned that we will be checking ECUs over the weekend as well.
Pitlane Speed limit
Don’t forget that our regulations now include a full-time pit lane speed limit of 40 kph, which will be rigorously enforced by BARC with the Club’s two radar guns throughout the season.
Come and say hello on Friday evening
We will all be at Croft for Friday evening, so please come and say hello. See you then.
The C1 Racing Team
Croft Update
The season opener
We hope that you are as excited as we are; that the first race of the season is nearly upon us.
We had such a nice time at Croft last year, that we thought that we would open the season with a double-header of two three-hour races there. Time to head to “The North” again. Hopefully they won’t have closed quite as many roads as last year; and the traffic will be a little kinder to us all.
We have the circuit to ourselves for the day, so no other cars racing; however, since it’s the first race of the season, its going to be very busy with new cars, new members and all our usual scrutineering to get through.
Just remember, you can’t win an enduro on the first corner, but you can wreck your whole team’s race….
WhatsApp broadcast group
We will be using the WhatsApp broadcast group to the team managers that have provided their telephone numbers to the Club. If you would like additional numbers added so that you can receive information over the course of the weekend then please send a WhatsApp message to the C1 Racing Club phone number (+44 7586 460197). In that message please include: team name, car number, and your name. To receive notifications from us on WhatsApp, you will need to have the C1 Racing Club phone number in your WhatsApp contacts, or you will not receive the broadcast messages.
Cameras /Driving Standards
New for this season is the requirement to have a forward-facing camera in every car. The principal purpose of this is so that there is evidence of any driving-standards indiscretions. However, if you don’t tell us about it; we won’t be able to do anything about it for you.
If your car is involved in, or behind, an incident, please can you tell us about it, with the time, point on the track and as much other information as you can. We will watch it and, if appropriate, bring it to the attention of the Clerk of the Course.
Drinking / Alcohol
The Club breathalyzers will be in action in the trusty hands of BARC officials. We will be breathalyzing drivers and pit crew throughout the weekend: if you are finished and want to have a drink, please feel free, but hand in your HuTag to Club HQ first, and collect it at the end of the race.
Anyone found or photographed with drink in their hand wearing a HuTag will lead to their team’s being disqualified.
Timetable & final instructions – be in the right place at the right time
BARC, with admirable efficiency, have now published the full weekend timetable, which can be found on:
https://barc.blob.core.windows.net/barcnet/hq01-cr-1603-v2-9yjyk.pdf
but here are the most relevant bits:
Paddock access will be from 1800hrs on Friday; and we have been asked, a little ambitiously, to vacate by 1900hrs on Saturday; at which point the gates will be locked until Monday morning (which is a pretty good incentive to leave on time!).
| Start | End | |
| 0730 | Signing on | |
| 0735 | Scrutineering | |
| 0930 | 1030 | Qualifying |
| 1100 1500 | 1400 1800 | Race 1 Race 2 |
Paddock parking etc
We will publish a garage plan shortly. We have all garages fronting the track, but please be considerate of the other competitors, as Croft is not over endowed with space.
Club HQ & Signing on
Club headquarters will be in our new race centre awning for the entire weekend. Membership cards will be available from Club HQ on Friday evening: you will need them for BARC signing on. Club HQ is also where breathalyzing and Club signing-on will be; if you already have a HuTag, you will need to bring with you, those that do not have one will need to purchase one (£10) from the Club. HuTags need to be worn on the right wrist all weekend.
BARC signing on will be in Race Administration. At least one driver in every car (not team) needs to be a member of BARC, so please ensure that you have joined before the day.
Drivers’ briefings
The main driver briefing will be at 08:30hrs in the room to the left of signing on.
There will be a briefing for any driver who has not raced at Croft at 0900hrs on Saturday outside the rear of Race Administration.
Weighing & scrutineering
BARC are now responsible for all weighing and scrutineering at our races. We believe very strongly that the regulations are there to be enforced tightly in order to ensure equal racing; and BARC have our full support in so doing. They will be checking all manner of areas of compliance: you have been warned!
We only have two hours to check and weigh all the cars before qualifying, so we are going to need you all to be very organized. Please present your car full of fuel with all the drivers (in their kit with helmets and HANS devices) present, so that we can manage this efficiently. Please also ensure that, if your car has not already got a yellow weight tag, the drilled bolt is oriented with the hole at the top, and ideally in the rear outer corner of the ballast tray. Each car will be allowed a test and a check weigh only, so you will need to bring with you any ballast that you need, as the club does not supply it.
ECUs
You should by now have sent your ECU to us for reading. If you have not, we will read it at Croft. We now have a database of around 110 ECU software / maps; so will be in an excellent position post Croft to select and install the Club map in time for Silverstone.
