Entries for the April Blossum 12 Car Rally on Friday the 24th April will open ONLINE here on Friday, in a trial of the use of online entries for 12 cars rallies next season.
The event will start from Birchanger Green Services, and finish at the Four Ashes Pub in Takely (subject to the approval of the pub).
The route will be a compact but intense 45 miles to accomodate the late sunset at that time of year without running too late.
Entries are open, see here for entry forms:
http://chelmsfordmc.co.uk/12Cars
That was pretty painless! Thanks Tony. :)
Painless indeed. Entered and paid by Paypal while still sitting in bed. Beats trudging across to the Post Office....
I best check Mr Helm is tech savvy enough to do it, and quick!
just paid entry by bank transfer for pat and stuart
Hmm... 12 entries in as many hours. Not popular then...
As I struggled to get 12 entries in 720 hours for the Feb one, then that is excellent.
Just need a couple of reserves just in case.
We'll give it another hour and that should be sorted.. ;-)
Clearly a bank transfer is not the way to go...still showing as pending despite paying at 8.45am Friday. Good job we're running as Novices ;-)
Bank transfers in now - 13 paid entries.
Many thanks for your excellent response to using the online entry system. Now I suppose I will have to do the navigation and Tony will need to find lots of marshals! Thanks to Andy Merchant for volunteering to help, more marshals are required though, responses to Tony please.
Oh and I also need to sort out the pub for the finish which may require a personal visit. :)
Bob
Clearly not quick enough.... :-(
Hi Bob, Tony
Put Peter and I down for noise check, scrutineering and course closing car. I'm also available for checking the navigation.
Cheers
Paul
Paul
Many thanks for your offer of help, I may want to modify your evening job of course closing and will review the posiition with he who must be obeyed (Chief Marshal T Michael). He does need more marshals - volunteers to him please last count needed 9 crews?
Navigation checking is helpful thank you, and I will once I have writtten it. Are circular mirrored herringbones still allowed?? :)
Bob
Bad news for the 3rd time in succession for me - my nav's security clearance for his new job still has not come through, therefore he remains in wet and windy Lancs, and will not be available for this 12 car.
Having found myself a standby nav, it transpires that he unfortunately will also be unavailable next week :-(
Therefore I will gracefully albeit reluctantly pass my place on to Mike & Colin who sit 1st reserve (I think).
Assuming family plans for that weekend don't change, I will be available for marshalling. Please email me for confirmation in the week.
Cheers
Mike
Well it is good news for Mr Bishop, as Mr Helm really should be out canvassing on Friday ready fir his takeover of Maldon council, I have accepted a transfer to the Stag.
This is where it gets confusing.,.,.
Mike Helm has modofied his entry to show my new driver,
Can someone either drop Mike Bishops entry and promote Mike Helms, or drop Mike Helms and change me to the navigator of the Stag.
Cheers
Colin
Thanks to all the marshals who have volunteered, Tony tells me that he has got all controls covered -just so that is great news.
The navigation has been completed and subject to final checks is final.
Finals will be emailed to all competitors on Wednesday 22nd, please read and note the route information of non comp sections provided.
Equipment is being prepared and drinks are cooling in the bar at the finish. If you wish to meet up beforehand and leave a car at the finish then you are welcome to do so. The finish is at the Four Ashes PH at Takeley crossroads. Parking is a little limited but there is plenty roadside for the finish which is approximately 22.15.
See you all Friday. Bob
Delighted to get a drive after all the shenangens above. Just got to fix the car after the Club Triumph HCR now!
Final instructions have now been emails to all competitors and marshals. If you haven't received them, please get in touch:
/
thank you to everyone involved last night - marshals, Bob, Tony and Paul, and fellow competitors. An extra thanks to those involved in all the secretive planning to have my family suddenly turn up at the last control when I thought they were staying Birmingham! I was so busy worrying about having dropped another minute at that point I hadn't realised immediately who was actually signing my card!!
Well done to Graham and Jim after tough night for us all trying to keep to times.
Finally a general thanks to everyone involved in the full season - my first full competitive season and it has been fantastic. Luis is amazing at putting up with my stressing out and craziness! Also a thanks to Jon Bray who put up with me getting to grips with CMC clues the previous season!
How long till September?!
Thanks for putting on a great event. It made the long wait for darkness very worth while. The route certainly suited the nimble Mini.
Thanks to all the Mashalls and organisers for a great evening.
Thanks to Graham for putting up with the long list of car problems this season, ending with the passenger door parting from its hinge in the pub car park last night. I now have till September to put things right!
Jim Drake
Lucy and Jim have summed it up very well.
