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Drag day III thread

Brian Raftery

Administrator
Admin
October 25, 2006
3,985
122
Kiltimagh Co. Mayo
What a great weekend. Thanks Ben & Dave and team.
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All the Racer lined up at the end of the first day.
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Well done Eamon for winning the Spirit of the show award.
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And the four winners of the show and shine winners well deserved lovely cars
 

whatucolm

Club Member
Club Member
September 2, 2008
614
19
galway
Wow!-Amazing pictures and videos...soOO :cooool:
fair play to you all!..

well pissed off for having missed it,and apoligies to Ben and Dave and all for dropping out so near the weekend.couldnt fix me wagon,again.:blush:
seeing those pics and hearing those proper air-cooled machines ripping down the road!.must try and get a proper a/c engine for next year,and hopefully join in the fun!
Amazing stuff (y)
 

kvinyl

Club Member
Club Member
February 20, 2007
4,708
9
Galway
I was gutted for you Colm when I heard you wouldn't make it - any chance you'd be ready for Abbeyshrule, Longford on the 13th September?
It's an event hosted by Drag Race Ireland so much the same timing, setup, etc. as Bishopscourt - a lot closer to us too!

I'm hoping to go along and at last count there are going to be 5-6 aircooled and Trev's Tractor, should be a bit of craic...
 

56oval

Club Member
Club Member
September 10, 2007
1,979
0
n.i
A quick summary, i havnt even recovered yet and the van still needs unloading.

2 Days was a tough call ,very tough in fact, Saturday by far for me was the best day for the action, everyone was flat out all day trying to get onto the qualifying ladder for the finals Sunday morning, so from a spectator point of view, Saturday was the day to be there ( much to my surprise )
We had a "racing incident" which hasnt been spoken about which involved a car turning hard right into the tyres up the top end and being contained by the tyre bails ( they did a very good job ) the driver was ok and the medic was straight to the scene, see, i told you guys motorsport is dangerous, a full debrief with the racers will happen after the dust has settled as there are some quick guys out there not taking their safety seriously enough, lessons need to be learnt and quickly in my opinion and the the discussions need to take place openly.
Saturday night we had 150+ camping over, the rain lashed heavily, Bishopscourt was under easy an inch of water and any ideas of a race event on Sunday were a milion miles from my mind and having to babysit an angry drunk for the guts of 3 hours ruined my weekend. Luckily it blew so hard all night that when i woke at 7am ( after 2 hours sleep ) and jumped out of the van, the track was 95% dry with just a couple of small puddles, we were going to have a raceday afterall.

Typically we had a sensor fault in the left hand lane, right before the finals, after a drivers breifing and re jig, we still had a working tree, 60ft and full right hand lane e.t and speed so the racers agreed that we would call the win from the top end via 2 way radio and no times would be given in the finals, all the racers were more than happy with this and we got through them quickly.

After the finals, the left lane timing was fixed and we had an open track bar breaks for awards, all afternoon, Stevie Ross came down with his awesome granada and entertained with Micheal White, Jack Frost and some friends from Holeshot, but from a paying punters perspective, the two day thing breaks down right about there for me. ( a day and a half would do it all )

When you have a field of 60 cars, 15 dont show and 25-30 are just about working on a Sunday and a large amount busted on the trailers, thats no spectacle for the public, the racers all went nuts on the Saturday, bar the incident it was by far and away the best day.

I could post mortem the whole weekend, i wont, but i am firmly in the camp of go back to one day next year, the racers asked for it, we tried it, and although a lot did work and everyone went away happy, there wasnt quiet enough to justify 2 days for the public, i.e the lack of flat out racing on Sunday, to make it work there would need to be 100 cars present from day 1 to race.

Dave has been round for a chat, he didnt see the weekend the way i saw it at all ( what goes on to keep the thing going in the timing booth is crazy ), it was off the chart stressful for me, and i went home mentally and physically exhausted. Two months of preparation and at huge expense to family time in the build up has really taken it out of me. Everyone ive spoken to didnt have the view of the weekend i had, so maybe we were doing something right, 2 days was always going to be a push, and for me it was a bridge too far, thats my honest opinion.

Thanks to all of the Eircoolers that attended, i dont even want to look at my car for a week!!! (maybe even a month!!)

Cheers

Ben
 
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Brian Raftery

Administrator
Admin
October 25, 2006
3,985
122
Kiltimagh Co. Mayo
Well Ben all of us that where there thought you did an amazing job and your running commentry really makes the event. Maybe you just need a bit more help with the organisation. I know its hard to organise anything and even harder to get people to help out. Don't throw in the towel yet. Maybe start the saturday a bit later in the day so there still enough racing on the sunday to keep entertained.
 

trev

*****istrator
Admin
November 11, 2007
13,987
1,708
Co. Laois
I would suggest using saturday for test and tune/RWYB, sunday morning for qualifiers and sunday afternoon for the finals. If there's any time left after the finals then more RWYB.