It is a slightly frustrating process, but Citroen (understandably) will not provide us with a full suite of software / maps fitted to all ECUs; hence we have had to run a two-stage process of collecting the data, selecting the best software / map combination and then installing it on all C1 race cars. The advantage of this process is that we will all be running a standard Citroen OEM software / map combination, so there should be no compromise in reliability, driveability or economy.
Penalties & Pitlane Speed limit – stick to it!
Our regulations now include a full time pit lane speed limit of 40 kmh, which will be rigorously enforced with the Club’s two radar guns throughout the season. If any of you saw the accident in the pit lane at Croft last year, you’ll understand why we have a low pit lane speed limit: for those that didn’t see it, we run with full grids at most circuits, so the pit lane is very busy with a lot of people in it. We don’t want anyone getting hurt.
For those of you who haven’t read the Club’s fixed penalties, they can be found here:
https://c1racing.club/wp-content/uploads/documents/Citroen%20C1%20Event%20Penalties.pdf
New wheels and tyres
We have had plenty of questions on when the new Club alloy wheels and C1 Club tyres will be available. Nankang have a few of last year’s buffed tyres remaining, but they are going fast; as soon as they are all gone, the new ones will go on sale.
The Club alloy wheels are now available direct from Citroen; and remember that you will also need the matching wheel bolts, since they have a flat washer; and the steel wheel bolts won’t work with the alloy wheels. The alloy wheels are approximately 1kg lighter per wheel than the steel wheels, so if you intend to run alloy wheels, you will need to be scrutineered and weighed with the car sporting them. Cars weighed with alloy wheels will be identified with a sticker; and you will not be able to run alloy wheels without that sticker.
Come and join us for a drink on Friday evening
We will be arriving on the Friday, traffic and weather permitting, so please come and join us for a drink – although bear in mind that the club breathalyzers will be in action again for drivers, pit crew and team managers throughout Saturday until racing is over. See you then.
The C1 Racing Team
Why Even American Drivers Are Showing Up To Race A 67 HP Citroën In Belgium
Spa-Francorchamps has many well-known corners. Eau Rouge you likely know. But the one that prompts a reflexive wriggle against the harness straps on approach is Pouhon, a downhill, fourth-gear left-hander round the back of the circuit. It’s probably just a lift but I’ll confess to a confidence dab before committing. Both actions have the same, butt-clenching effect of making the back end go light at around 90 mph, just as the full corner reveals itself
Only this time it’s not just the corner. I’m three-abreast in the dark, the lightning illuminating the Ardennes forest has turned to rain, and the guy in front has just discovered the grip levels have totally changed since the last lap. I’m fixated on his elegant pirouette before sense kicks in and I’m looking for an escape route over the curbs.
I juke right. This is fine. We’ll be okay. Oh shit, he’s now coasting backwards into my path. Cars scatter across the run-off area, weaving wildly in all directions. A good 20 yards past him and we’re all back on track, scraping doorhandles as battle resumes for the next corner.
It’s 1 a.m. on a Saturday night in Belgium and I want a beer. God, I want a beer. Instead I’m on shot tires, the rain is so intense I can’t see where the track ends and the grass starts and I can only hope the taillights ahead are going the right way. Meanwhile the car behind is so close he’s pretty much parked in my trunk, his lights dazzling me in the mirrors as I try to find a line through the dark and the spray. Pretty standard for Belgian freeway driving as it goes. But even that, and Spa’s reputation for dramatic weather, hasn’t quite prepared me for the intensity of this fight.
Welcome to Citroen C1 racing, upstart addition to a 24-hour 2CV eventthat’s been a fixture at Spa for over 30 years. They’re still here, their slammed Deux-Chevauxs and Dyanes corrupted by air-cooled, flat-twin BMW bike engines with over 100 horsepower and crazy homebrew bodywork, faired-in wheels and all.
And they are fast, carving through the traffic like weird, scuttling bugs. These are now $100,000 machines though, a series that started as affordable fun in cheap old cars now a budgetary arms race
Which is where the C1 picks up.
C-what, you ask? Picture your stereotypical, front-drive Euro hatchback with a gutless, 1.0-liter, 67 HP three-cylinder engine and you’re there. Also sold as the Peugeot 107 and Toyota Aygo, first-gen donor cars can now be bought for a $1,000 and converted into a racing car for less than $5,000. This explains why there are nearly 70 in this 121-car grid, 40-plus of them from the UK-based C1 Racing Club
It doesn’t, however, explain why so many drivers from supposedly more prestigious and (let’s face it) faster race series seem so eager to compete in a stripped and caged shopping car. One of my teammates is fresh from driving a million-dollar historic in the most blue chip of blue chip races at Goodwood Revival. Others are salty VLN and Nürburgring 24-hour veterans or have experience in GT3 and GTE, including here at Spa. There’s one guy from Idaho more accustomed to racing Porsches and guys and girls from fiercely competitive one-make Caterham, Ginetta and Radical series back in the UK. A team of American drivers led by New Jersey-based Jon Meyer have, with help from the C1 Racing Club, had a car built in Germany and are ready to race on SCCA national licenses. Why are they all here?
