 |
Rally of Great Britain 20th-23rd November 1999 |
|
|
|
Training Committee News
|
|||
|
Rally of Great Britain 20th-23rd November 1999 |
|
|
|
Training Committee News
|
|||
Plan your 1999 event today with the up to date marshalling opportunities in this issue..
"Grandstand has committed to televising the Rally of Great Britain for the next three years."
Changes have been made to the timing of Leg 1 from
the start of Blenheim
To produce an exciting climax for the Sunday afternoon
audience a regrouping control has been introduced to send the top 16 runners
in reverse seeding order through the Blenheim stage. The stage, which now
starts at 13.50 hrs., will be covered live by BBC Grandstand.
The cars will then remain in their Blenheim start order for the rest of Leg 1 and about 40 minutes will be added to the scheduled time at following controls.
Grandstand has taken over from the now defunct, Top Gear motorsport, and committed to televising ‘Rally of GB’ for the next three years.
There will be new telephone lines at all stage starts this year to assist in the improvements to the results system. Road section time sheets will now be removed at the stage start. The road section finish time and stage start time will now be phoned to the results room from stage starts. This will leave the stage finishes with only the stage time sheet to remove and the stage finish time to phone to results. This streamlined procedure will speed up the production of results.
For 1999 all crews on reconnaissance will carry an
identity card which will be their ‘passport’ to enter a stage. The card
will show the details of the crew’s approved reconnaissance vehicle and
be used to check the number of passes through each stage. The cars will
still show numbers in the side windows.
In 1999 there will be significant changes in the results operation. The road section timecard will be collected at the time controls before special stages and the times phoned in to the results office. This will speed up the computing of results and simplify the timecard handling at stage stop lines. The details of these changes will be explained in the Operations Manual and at the Regional Briefing sessions as well as a national training session to be organised for all Senior Control Officers.
The Argoed stage will not be used this year as
it could not be accomodated within a route that complyed with the FIA’s
regulations regarding mileages between refuelling.
However this year’s Rheola stage route is a longer route and is used twice. Last year’s Argoed marshals will be welcomed to Rheola or anywhere else in South Wales.
The traffic management arrangments in South Wales will be more extensive than last year to ease the flows of competitors and officials. Even a bit of ‘A’ road is scheduled to be closed for the passage of the event.
The final service area of the entire event at Ford’s Bridgend factory is looking for marshals. Just imagine the scenes if ......
Dr Aleric Hicks has been appointed as Deputy Chief Medical
Officer to assist Dr Phil Rayner.
The organising team for the Mid-Wales area recently had their first opportunity to look at the new facilities that will be available in November on The Royal Welsh Showground at Builth Wells and came away very impressed.
The new buildings will make this service area one of the showpieces of this years event. Undercover servicing will be available for all the World Rally Championship Teams as well as the Formula Two Teams in two halls with tiered grandstands. In one hall there is a viewing gallery that will permit spectators to look down on the activities below.
It does not end there!
At least 40 of the seeded teams will also have covered servicing with full overhead lighting, much needed in November. The spectators can visit the mini Rally Show, also under cover. All this requires far more than the 50 or so marshals that normally run a service area. When you consider the four visits each of the crews makes during the leg it works out to a long intensive day.
Consider if you decide to voulunteer you could catch an early stage and marshal three service visits.
If you fancy the idea contact Mark Colston, his contact details are overleaf.
|
|
|
Tuesday, 17th August 1999