[DERBY (UK) HO RACING CLUB]

DHORC was again invited to build its own version of the Rockingham International Super Sportscar Circuit………………

…………in the Welcome Centre beneath the main Grandstand at the actual Rockingham Motor Speedway circuit at Corby, Northamptonshire over the weekend of 3/4 September 2011.

The British F3 and GT series were competing on the same actual layout which we had excellent views of when we weren't marshalling up to eight cars on the 145 foot track during the two minute races.

Both Adult and Junior competitors could try and set the most number of laps over the weekend to win a family ticket to the British Touring Car Championship meeting on the same circuit over the weekend of 17/18 September.

While Saturday only saw a trickle of competitors during the last hour of the day, after we had spent most of the time travelling to the venue, unloading and setting up the circuit, Sunday was already busy by 10am

Soon the track was surrounded by would be racers and folk who were spell bound with eight slot cars taking Turn 1 flat out. Turn 2 was a different matter with invariably only one car keeping to the black stuff out of the eight!

Our two winners were very pleased with their prize, Mitchell seen here below after he was confirmed the Junior winner

Sunday was a long 14 hour day but well worth it thanks to some superb support from DHORC Members Alan Bullock, Lucas Blake, Ryan Blake, Paul Levers, Phil Rees, Ben Roythorne, Cliff Roythorne, Zachariah Roythorne and Liam Smith.

Cheers
Nick

 

[Jimb0]

Fantastic looking track guys!

 

[DERBY (UK) HO RACING CLUB]

Thanks Jimb0 it also drove very well as far as I could feel the little amount of time I had on it. Whenever there was any downtime we would keep cars circling but that was no more than 30 seconds before the next racers stepped up to the ockey

Cheers
Nick

 

[Jimb0]

Sounds like good fun. What chassis do you run on there? Are you doing another one?

Jim

 

[zipp]

Hey Nick,

Good to see you and the DHORC team at Rockingham again.

Ahh...turn 2......
i remember last year, when i needed to grow 6 more arms for marshaling there.

Your dedication to the DHORC, and all the events you host, is just amazing.

Hope to see you soon....

 

[DERBY (UK) HO RACING CLUB]

Hi Jim,
We use the Tomy Turbo chassis as it is the easiest to maintain with the bashing they take throughout the day. Below shows Phil setting them up including gluing on the tyres to stop them rolling off the wheels round the banking

Hopefully we will be back at the British Touring Car Championship meeting next weekend with the same track although we won't be taking the banking this time as Phil is on hols.

Cheers
Nick

 

[DERBY (UK) HO RACING CLUB]

Thanks Kev,
Good to hear from you, hope all is well?

Yes we had a great time thanks, I will never get bored of seeing those eight cars flat through the Turn 1 banking, Paul was certainly busy in Turn 2 (like you were last year!)

Hope to see you back at DHORC sometime soon, most meetings someone mentions Mr Lye and wonders where he is!

Cheers
Nick

 

[montoya1]

Nick - after I got Kev into HO and he started to become a regular Dhorcer with some good results, I figured he would become one of the stalwarts. Darn these people who have the cheek to have more than one hobby

(Of course, everyone knows the really dodgy people are the bird watchers LOL)

The Rock certainly looks imposing in that room. Have RMSL considered having a smaller track of some kind at the track on a permanent basis?

When will you know if you are setting up there on the BTCC weekend? With the Honda pair so close in the championship, and Plato bound to do something dumb-ass after his theatrics last time, it should be a good day out. For me to go involves sorting out a few things, but the prospect of you guys being there would be extra incentive.

 

[DERBY (UK) HO RACING CLUB]

I'm sure he will be back Deane, how could he stay away?

RMSL concentrate on running the venue, all the extras are brought in on the day with the vendors running them. They concentrate on their core activity and let the vendors sort theirs.

Should know by Monday night

Cheers
Nick

 

[DERBY (UK) HO RACING CLUB]

Friday 16 September 11

This afternoon Peter Barber, Alan Bullock, Liam Smith and I travelled down from Derby to the Rockingham Motor Speedway in Corby to set up a track for this weekend's British Touring Car Championship meeting. We had already decided not to take the banking this time as Phil Rees was away and the logistics of managing the large boxes that house the track and driving the long wheel base van to the venue were just not viable.

Originally we were going to set up on Saturday but Rockingham asked us to set up today and run Saturday as well as Eddie Stobart (famous UK haulage firm) were bringing down 4,500 guests for the day.

With the Welcome Centre also including Roary the Racing Car (a UK Children's programme whose central character is, you guessed it, a racing car) and many other activities we didn't have quite the room we normally enjoyed therefore we had to improvise coming up with the track below. At 96 feet it is 50 feet shorter than the Rockingham replica we ran a couple of weeks ago but we have taken the advantage of not having the eight lane banking by running this circuit as ten lanes!

This is the first time we have run a ten lane corporate event and the track is 20 feet longer than any of the ten lane ovals we run at DHORC.