Because it’s competitive as hell, not 24 Hours of LeMons-style wacky racing. It’s basically everything we love about circuit racing. Minus the bullshit or million-dollar budgets.
“First it’s Spa. This is hallowed ground,” says Meyer. “Second, night racing. We just don’t get the chance to do that back home so much. And the third is we’ve all watched British and German touring cars and the level of racing here makes this really attractive.”
The C1 Racing Club succeeds where others have failed by maintaining strict control on car specs. You can only build one with the parts and packages supplied by the club, the idea being it’s the fast drivers who get to the front of the grid, not just the rich ones. Writing the rulebook from scratch gives them authority to enforce component changes on anyone they suspect of buying extra speed, up to and including swapping out their engine for a spare stored in the pit garage.
“Trust me, between us we know all the tricks,” says series co-founder Meyrick Cox, “basically because we’ve thought through all the ways we’d cheat if we were doing it.”
Bottom line, if the next guy is faster than you, it’s not because of the car.
So it’s as much about brainpower as it is horsepower. You may nail that guy into La Source hairpin with a fist pump for the GoPro and social media glory. But he’s now got your tow all the way into Eau Rouge and along the straight that follows, ducking out of your draft with the extra five miles per hour you gifted him. Six-car battles for position can last—literally—hours, the lead changing constantly as every corner becomes a who-blinks-first battle of bravery and wits, inevitably spiced up by one of those ridiculous 2CV prototypes carving between you at a critical moment, or a standard one blocking your path and costing you five seconds in one lap.
For much of the race 70-car C1 field are circulating the 4.3-mile circuit to within two or three seconds of each other, it’s that tight.
At night I find myself drafting so close I’m watching the track unfold through the windscreen of the car in front, using his lights to pick my braking point and opportunity to duck out the slipstream. It’s the kind of racing where you’ll be locked in a fight to the death one moment and exchanging thumbs-up the next, my battle with one car lasting half an hour and having us swap position but not paint once or twice a lap.
The driving standards are ruthless enough to make you wince but respectful with it. Rubbin’ is definitely racin’ but anyone taking it too far won’t be invited back, simple as that.
There’s nowhere to hide in these cars and the fact you have to earn every mph and fight to maintain it is the essence of pure racing. The modifications mean the C1s slide and move around according to how you drive them. A fractionally greedy corner approach results in ugly understeer while artistic trail- or left-foot braking can be exploited to rotate the car into the corner and gain whole seconds.
I manage this once through La Source and the satisfaction is still making me fizz a week later, likewise the sideways at 90mph approach to Pouhon when I came in a little too hot one lap.
It’s at this point most successful championships lose the plot and money starts talking. Not in the C1s. If anything the organizers are doubling down on regulations, a recent deal with Nankang meaning the control tire will be manufactured to spec, sparing the faff and expense of shaving down road rubber. A new direct-sale brake pad meanwhile lasts a season rather than a race and saves more money for teams.
And as demand for grid space increases so are the races getting bigger, the Club confirming a new 24-hour round on Silverstone’s full Grand Prix circuit next April. It’s a sign this little series is now outgrowing its club circuit roots and able to fill internationally renowned, F1-grade venues. Meyer is already having a second car built with the aim of selling seats to American drivers, joking he could fill 20 cars if he could field them.
Want in? Get yourself on the C1 Racing Club’s match-making forum with a fistful of dollars and you’re good to go for less than a transatlantic air fare. See you there.
Dan Trent has been working as a car writer for 15 years, several of which were spent editing Chris Harris while he was at Pistonheads, from which he has several stories not for repeating here.
24 hour Entries
A reminder that entries will open on the C1 Racing Club website at 1700hrs on Sunday 28th October.
For an entry to be valid, three drivers have to be named, all of whom must be current club members. If you have not joined yet, fear not, your Club membership will be valid for the 2019 season.
The entry fee is £3,500 per team, which does not include any testing on the Friday. We are trying to negotiate the best deal that we can for the Friday for you, but the 24 hour event will start on track at 2030hrs with qualifying.
We expect to have full video coverage of the event; and to have live streaming available. If you would like to have an in-car camera, please let us know at board@c1racing.club .
Motorsports Days Live
Motorsports Days Live is at Silverstone on 2nd and 3rd November. We will be there both days in Absolute Alignment’s garage if you want to come along and have a chat. We’d love to see you there.
The C1 Racing Team
Why racing a Citroën C1 at Spa is the real holy grail of motorsport
Why on earth would anyone want to race at Spa-Francorchamps in a Citroën C1? With just 68hp you might think it would struggle to drag itself up from Eau Rouge. And whether it’s Häkkinen on Schumacher back in 2000, Jacky Ickx, Derek Bell and their ilk monstering the track in Porsche 956s in the 80s or Jim Clark and others conquering the infamously fast, road circuit layout in the 60s, Spa has a deservedly fearsome reputation.
