BAS Round 5 Debate!!

Well BAS Round 5 due to take place this weekend at St Neots has been cancelled due to the weather conditions but who knew the cancellation could spark off such a heated debate!! The whole debate stems around the proposal to reschedule the round for a fortnights time.

Reasons to reschedule the event for a later date:

• Those class titles that are undecided will have a chance to be decided on the track

Reasons not to reschedule the event for a later date:

• People have commited to the series based on the dates set before they entered and will have made other commitments around these dates such as work and holidays. Some people will not be able to attend the final round as a result of a date change therefore they do not get to fairly complete their BAS challenge. It's not their fault the date changed!
• Other clubs have meetings scheduled to avoid the BAS and these might now clash with the revised date thus putting clubs and their members in an awkward position. Do they support their club and the club points scheme or abandon their club for the BAS?
• BAS rules state that if a meeting is cancelled the results are taken over the best 3 of 4 rounds. It does not state the cancelled meeting will be rescheduled!
• What president does it set for the future? How many rounds next year can be rescheduled when the time comes because the weather has been poor? What is the point in setting the dates if this can be done!

I think my opinion is clear to see from the above!! Some will win and some will lose from not having a last round but at least everyone is in the same boat. If you lose because you haven't collected enough points at other rounds then that's your own fault/bad luck really, harsh i know!! If you lose because you can't make the rescheduled date due to other commitments then that is certainly not your fault and it's unfair! And if you can't make the last round then all the money and time spent on the last 4 rounds was a waste!

From what i gather today, NASA and BAS are both in favour of rescheduling the event and so now it's up to St Neots to make the decision. How wrong is that!! Surely NASA should have the best interests of all clubs in mind (particularly those running on the rescheduled weekend) and BAS should have the best interests of it's members in mind, therefore St Neots have no decision to make as it should have been made by BAS and NASA.

In reality, the only ones to really lose out from this are St Neots. They have invested time and money to put on the event and it's not their fault it has had to be cancelled. But surely the better way for St neots to recoup some of their costs is to reschedule their East Anglia Open meeting as planned on 27/28 September and encourage people to support this. There is just no need for it to be a BAS round though. As Helen Richards has pointed out on the forum perhaps it needs to be looked at as the needs of the many (clubs and members) agains the needs of the few (St Neots). Well said Helen!

Ladies Nationals 2008

What a weekend!!!! You are reading a post written by the Double National champion!! Believe it or not, considering the last post, i won the Nationals in my car AND my brothers 8. I'm over the moon and still smiling almost a week later!

I think the Nationals is about the only meeting i experience full on nerves and boy did I have them last Saturday morning. Following my crash at the Fastest Man i was already in 2 minds about whether racing the 8 was the right thing but too late to back out now. I just needed to get that first heat in both cars under my belt and then i would feel much better. Well the first heat couldn't have gone any better, the track was great and the cars were superb, nothing faltered and I won quite comfortably in the 5 and very comfortably in the 8. Now i could settle!

Heat 2 brought another win in the 5 but a dodgy start in the 8 due to a very dug up start line meant i could only manage a 4th. To be fair though, the first 4 of us, Sandra, Sue, Clair and Me, were all bunched up and as fast as eachother. I new i didn't need to do anything stupid though and was happy to sit on the back of the other 3 and just bring the car home in 1 piece. Even in fourth the confidence i felt in the car was amazing, i knew i could race it 100% as if it was my own. The comfort and set up was spot on.

2 more wins in heat 3 took me into the final as joint top qualifier with Sandra in 5 and 2nd qualifier in the 8 with Clair Horner just in front of me by about 8 points.

Sat on the start line of the final in the 5 i felt so much pressure. I feel like people expect me to win because i ususally do but in all honesty it's probably me that most expects myself to win! At first i was glad to avoid Sandra during my heats in the 5 but come the final i realised i had no idea where i stood against her and really i would have felt more confident having had at least a heat against her. Well there was nothing that could be done now so all i could do was give it my all, drive to win the race and hope it was enough. I got a cracking start and was into the bend first and just threw myself in with the confidence i knew i had to have. Looking at photos now i see i was only slightly ahead of Sandra into the bend and so there would have been no room for hesitation, i needed that confident fast entry into the first bend to get my lead and pull away. I stayed about quarter of a lap infront of sandra for most of the race i think and took a good win.

It was strange sat on the line in the 8 for the final. I wasn't sure whether i felt pressure to win or not. On one hand i was 'just having a go' in the 8 because i could, no-one would expect me to win and so i was pleased to make the final, anything else would just be a bonus. On the other hand, i'd won 2 heats, i was 2nd qualifier, and i wanted to win!! I sat there knowing i could get the good starts and the only downfall i might have against Clair was the confidence into the first bend. That's what let me down last week at fastest man, i could get into the bend first but not commit like she could and thats where i lost out. This week was a little different though, i had the confidence in the car and the track and so i sat on that line just bullying myself to commit into that first corner.
Another amazing start saw me first into the first corner and boy did i commit. It felt amazing, i threw it in and came out a few car lengths in front already. What a world of difference that half a lap had made! I never looked back from that moment, just kept up my speed and confidence through to the end. I won class 8!!!

It felt great to win in 5, but as mentioned before the pressure is on me to win that anyway. It was a totally different feeling in the 8. The moment i crossed that line i just cried, and all the way back to the pits i cried, and sat in the car and cried! Yeah ok i'm meant to be a tough racer and racing is in my blood, but even i can be overcome with emotion at such an achievement as this! And what's kind of ironic is that my mum won the nationals in 5 and 8 in 1994, so it definitely is in the family!

Fastest Man on Grass 2008

I think we may have given racing a miss this weekend if it wasn't for me needing a practice in Mark's 8 before the Ladies Nationals. There just seems to have been so many weekends in a row packed with racing and travelling far and wide!

It was nice to have Saturday to do a few jobs at home, make my way down to Lincoln in my own time and then chill-out when i got there. Nigels bar (see pics) was a welcome addition to the event and i have to admit to spending a bit of time in there on Saturday afternoon!

This weekend I was racing the 5 to test the set-up for the Ladies Nationals and also having my first go in Mark's 8 for years! In fact, 2 years ago the nationals it was his old 8 that i raced so this would be the first time i this particular car. I needed to get plenty of practice! With my seat in the 8 there was no way Mark could get in the car so my partner in the car for the weekend was Phil Cooper, and what a good partner he was!

Sunday started off good with a nice win in both cars, i felt much more confident with the 8 straight away. Over the weekend things stayed pretty much the same in the 5 with another heat win, final win and winner of Fastest Saloon on Grass, beating the 7 of Charlotte Pugh. Things got worse in the 8 with a Black Flag for a hige wheelie (see pic), a 5th or something in final, 3rd in Fastest Special on Grass and a big crash in the Fastest Lady on Grass!! I braked hard to avoid someone and spun (my own fault) then got collected by a 7. It hurt!!!

2 very bent wishbones, broken shocker and stearing arm, lots of bruises and aches, and a very demotivated me took a slow and sombre drive home on Monday night. I was ready for giving up, in the 8 at least, and seriously questioning whether to race it at the Nationals. Was it just going to interfier with my confidence in the 5?