ALL,
Driver of the Day Trophies
We are delighted to advise that Will and his Wayside Adhesives business will again be sponsoring the Driver of the Day trophies. There will be one per race ie. 17 in total. Our thanks go to Will for this generous support.
Brands Hatch
WE are aware that several of our regular drivers are unable to enter Brands. This is frustrating but of course we understand that, for many of you, times are still hard. We are confident that entry levels will increase as the season progresses but hope you'll all do your best to support the opening meeting of what looks like being a very positive and successful year.
Race Entries/RevUp
As previously mentioned the cost of entries for the Brands meeting up to 23.59 on Wednesday 6th April is £420. Any entries made after then will be automatically charged at the higher rate of £460.We would again remind you all that all BARC race entries have to be made via RevUp. All competitors who have submitted a 2022 registration form to MGOC will get an email from BARC confirming they have received your registration form and giving details of how set up a User Name (your email address) and a Password. Drivers who have raced with MGOC in recent years will continue to use their existing User Name and Password. New drivers will have to go through the set up process. It's really very straightforward but if anyone needs any help please contact Jim and he will do what he can to assist. Please note that RevUp User Names and Passwords used for other non-BARC championships will not work for your MGOC RevUp account and you will have to take out a new password.
2022 Registrations
We currently have 36 registrations for the new season with several new, and some returning drivers. Matt Gozalves and Andy Robinson haven't yet registered but plan to do a number of MGOC events during the season.Doug Cole, Fergus Campbell, Steve Darbey and Dave Mellor have all registered and will be doing selected races. Martin Wills has entered Class F and hopes to do a couple of MGOC races in between his Ginetta commitments. He has expressed an interest in having a go in a ZR and would be open to renting a suitably competitive car. As for Jim, he will be wheeling my MGB out for the 43rd year but his own family situation means that he won't be able to enter many races. Even if he is not actually racing he will of course be at all meetings wearing his organisers hat.We would like to welcome the following new drivers to the championship:
Classic Class
Mark Ryhorski is a Canadian living in north London and has bought the ex-Bob Fisher MGBGT. He raced a Porsche 944 for many years in Canada and in recent years has raced a Radical in Canada and UK. Tim Rides has acquired the ex-Dave Mepham MGBGT. He has previously raced a vintage Riley and plans to enter selected MGOC races later in the season. George Lovell (son of Ray) has done some bike racing and will be doing selected races in Ray's MGBGT.
Class B
James Molloy has acquired the ex-Alan Forster MG Maestro. He has done a number of track days and is looking forward to making his racing debut at Brands. Steve Tyler raced a Maestro with MGOC back in 2002. He runs a company in Southend called British Legends and looks after several ZR's for other championships. He is planning to enter Brand and selected MGOC events in his Class B spec ZR.
Class Z
Paul Buzzing is a pal of Jack Woodcock. He has previously done track days but has acquired a ZR and is looking forward to making his race debut at Brands Phil Dicker has raced Fords in recent years but after seeing some MGOC races on the live stream he decided it looked right for him so he bought an ZR and is looking forward to joining the MGOC grid at Brands. Andy Heitman did a couple of events with MGOC in 2021 but plans to race with MGOC this season. Keith Henley is a pal of Andy Heitman. He has done a few races in MGCC but has moved over to join Andy at MGOC. George Howarth did a one-off race with us in 2020 and is planning a lot more events with MGOC in 2022. His dad, Adam, who is a race winner in a BMW in Britcars, has also registered and hopes to do one or two events with an MGOC spec ZR.