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What place does a cheap supermini with a roll cage have in this most glorious of motorsport traditions? Be ready for a surprise…
Close, competitive racing focused on driver skill, not how much money you spend, is the holy grail of any series, whether it’s F1 or the Revival. Because, let’s face it, the races we remember are the ones where the lead swaps places several times each lap and it’s a firm but fair fight between committed drivers on the absolute limit.
Creating a series where this kind of racing can thrive is a constant battle for organisers. But one the Citroën C1 Racing Club seems to have nailed by basing its championship around a cheap, everyday hatchback you can buy and build into a racing car for very little money. And making absolutely sure everyone plays fair by restricting modifications to an absolute minimum and controlling the supply of packages and parts that transform cheap, dependable city cars into a machine that can race for 24 hours around Spa.
And, while a lowly C1 may not be the most prestigious or fastest competition car ever built, proof that it’s the racing, not the machine that counts is what attracts everyone from gangs of mates on a shoestring to experienced, affluent drivers moonlighting from GT3 and top-flight historic series. All this becomes clear as I start my first stint as one of four drivers in the C1 Racing Club’s own car. I’ve done about three laps in daylight but, by the time I strap in, Spa is brooding under a silvery, moonlit sky.
As I merge onto the Kemmel Straight I’m down by about 20mph on the pack of cars who’ve carried their speed through Eau Rouge. And I’m basically trying to keep out of their way until I can pick up momentum on the downhill return. It’s chaos, C1s circulating in packs, locked in private battles, while mad bike-engined, Citroën-based prototypes scythe their way through and everyone dodging the slow-moving regular 2CVs, trundling along gamely at half the pace of everyone else.
It’s not unusual to have a pack of a dozen cars of wildly different speeds all converging on one corner, lights dazzling you in the mirrors as you try and second guess whether you’re overtaking or being overtaken. Somehow it works and you get a few seconds to catch breath before you have to do it all again. And, modest power or not, by the time you reach the fearsome downhill left-hander at Pouhon you’ll be doing 90mph-plus and sliding sideways as the budget Nankang tyres start to let go.
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Lap after lap, hour after hour these battles go on, slipstreaming up Kemmel and then ‘doing a Hakkinen’ on some unsuspecting 2CV – a winning technique for gaining a place into the Les Combes chicane. And then it rains. As it always does at Spa’s most exciting races. One thing watching it from the sofa on a Sunday afternoon. Another entirely at 2am when the spray is so bad you can’t see the track surface, your tyres are shot and there are people ricocheting off the barriers in all directions.
With nearly 70 C1s on track – two thirds of those from British entrants – and lap times separated by just a few seconds you’re never far from a battle. In my second stint I enjoy one that goes on for maybe 10 laps, my rival and I fighting fiercely for every corner but able to exchange a friendly thumbs-up at the shared thrill as we swap places on the straights. And that’s what it’s all about. No quarter given on the circuit and relaxed, ego-free camaraderie in the pits. In a car you could build and enter from scratch for less than £5,000. Pure racing, the like of which attracts high-rolling racers to gangs of mates alike. And levels the playing field in a way few other series have achieved, for a price within reach of nearly anyone. That’s why you’d want to race a C1 round Spa.