The track opens at 10am tomorrow, an update will be provided tomorrow night

Cheers
Nick

 

[Leet]

Guys you have done a cracking job there, hope all goes well. Would you be able to let me know when the next event is please as I may have a wander up their, if thats ok.

 

[montoya1]

Lee - I am sure Iam not alone is wishing there was a way we could host a national round there.

Given that RMS probably charge for that space, and DHORC are charging a pound a go to raise money for tables, sadly it is probably way out of our reach.

 

[DERBY (UK) HO RACING CLUB]

Friday 17 September 11

Today started early at 7am where I had to pick up Liam Smith and James Mellor in Derby and then Alan Bullock from Clifton in Nottingham before arriving at Rockingham just before 9am. Having decided to run a ten lane track the first job of the day was to wire up the 9th and 10th lane as Phil Rees had only given us the power system for the original eight lane track. Luckily his son Tim had found the extra lane power system following instructions over the phone as Phil was on hols.

This meant moving the whole power track closer to the drivers but it didn't take long to sort and while Alan coordinated that I met up with Cliff, Ben and Zach Roythorne with their tickets.

The day went well and three times we actually ran all ten cars, an historic moment as DHORC had never run ten cars at the same time at a corporate event. Marshalling was frantic during these races but everyone did a marvellous job.

We had 264 racers taking to the track today, with the Adult record currently sitting at 11.1 laps, the Juniors (16 and under) 11.0 laps.

Tomorrow should be even busier so we are roping in more marshals

Will provide a further update tomorrow night, now for some sleep...............

Cheers
Nick

 

[DERBY (UK) HO RACING CLUB]

Thanks Lee,
If you mean Rockingham then we are there tomorrow but next visit will be next year some time. We will announce closer to the time. If you mean DHORC the next meeting is this Tuesday, please see dates on our web site www.dhorc.co.uk

Cheers
Nick

 

[Leet]

Thanks Nick for you quick reponse considering what you guys are up to at the moment, I would have loved to have popped up today but have things on and such short notice to say to the wife, 'Honey just popping out for a bit, see you later'. If there is a future event to be held there I would definately think about popping along. I will keep chcking www.dhorc.co.uk for any future dates.

GOOD LUCK today lads and I hope you enjoy yourselves, who wouldn't.

 

[montoya1]

Cool stuff Nick - how many 'goes' did you sell each day? I can feel those 24hr tables getting nearer.

 

[DERBY (UK) HO RACING CLUB]

Sunday 18 September 11

Again another 7am start where I picked up Liam Smith and James Mellor, while Paul Levers drove to Clifton to pick up Alan Bullock.

It was a glorious late summer's morning and the quaint Rockingham Village close to the Rockingham Motor Speedway (RMS) was in its picturesque best

Ten minutes later we were through the main gates to the track and on the long drag to the circuit with the impressive grandstands looming up ahead

Arriving before 9am there was already a long queue waiting for the gates to open

Luckily our main RMS contact was stood just behind the main transport access gate so we were able to walk straight in and make our way to the Welcome Centre to get the track up and running

Within an hour there was big crowd in the circuit watching the first race of the day

This helped us run several ten lane races throughout the day

The RMS facility is truly a wonderful place with excellent views of the whole circuit

Just before we finished for the day we roped in a couple of the HiQ girls to add a bit of glamour to proceedings

After a record breaking weekend of 775 racers (previous best 648) we had two winners with the Adult winner Alan Roberts only recording 0.2 laps more than the Junior winner Alex Rooney (below) who set the fastest lap out of the two!

Packing away didn't take nearly as much time as setting up and within half an hour of the finish we were on our way back to Derby

An enormous thank you to Alan Bullock, Alex Kumra, Nav Kumra, Ben Roythorne, Cliff Roythorne, Zach Roythorne, Paul Levers, James Mellor and Liam Smith for there superb help over the weekend. Without them all of this would not have been possible. It will certainly be one weekend I won't forget in a long time

Cheers
Nick

 

[ss67]

Looks great!

A good promotion of slot car racing!

But (unless Rockingham paid you to attend?) presumably not a good way to earn a living?

£775 over two days, 10 people, travel, time (how many man hours?), equipment & insurance and probably a couple of days to get over it!

I know it is really hard work and I've never done a two day event!

 

[zipp]

Simon,

That is why you have to respect the dedication of the DHORC team.

It is not all about the money, it is about bringing pleasure and slot cars to a whole new audience.

None of the DHORC team will have been paid (well that's what they told me last year

), it is all voluntary because they love it. Maybe a spot of petrol money.
DHORC will have had to pay for the pitch too, if it is anything like last year.

These guys really are a very dedicated team, which is why the club has a long and prosperous history. Long may it last.

Nick, the pic of Rockingham village is just how it looked last year as we passed through, excellent shot.

I also notice how you are wandering around with the camera, whilst all others are frantically packing away. Nice move.

 

[montoya1]

ss - the aim of these things is, as I understand it, to raise money so that in the future the huge LeMans track can be elevated off the floor, which will be a huge deal.

As a result people are not thinking about time spent in terms of £s per hour, and hats of too them for that.