BARC Events Manager
This role has been handled brilliantly by Dave Wheadon but the workload of running 28 championships and over 30 race meetings is simply too much for one man. BARC have been aware of this for some time and have recently appointed a second Events Manager to work alongside and share the workload with Dave. The new man is John Hutchison, he has held similar roles in recent years with Aston Martin Owners Club and MG Car Club and is a good fit for the role.In recent years Dave has been our point of contact but BARC have divided responsibilities for the championships and with immediate effect, the initial point of contact for MGOC will be John Hutchison. You can contact John by calling 01264 882205 or emailing jhutchison@barc.net
Wayside Adhesives have purchased an ambulance to help Ukraine
A few words from our MD, Will Sharpe:
Like many of us I have sat at home watching the atrocities unfolding in Ukraine. The overwhelming feeling of helplessness is felt in most people I talk with. Once I looked into this it became evident that many of the large corporate charities take too much from our donations in way of bonuses and administrative costs.
I wanted to help directly and make what ever impact I can on the suffering these poor people are going through. A chance phone call with an old friend has led us to this point.
Will and Eddie Sharpe will be driving the ambulance we have purchased all the way to the Poland/Ukraine border, in two weeks time.
www.ambulance-aid.com has been set up as a non profit, no admin cost organisation with all donations going to the people of Ukraine. We are all volunteers.
They need medical supplies and ambulances. We will driving ambulances full of urgent supplies directly to the Poland/ Ukraine border at the end of this month. These will be handed over and put into immediate action. We currently have two ambulances and will soon to be adding a third.
If you can help with even the smallest donation please visit the website which is soon to be a fully registered charity.
You can donate at the link below - https://www.ambulance-aid.com
Thanks in anticipation of your valuable and much appreciated support.
Subject: Extinguishers
ALL,
Over the past couple of months we've given information about the new regs for fire extinguishers. We thought we had explained it reasonably well but over the past week or so we have had six drivers contact Jim to ask what they need to do. Maybe we went into too much detail so let us explain in simple terms.
As from 1st January 2022 all extinguishers (including nozzles, connectors and pipework) must be an FIA homologated design and installed in accordance with the FIA homologation. The homologated extinguisher systems are shown here on the FIA Technical List no.16.
It seems that over the past few years a number of you have purchased new 4 litre FIA homologated bottles and plumbed them into the old pipework with one nozzle in the engine bay and one nozzle in the cockpit. This was acceptable up to 31/12/21 but we must tell you that no FIA extinguisher system was ever homologated with two nozzles.
If your system has one nozzle in the engine bay and one in the cockpit it does not meet the FIA homologation and is therefore not acceptable for the 2022 season.
If you have an FIA 4 litre bottle and connected it to the old pipework and two nozzle system you can buy the extra nozzles, connectors and pipework to upgrade it but the component parts add up to approx. £300 which is significantly more than cost of a complete new extinguisher kit.
If you need a new extinguisher, this is the one Jim recommends https://www.competitionsupplies.com/lifeline-zero-2020-3-ltr-fire-marshall-extinguisher-full-system . If you purchase a complete new extinguisher kit, the bottle will be fully tested and certificated and therefore will not need servicing for 24 months.
Whilewe are on the subject. If you're satisfied that your existing extinguisher system is FIA homologated, don't forget that if must have been properly serviced within the past 24 months.
We expect scrutineers to be paying special attention to extinguishers at the first meetings of 2022. If you turn up with an invalid extinguisher system you will not get through scrutineering.
It's all pretty straightforward but if you're still not sure what you have to do, please do contact Jim and he will do what he can to point you in the right direction.
ALL,
Following on from Jim's email sent last week we have now received the go-ahead from BARC to issue the 2022 Technical Regulations in DRAFT form and you can now register for the 2022 championship. These are issued in DRAFT and will remain so until MSUK have checked them, signed them off and issued a championship permit number.
You will note that changes are highlighted in yellow
At such time as MSUK get round to formally approving the 2022 regs we will of course forward the final version to all on our mailing list.
2022 Championship Registration
As previously mentioned, the registration form for the 2022 championship is the final page of the Regs. You can process this in one of three ways:
When it is received by MGOC they will check it and forward it on to BARC who will put you on their system as a registered MGOC competitor. Please note that your registration will only be forwarded to BARC if you have current MGOC membership and paid the £40 registration fee. Call Linda on 01954 231125 and she will happily take payment on your credit/debit card.