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2018 Season – still a few more races if you want to exercise your C1 Well that’s our official 2018 season over, although there are still a couple of chances to get your C1 out, most notably the simply wonderful Race of Remembrance run by Mission Motorsport at Anglesey on Remembrance Sunday, at which we will be running our somewhat battle-scarred car No 303 (reshell coming over the winter…). If you think you will be able to pass the breathalyser test, you may also want to consider Ben Atkinson’s “Plum Pudding” event on Boxing Day. If you think you may build a car – Let us know now!!! It is already clear from the various chat forums that a number of people are considering building a car. If you are planning to do so, you should order the club kit and cage no later than the end of November. The main issue is the cage, the lead time for which is already 12 weeks. So if you were to order a cage today, you wouldn’t get it until mid-January. This is Safety Devices’ busiest time of year, we have no influence over their lead times and we do not carry spare stock. If you are building, or thinking of building a car, especially for Silverstone, we would encourage you to get an order to us as soon as possible. 2019 season opener will be Silverstone! We’re going to start with the fabulous Silverstone GP 24-hour. We’ve tested at Silverstone, in the damp, and it was utterly fabulous. And, well, its Silverstone. Its what you asked for in the survey, so we took a brave pill or two and signed a big contract. We’re just working out the support races at the moment. The rest of the calendar is currently being nailed down. We will announce it as soon as we can. Entries will follow the same procedure as last year, with the race entries opening on the website with plenty of notice. Again, reflecting what you asked for in the survey, there are going to be a couple of sprint days and four or so enduros, hopefully with the season being rounded off with Spa again. Spa 24 hour – well done to MacAttack for a fast and clean race Spa was fabulous, wasn’t it? Many congratulations to MacAttack who have had quite a season and rounded it up with a class win at Spa. It was a very well measured and confident drive after a spectacular qualifying lap from Simon Walker-Hansell, who managed to get a tow both up the Kemmel straight; and from Stavelot to Blanchimont. The MacAttack car also still sports the same bodywork that it started the season with; so it is possible! We all arrived at Spa in blazing sunshine, well except for Nick, who didn’t get in until nearly midnight. Having come from a decidedly chilly UK, it was lovely to feel the heat of the sun again. They have a slightly different approach at Spa, so its always a bit of a voyage of discovery as to what’s going to happen; and sure enough, the welcome packages weren’t as expected, but they were in a very large orange bag. We could learn things from them, we thought. Scrutineering proved to be a whole lot easier than last year, mostly because we had organized for an MSA scrutineer to be over in Spa with us, who was marvellous. Keith, thank you. So we all got stuck into practice. Well, two sessions of practice, unless you wanted to go and play with some very quick and awesome-sounding DGMC (a German category) series cars. That Mustang must rate as one of the angriest-sounding race cars in history. It went pretty well and looked stunning as well. Somehow, over the day, we managed to get all the cars weighed and scrutineered (or thereabouts). You really should attend the Spa driver’s briefing. It could only happen at Spa. Of course it started late; and of course it was in French. But we had Steve Sykes translating, which was just brilliant. The Clerk would speak loudly and enthusiastically for some time. Steve would then translate briefly and drily something like: “Respect the marshals, they’re there to keep you alive”. It was also the shortest drivers’ briefing in history; and failed to cover any of the material things that it would have been nice to know about, like full-course yellows or two safety cars. Not that any of us asked any questions of course. It is an FIA requirement for every driver to complete three laps of night qualifying in order to be able to drive in a 24-hour race. Not in Belgium, its not. Quali was one and a half hours, which is mighty tight when you have 6 drivers, and daylight only. Its even tighter if you forget (despite half a dozen text reminders) to have your car weighed. And its underweight. And the seat is out of date. You had to admire our American friends style of walking over to the reassuringly expensive shop and just buying another seat, though. We managed to get them out in quali. Just, with their car sporting some lead that was somehow (and somewhat worryingly) procured from a nuclear power station. Most of the rest of Saturday passed in a cacophony of noise from the BGDC, the standouts being that Mustang, a Mondeo which sounded like it had much the same engine and, of course, a brace of 911s. It would best be described as an eclectic bunch. The race proper started at 4.30pm… well, it should have done. More like 4.45pm and it took a while for the timing system to catch up. Obviously, the drivers’ briefing hadn’t covered the start procedure, so we had no idea what was going on, but it all worked in the end and off we all went! Atomic Racing turned a mistake into misfortune, somehow getting caught up in the wrong group and starting from the pitlane. They enjoyed leading the class for the first 5 laps until a safety car bunched things up again. There’s nothing like rain to shake things up at Spa; and boy did we get rain. Those lucky enough to be in the cars at the time could watch the thunderstorm coming up the valley towards the circuit until the deluge hit. At times, visibility was down to 25m or so. The rain stayed with us until the closing stages of the race, but dried out eventually. Stand out heroes? There’s a deep bench to chose from here, but mentions have to go to Hurricane, for giving their car to another team after an accident concussed one of their drivers – that is proper sporting behaviour and we love you for it chaps. To 416, our American friends who had never seen a C1 before; arriving at the circuit with six drivers and mostly-finished car. It even had a stick shift, but at least it was left hand drive. They beat all odds and finished the race. Gents, and lady, well done, and we look forward to having you back over here again soon. To Mission Motorsport, who brought two cars and fifteen injured veterans over, one of which finished, the other of which had an accident; and to all the team crews who repaired broken drive shafts (we ran out), body work, suspension arms and kept everyone on the road. Wheelgate… Citroen are investigating We had some more wheels fail at Spa. All bar one of the failed wheels have now been given to Citroen to analyse, so we will come back with their report as and when we have it. The only additional news we have is that each wheel that failed appeared to have come from a different batch; and that most had clear kerb or accident damage to them. Safety comes first of course, so although we do have some options for different wheels that we could use, at this stage we don’t know whether they would be stronger, and they are a multiple of the cost of the current steel wheels. Our advice remains that if a rim is damaged – dispose of it. 2019 regulations We are meeting shortly to agree what changes there will be, but we hope that you will be reassured to know that they are likely to be minimal and aimed at safety and keeping costs down. One will be the requirements will be to have an operating forward-facing video camera. This is a low-cost way of ensuring that the Clerk of the Course will have the evidence to investigate any contact; and support a continued improvement in driving standards. Autosport 2019 We’re going to be there again on the BARC stand for all four days. Come and see us for a catch up, to ask questions and look at cars. We will have a car on the stand for the children (young and old) to play with. Look forward to seeing you there. Charity Day on behalf of the Stroke Association at Castle Combe On Saturday 27th October, the Stroke Association is running its long-standing day at Castle Combe to raise money for itself. This dates back over 25 years and has a simple formula: owners of interesting and exotic cars bring them along and provide 5-lap passenger rides to the public in exchange for a solid donation. There is no cost to the owners; and every penny goes direct to the charity. We’ve been invited along, so if you would like to take your C1 along (you’ll have to have a passenger seat, obviously), please get in touch with Richard Jones, who is the volunteer organiser on 07961 565970 or by email at richard_c_jones@hotmail.com Thank you This has been an amazing first full season for us; so we would like to thank each and every one of you for making this possible. We hope that you’ve enjoyed it as much as we have, we feel somewhat humbled by what we’ve created, and of course if you’re receiving this newsletter you are part of that success, whether you are a driver, mechanic, car builder or interested reader! As always if you have any ideas on how we can improve things, drop us a mail at board@c1racing.club. We’re already excited about next year and look forward to racing with you all next season.
