Tuesday 17 September 2002

MCC Rule Changes for 2003

For those who haven’t yet read the 2003 SSRs which arrived with the Edinburgh stuff, I’ve done a quick scan and found amendments in the following clauses:

C – Added clauses (f) and (g) under Class E.

D – Added note about gauges under Tyre Pressures.

F – Added note about running order for three-wheelers.

G – General - SEE BELOW!

G – Team Awards – Changes to team combinations.

G – Omission of Motorcycle Standard Road Tyre Award.

O – Added note about signing DOT sheet.

The REALLY interesting change is in G where TWO CLEANS are now required for a Section to count. I confess that I had prior information about this but was sworn to secrecy at the time. I think this is a very interesting rule change, designed to ensure that one ‘superman/woman’ does not have a disproportionate effect on the awards, and I’m quite surprised that it is not referred to in the latest Triple. It could make quite a difference on, say, Simms in some classes.

Andrew

4 comments:

  1. Andrew,   There is quiet a bit of interesting stuff here. I certainly agree about the Simms Supermen. There was always one, now there will have to be two! I guess the Riverton incident on the Lands End was influential in making the 3-wheelers run with the cars. I wonder if they will run together or just mix up with the 4 wheelers?   Going back to Riverton I chatted to the Reliant driver at the summit and in fact took some gear he was carrying for his biking buddy down to the rest halt for him.   He told me that he stopped because he screwed up and could easily have run back a bit and got up on his own if he had been allowed to. He told me he wasn't allowed to do that and he was made to hook to the Land Rover. Apparantly the Landy had hard bald tyres and the guy wasn't that skilled with it (I think he said he was a p**t!). After a real smoke screen job the guy with the Landy dropped back to the Reliant with a lot of slack in the rope. Then off he goes like a dragster, when the rope went tight it pulled huge chunks off the Reliant!!   Anway - that's the storey as it was told to me by one of the guys involved. I am sure the Landy driver would tell it different!   Lets all make sure our towing hooks are nice and strong for the Edinburgh.   Reliant Drivers - if you probe into yout Triple there are some notes from John Hayes on making your pride and joy Landy proof   Michael

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  2. I am not sure about the "two cleans to count" idea. Very interesting but not sure the result it will produce. Presumably in the case of the "A" boards at Simms if there was a clean and above the "A" boards in a single class the "A" boards would count as the end of section. It do not think that anybody would want to be the competitor to clean a section like Simms and have it discounted because nobody else cleaned the section in your class and lose the class win on the special test times. Also would it not be possible for a person not to clean all the sections, maybe more than one, but to have all theirs failures discounted because only one person, not necessarily the same person, cleaned them. Put in some stunning special test times and walk off with the main award. It would seem to affect the less well populated classes more. In the case of Class 2 on the 2002 Exeter Bill Bennett in the J2 was the only person to climb above the A boards on Simms. Net result no Gold’s for Class 2 as the J2 diff expired on Clinton I believe. With the new rule Bill would still have a silver and six competitors would have gold and still on their Triple. Very interesting idea and it will be intriguing to see it develop. Good luck to all entered on the Edinburgh. Dad (Bill) will be marshalling at one of the Putwell’s as the car is not quite in one piece. Mark

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  3. Hmmm.... Mark's message raises some interesting issues.   Firstly. I don't have the new MCC Regs to hand but I think there was an intention to give 'special awards' to those who cleaned a section subsequently discounted because no one else did - just like the 'Simms' awards PreWar.   Secondly. Mark seems very concerned about Class/Overall wins. A gentle reminder that we are all supposed to be competing against the Club, not each other, so Class wins based on special test times should be considered a secondary issue - getting a Gold/Silver/etc. is what we should be aiming for. However, I'm still trying to work out all the implications of various clean/fail options throughout a trial. The business of sections being 'cancelled', and this affecting the overall results, has been around for years. As a personal example, we were one of the very few Class 7s to clean Litton on the (recent) year when Litton was cancelled for everyone. The Class was won by someone who had failed Litton - but that's life.   Overall, I think it's a positive effort to try and keep sections competitive for the many rather than just trying to stop the few. Let's give the MCC a chance to try it out.   Andrew

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  4. Hi Andrew   I am not that concerned but interested in the results that it will cause.   It could cost the MCC in terms of medals too!!   Have a good trial at the weekend and good luck on Litton.   It will be interesting to work the result from that with the new format.   All the best   Mark          

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