Club Memberships
All drivers intending to race with us in 2022 must:
Race Numbers
In line with our usual policy, returning drivers will retain the number they had in 2021. The only exception to this is Steve McDermid who will be allocated no.1
We have provisionally allocated numbers to several of our new drivers. Jim will drop an email baynam@btinternet.com to those new drivers confirming their race number for the coming season.
If any new, or returning, driver wants a specific number allocated to them please do drop Jim an email and he will let you know what numbers are available.
Race Dates
As mentioned in my last email, the 2022 calendar is:
April 16th Brands Hatch
May 2nd Castle Combe
June 4/5th Silverstone (National)
July 10th Thruxton
August 14th Donington
September 17/18th Snetterton 300
October 8/9th Pembrey (Note: past info has incorrectly shown this meeting as 9/10th October)
At the Brands meeting in April the MGOC quali and both races will be on Saturday 16th The meeting at Thruxton is over two days but our qualifying and both races are all scheduled to be on Sunday 10th July.
Donington is a one-day meeting on Sunday 14th August.
Silverstone and Snetterton are two days meetings. we can't at the moment say if we will be on Saturday or Sunday or maybe a bit on both days. We will let you know as soon as timetables have been agreed.
Our meeting at Pembrey is a triple-header and will definitely be held over two days.
For Sale
ALL,
An update of a couple of important points..
Race Dates
I have to announce a couple of changes to our race calendar.
Frustratingly, our final meeting of the 2022 season at Mallory on 16th October has been dropped. This is due to Mallory Park Motorsport wanting to move the date of that meeting to 9th October. This was OK for us but was simply not acceptable to other championships scheduled to run with us on that meeting as it would have given them two meetings on consecutive weekends. Understandably, they weren't prepared to accept that so pulled out and there simply wasn't enough content left for BARC to run the meeting and they had no option but reject the change to 9th October and thus cancel the meeting.
Ending the season at Snetterton on 24th October is, in my opinion, too early and I've spent a week speaking to every other organising club to see if they had any track time available for us in early October but drew a blank on every front.
The only option available to us was to once again finish the season on the BARC meeting at Pembrey and after several days of pondering, and contrary to what I said about never again returning to Pembrey in October, I've decided to take it.
There will be a slight change from our recent visit there and this meeting will be a triple-header with 3 x 12 minute races. It will obviously be over two days and I have asked that the timetable is arranged to give us:
Quali - first session after lunch break on Saturday.
Race 1 - late on Saturday.
Race 2 - early on Sunday.
Race 3 - soon after lunch on Sunday.
BARC have agreed in principal to this timetable but it can't be 100% confirmed until a nearer the time
This makes our revised (still provisional) calendar:
Rounds 1/2 April 16/17 Brands Hatch
Rounds 3/4 May 2 Castle Combe
Rounds 5/6 June 4/5 Silverstone (National)
Rounds 7/8 July 9/10 Thruxton
Rounds 9/10 August 14 Donington
Rounds 11/12 September 17/18 Snetterton 300
Rounds 13/14/15 October 9/10 Pembrey
Thruxton
The Thruxton meeting originally scheduled for 2/3rd July clashes with the British Grand Prix and BARC have confirmed that this meeting has been moved to 9/10th July. MGCC have a one-day meeting at Donington on Saturday 2nd and moving our date forward a week does give out friends from MGC Trophy an opportunity to join us at Thruxton. The Thruxton change works well for us so no complaints there.
Licences
You should all have received the licence renewal paperwork from MSUK.To prevent overloading the NHS the requirement for medical examinations was dropped for the 2021 season. You will note that this waiver has been extended for the 2022 season.You can of course renew your licence on-line by going to www.motorsportuk.org and follow the link to "Renew your Licence On-line". If you haven't already got a User Name and Password you will have to get that organised but it's all very straightforward.