The C1 Racing Team |
We are ridiculously excited to announce that we have agreed with BARC and Silverstone that our first UK 2019 24-hour race will be held on the Silverstone GP circuit on the 26th, 27th and 28th April, 2019.
That’s right: the same circuit that the Formula One race takes place on. With 110 C1s, which means two start groups. We are of course inviting our Belgian, Portuguese and Scottish friends to join us, but also expect teams from Germany, Hong Kong and the Unites States of America too.
Outline timetable is:
Qualification Friday 26th April 2030-2200hrs
Race start Saturday 27th April 1700hrs
We have elected for the old Formula One garages, because they have more space, especially in the paddock behind the garages; they are next to the showers and other amenities; and because we just prefer the pit lane entry there.
The entry fee is £3,500, payable 50% on booking; and 50% before 28th February, 2019. Entries will open, as usual on the C1 Racing Club website, at 1700hrs on Sunday 28th October. Please remember that to book, you and your drivers need to be current Club members.
The balance of the 2019 season calendar will be announced shortly, once it has been finalized with BARC and the circuits; but rest assured that we have reflected what you all asked for in the survey.
Excited? Its going to be a long winter.
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So that’s our first UK season done and dusted. We’ll do a proper review of the season after Spa, but it’s been quite an experience for us at least. Please let us know your views: what was good; what wasn’t; what we can improve and anything else you’d like to see. Please email us at board@c1racing.club Croft The A1M turned out to be as awful as anyone could possibly have feared, although closing one of the UK’s main north south arterial routes on a Friday and a Sunday was an interesting approach to road management. But wasn’t Croft wonderful when we got there? Cold too – maybe there is something in the phrase “the Frozen North”? We haven’t been up there for a couple of years, and Tracey (the new circuit manager) has really sorted the place out since then. Smart, nice new lavatory & shower block (better than at home, one person quipped) with lashings of hot water. Talking to Tracey, there’s a lot planned at Croft over the next year or two, with a new building, improvements to the entrances: we look forward to seeing it all. Wheels One of the key topics for the weekend turned out to be wheels. Or rather Wheel Failures. We had been planning a piece for this newsletter about lifing wheels; and how it is not a good idea to use the older wheels for racing. Typically, small nicks in the holes turn into stress fractures, which result in wholesale failure. You also find, if you turn a GoPro on the wheels, that the older wheels flex a lot more than new wheels, the welds and steel both fatigue over time, so the handling on older wheels isn’t as good, as well as the risk of failure going up dramatically. What was new at Croft was the failure of some new wheels, and failing through the body of the metal, not at the holes. All wheels that failed need to be sent back to Citroen for investigation; please can the owners of those wheels get them back to us and we can forward them on to Citroen; we will report back when Citroen do. A common feature to all three wheels was significant dents to the rims, suggesting heavy kerb usage. We can’t emphasize enough that using kerbs in endurance racing is a pretty sure-fire way to end your race early. Not just from a wheel damage perspective, but the shock loads that it also imposes on the suspension, drive shafts etc can all lead to premature failure. It may feel racey; and it may even be faster for a few laps, but its not good practice in longer enduros. Sprints What did you think? We were really pleased with the way that the four heats and final went. Driving standards were high overall, although track limit breaches were reported eighteen times by the marshals. The racing seemed to be good as well right up and down the field. We will be running a couple of sprint events next year: probably one on the same weekend as an enduro (as per Croft); and one on a separate weekend, so that we can all see how it works and how popular it is. Observers You may not have noticed it, but for the first time this season, BARC supplied four track-based observers to report on track limits and driving standards. This will be standard practice next season, so that there is 100% consistency on reporting throughout the season and throughout each meeting. However hard we, as directors, try, we can’t be everywhere all the time, but we are determined to ensure that we maintain the highest level of driving standards possible in the series. Rockingham Appeals We are delighted to announce that the decision to disqualify Car 414, Team Green Racing and Car 384, Area Motorsport has been overturned on appeal; and replaced with a fine. This is consistent with the penalty applied at the touring cars meeting at Knockhill the previous weekend and, in the Club’s view, the correct penalty under MSA regulations for a safety infringement. The final results are to be restated and published shortly. Spa Our season finale is in less than a week now. It is, we realise, too close to Croft, and we will ensure next year that we don’t have races in such close proximity. It only came about this year because we had a date at Donington that was cancelled shortly before we announced the calendar for the season; and that was all we could get at that point. We will endeavour not to do that again. The final instructions and supplementary regulations for the wonderful season-closing race at Spa have been published and you can find them here; and we are hugely excited about it. For those of you who haven’t been before, wrap up warm, its always very cold at night there – we’ve had one year where it was minus ten degrees and we all carried on racing. It is a brilliant weekend and one we look forward to all year. It’s going to be one of the biggest grids ever at Spa, so we should see some pretty exciting racing. Look forward to seeing you out there.