I had a great weekend but since my car wasn't playing ball I'd had my fill by 2PM on Sunday and was on the road for home by 3. If my car was working I might have liked a few RWYB rounds in the evening to get the last out of the weekend.
 

rascal1

Club Member
Club Member
January 12, 2007
452
9
Marino, Dublin
I agree with Ben on the one day being enough.The camping at the course does need a lot of policing in order to maintain order and to keep the noise down.All it takes is one drunken idiot to get us all banned from camping.Having to babysit a drunk for the night would encourage me to walk away from it all.No one should have to put up with that.
From what I could see the racing was over by lunchtime on Sunday.Calls were made by Ben announcing an open track,RWYB or whatever you call it.But there were very few takers.I left about 3.00 as I was heading for Holyhead that night so I can't comment after that.
A huge thanks is owed to Ben and Dave for this event.They do a terrific job.
The bit of an off on Saturday should be a warning that we need to take car and driver safety very seriously.
Best of luck for next year..
 

Greg

Club Member
Club Member
November 2, 2006
642
23
Hobo's Hill, Buncrana, Co. Donegal
One drunk person shouldn't spoil it for everyone else. I may be wrong but wasn't said person in the return lane directly beside the "racing incident" as Ben called it. I'm not here to make excuses for him but he may have been self medicating delayed shock...?
 

kvinyl

Club Member
Club Member
February 20, 2007
4,708
9
Galway
I would suggest using saturday for test and tune/RWYB, sunday morning for qualifiers and sunday afternoon for the finals. If there's any time left after the finals then more RWYB.

I had a great weekend but since my car wasn't playing ball I'd had my fill by 2PM on Sunday and was on the road for home by 3. If my car was working I might have liked a few RWYB rounds in the evening to get the last out of the weekend.

I think Trev has it on the nose here, the first day was a god send to actually get some seat time in the car to try and perfect launch technique, play around with tyre pressures, try different revs for gear changes, etc. If something is slightly off in the car it gives some time to address it, test it and improve on it but it eats up time during the day to do this. The lunch break comes around awfully fast and then all of a sudden you just have a few hours left in the afternoon to get a few runs in. Knowing you have another whole day available to you takes the pressure off of trying to maximise runs on the first day. Maybe this only applies to me as I had a work in progress car and am still trying to fettle it, but sure isn't' everyone lol.

I agree that lads went hell for leather on Saturday so moving the qualifiers to Sunday morning with finals Sunday after lunch would keep the racing interesting for the Sunday visitors. It would also mean that any Sunday only visitors can have a go at getting into the finals rather than having to be available on two days. The Saturday is then also available for those who just want to get more races in, test their car or have a bit of craic soaking up another days racing.

I enjoyed the couple of beers we had Saturday night, didn't go mad crazy as I had two hours sleep the night before and didn't want to miss having a few passes due to a raging hangover but it was a riot dissecting the days racing, comparing runs like world war 2 pilots compared kills... :D

For a purely selfish reason it was great to just stroll over to the car Sunday morning to start prep for racing and not have to drive for five hours through the early hours to get their first...:p
 

johnnyg

Club Member
Club Member
August 23, 2010
1,524
2
Athy
I think some of you may be missing the point.The problem isn't the two days racing as such (although Trevs idea seems logical to me, most two day race meets work along these lines, where as day one is mainly used to set up the car for the track, and no one is completely flat out as such),the point is, it's taken Ben away from family time, pressure of setting up a two day event etc . It's just too much on a pair of shoulders, for it to die halfway through Sunday . I'm only going on what Ben said here.I wasn't there this year, so really can't comment.
It's all well and good saying the two day idea is great, but if it's to continue, (which should be Ben &Dave's decision without pressure), people may step up to the mark,and try to help in some way or form.
Would it be possible (feasible) to have the Saturday as a closed track ( no public), but racers pay for two days racing anyway, but use Saturday as Trev said for testing? That way, would ensure the public would have a guaranteed great days racing on Sunday.
 
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whatucolm

Club Member
Club Member
September 2, 2008
614
19
galway
I was gutted for you Colm when I heard you wouldn't make it - any chance you'd be ready for Abbeyshrule, Longford on the 13th September?
It's an event hosted by Drag Race Ireland so much the same timing, setup, etc. as Bishopscourt - a lot closer to us too!

I'm hoping to go along and at last count there are going to be 5-6 aircooled and Trev's Tractor, should be a bit of craic...

Sound Padraig.i think i will go alright,to have a look at least, if the car isn't ready.two of the lads at work here are hoping to enter.
thanks.
 

trev

*****istrator
Admin
November 11, 2007
13,987
1,708
Co. Laois
Entry list is full for abbeyshrule but they're still taking entries to a reserve list in case anyone drops out and their place comes available. If they're not in they'd better be quick to at the top of the reserve list!