The C1 Racing Team |
Rocky II
Rocky II and final 24hr turned out to be a decidedly interesting weekend, for some of the right reasons, and for some less so. Overall, the racing was some of the best that we have seen so far, and it was great to see some new teams out there. We were blessed with near perfect weather and the new track layout seemed to be preferred by almost everyone. We shall miss Rocky, it’s a great venue and the facilities were excellent for what C1 Racing needs.
The result
This is one on which everyone is going to have an opinion; and on which our ability to comment until the appeal process is completed is severely restricted. Two cars were disqualified from the 24-hour race; and one car from the 3-hour race as a result of having been found with their fire extinguisher pins being in when checked in parc fermé.
Such a decision is inconsistent with the decision taken the previous weekend when one of the Touring Cars at Knockhill was found in the same state in a properly-policed parc fermé; but was only fined. Both competitors in the 24-hour are appealing this decision; and that appeal is fully-supported by the Club. We also understand that there is a further appeal pending. We are not able to comment further at this stage.
Penalties
Penalties turned out to be something of a feature of the weekend. Some took it in good humour, some less so. They are there for a reason, though. There is little point in having a set of regulations, if some people don’t abide by them; and some do. We have implemented fixed and written penalties, which escalate on repeat offenders, so that there is consistency between Clerks and circuits.
Four directors run the club; and at each event, we try to have at least two of us acting as DSOs around the circuit at all times, much of the time, we have three of us. As far as we are aware, no other club goes to such lengths to ensure a level playing field and fair racing. For much of the 24-hour race, we had three of us acting as DSOs: one in the pit lane monitoring pit lane speeds; and two out around the circuit monitoring driving standards. Even in the early hours, there was always one of us acting as DSO out around the circuit or in the pit lane.
At some of the corners we monitored, there was nothing to report: for example, monitoring Yentwood and Tarzan in the first two hours of the 24-hour race saw no accidents and no track limit transgressions; so we moved to a different place. Other corners, however, saw a significant number of material transgressions and so we focused on those points; we reported them to the Clerk of the Course, who in turn decided whether to apply a penalty or not.
For the last 8 hours of the 24-hour race, it was clear that competitors were increasingly breaking track limits at the chicane in front of the pits. Even though we only reported the most egregious and repeated breaches, the frequency of breaches grew as the race progressed; to such an extent that a number of the rubber protection mats beyond the two blue and white kerbs were thrown around by cars; and had to be recovered by marshals during safety car periods.
In total well over a dozen cars were reported for breaching track limits; including one that was reported three times over the course of the race; and three who were reported twice. We don’t want to have to do this; but it’s impossible to achieve a level playing field if some competitors don’t abide by the rules.
A similar number of cars were reported for speeding in the pit lane at speeds ranging from 34 kph to 52 kph. Rocky is unusual in that it has hot and cold pit lanes, which are a hangover from its Indy car roots. The hot pit lane doesn’t work very well for endurance racing, so we negotiated with Rocky, the MSA and BARC to be able to use the cold pit lane for our races.
The compromise was that we had to have, and to enforce, a 30 kph speed limit from the start of the pit lane (which was clearly marked with a white line and 30 signs at either end of it); to the end of the pit lane (which was clearly marked with a green light with an “end of 30” sign next to it). There were 8 repeater signs up the pit lane, which we installed and paid for. We covered this in both drivers’ briefings; and explained to any driver who was stopped for speeding in the pit lane (or team if we weren’t able to) what the limit was, why it was there and where it started and finished.
We will be back to the usual 60 kph speed limit in the pit lane at all the other circuits we race at from now on.
Drinking / Alcohol
The ugly head of drinking reared itself again at Rocky II. The Club has a very clear zero-tolerance policy for any driver or team member who touches the car in the pit lane. We were somewhat hobbled at Rocky II, since the Club breathalyser announced on arrival that it wanted to be calibrated and although we searched, we could not find any disposable breathalyser tubes locally. We have solved this by buying a second breathalyser and will have them calibrated alternately every three months, so that at no point could we be left in this position again.
We were alerted that members of a team were drinking during the race and so visited the garage. One driver had a bottle of beer in his hand, so we had a discussion with him and suggested that he handed his HuTag in. No one else in the garage was drinking at that point. We then reported the matter to the Clerk of the Course, who immediately sent the pit lane chief to that garage and removed the HuTag from that driver. Both we and the pit lane marshals visited that garage on a regular basis following this breach, but at no point after that was a driver or team member seen drinking; nor were we presented with any other evidence to that effect.
We have now published the Club Rules, which set out the Club policy on alcohol & drugs on the C1 Racing website. The penalty for any driver or team member’s drinking is that the team is excluded from the event; however, the Clerk was unable to impose that, as we did not have a functional breathalyser. Rest assured that with two operating breathalysers, we will never be in that position again; and we will be breathalysing drivers before they get in the car as well. It is also worth noting that a refusal to take a breathalyser test is treated as a failure.
Weighing
Thank you all for your efforts on the weighing front. Although it takes time, the purpose of weighing and tagging all the cars is so that lighter drivers do not have an advantage. No system is perfect, since teams with some light and some heavy drivers will have a disadvantage over teams with drivers all about the same weight. It is, however, in our view, the fairest system.
From next season, we will be introducing different coloured tags at each race; and your car will not be able to pass scrutineering without the correct-coloured tag lock-wired to the car. We also intend to introduce Club ballast plates, which will have lock-wire holes pre-cut in them, which should make the process easier for those who want to use them.
Club car(s)
There have been some comments on the forums about the Club’s running its own cars. We do this for a number of reasons. Firstly, we need to test any components that we are going to introduce in full race conditions so as to ensure that they perform properly; secondly, we need to have seats available for the press (at Rocky II we had Stefan Mackley from Autosport in our car); thirdly, we are much more able to scrutineer from a technical perspective by running our own cars and understanding the cars better; and finally, it gives us a much better perspective on driving standards than we would get from solely standing by the side of the circuit.
It is commonplace for Series organisers to run cars in their own series, and we intend to continue so to do; and for the directors to continue to drive on occasion. We set this series up so that we are able to race in the way in which we wanted to; in a not-for-profit company, from which we are unable to pay ourselves. However, if you have serious concerns about the Club cars, please write to our chairman, Meyrick on meyrick@c1racing.club setting out in detail what your concerns are.
Croft
On a lighter note, we are all looking forward to Croft. Not only do we have a full grid for the enduro on Sunday, we are also trying out the sprint format on the Saturday; and we can’t wait to see how it goes.
There will be a further newsletter with the administrative points for Croft nearer the event.
Survey
Thank you to all of you who completed the Club survey, we really do appreciate it; and it means that we can organize what you want, rather than making it all up. So far, we have had 267 replies, which is approximately 25% of those to whom it was sent out. Here are the key points which came out of it:
Sprints
Over 130 of you would like to do sprints, marginally more on a different, rather than the same, weekend. A clear majority wanted heats and finals of a 20-minute duration, so that’s what we’ll trial next season.
The five most popular circuits for sprints are Donington, Brands Hatch, Snetterton, Silverstone, Oulton; and the least popular five are: Knockhill, Pembrey, Anglesey, Thruxton and Croft.
Watch this space!
Enduros
The most popular programme is for 4 enduros, so we will continue with that.
The five most popular circuits for enduros are: Donington (by a clear margin), Silverstone, Snetterton, Oulton and Brands. Least popular are Knockhill, Pembrey, Mallory, Anglesey and Thruxton. Cadwell is no longer really feasible given the poor facilities and pit area there.
24 hours
We had to love the 23 people who would enter as may 24-hour races as we put on, but over 110 would enter one 24hr; and over 50 would enter two 24 hours. There was a mild preference for exclusive testing; about half wanted the costs included, half were happy to pay more for it. There was no stand out month in which you wanted 24hrs to be held; although a small majority would prefer it on a bank holiday weekend to not.
The most popular three circuits were Silverstone, Snetterton and Anglesey, with Knockhill and Mondello at the bottom. In practice, we are going to have to be driven by the facilities that are available at each circuit to some extent.
Thank you again for filling it in; it really will make a difference to what we put on next season.
The C1 Racing Team