Thanks for a great evening to everyone involved, a great atmosphere in the lanes and at the finish venue. As Jim said, the lanes were perfectly suited for the little Mini. Well done to him and Graham on a fine win.
I don´t know what to make of the last control, we were pushing on the straight before arriving but missed out for a few seconds. When we got there I saw a flash and suddenly a burst of tears of joy, I'm just glad that it happened on the last control as Lucy was lost for words for a while. Well done to everyone that helped organising it, an emotional way of finishing the series.
Extended thanks to all organisers, marshals and competitors of the whole series. A very competitive season, with full entries, and most of all FUN, great FUN.
My Mini is due some attention too as signs of use and abuse on the last years are now showing, Minis are still brilliant for these 12 car things, aren´t them?
Well done everyone and well done Lucy on a well deserved overall win.
See you all in September.
Luis
Hi Bob and Tony,
Many thanks to you both and all the marshals on the last 12 car of the Winter Series. A great way to finish the season. They say variety is the "Spice of Life" and we certainly got lots of that last night. Very short sections shapens the mind as any mistake can be costly. Beginners and Novices had the advantage of having the whole route so you can imagine how difficult it was for the Experts. Still everyone made it back to the pub, marshals and all.
Many thanks to all the organisers, marshals, competitors and officials for a very competitive and friendly series. With all events over subscribed it just goes to show the popularity of the Chelmsford MC 12 Car Rallys. I'm sure it will continue for the Winter Series 2015 - 2016.
Looking forward to seeing you all in September.
Regards
Graham
To Bob, Tony & the marshals. Funny how simple the expert nav seems sitting at my dinner table.....
We still enjoyed it, in a masochistic sort of way. And a personal best number of fails is not to be sniffed at.
Well done to Jim & Graham on the win, John & Ian on besting the expert nav and most of all to Luis& Lucy on the series win.
Here are the April Blossom 12 Car Results, and a Results Comment from Bob.
Thanks to all the marshals for coming out, especially the Fryer family for coming so far!
Thank you Tony and Bob - the results round up is really great - such interesting reading
Hi all,
Many congratulations to Lucy & Luis on a fine series win. Steady performsnces throughout the season contributed to a worthy result. Well done.
Many thanks to Tony for the comprehensive results sheet. Bob's summary of the event was very enlightening.
A great way to end a very enjoyable series.
Many thanks for all involved.
Regards,
Graham
for the comprehensive results and analysis. The woman at the DIP board seemed very sensible and not angry, just a bit worried... I think we were too nice to her, hence another minute dropped
.
As said above, great and very friendly competition throughout the series. Always a great way of finishing the working week.
We'll gladly swap you your "A Bit Worried" lady for the "Mr Incredibly Angry and Would Shoot Us If He Had a Gun" we encountered last month.
And congratulations to Luis/Lucy for the series win, and to Graham / Jim for the win on the night. Another Expert crew to offer us some competitions, hope you are good an cryptic crosswords!!
Anyway, I ought to apologise publically for the shocking performance we put in on Friday First time I have ever been forcibly "retired" due to being so late into controls.
The new idea of not telling the experts where the TC's are just caught me out for TC3. I plotted a route, we drove there, nothing, I plotted another route, drove there, again nothing, tried interpretation 3, drove there, and found the TC. 11 minutes lost and a codeboard missed.
I don't think I could have seen the contourlines (Isuspected that was what it might be) even in decent light. Time for another visit to the opticians before September... :-(
Not the best start and it went down hill from there, though there are some mitigating circumstances.
Turning on Mikes maplight and realising he employed a geriatric glow-worm to perform that function made me realise how much I relied on Mr Helms decent maplight on a stalk. So I had to improvise and do all plotting by the light from my Potti when I found my emergency headtorch had flat batteries.
Also, he drives like an old man, Everytime I told him I knew where we were going and to go as quick as possible, we just went at the same speed! :-)
Come back Mr Helm, all is forgiven!
Cheers
Colin
Thanks everyone for Friday night's event. It was my first in the Expert class and I actually found it slightly easier as a driver; Mark seemed to have more time to tell me where to go; how far to next junction, etc., and we had fewer missed slots as a result. This was because once he'd plotted to the next control he had nothing else to do until the next envelope. Still a lot harder overall though, but we will hopefully improve over time. I need to speed up a bit I think; I was not too bad in the first half but had to slow down a bit later on as I could feel the same old motion sickness start to come on again.
MikeyB - take no notice of Colin moaning about how slow you drive; I drive at old-man-speed most of the time. It's the refined thing to do....
Tee Hee, I'm used to Colin moaning - it's probably an age thing in itself! He's so used to bouncing around in Mike H in the "Vomit Rocket", he'd only eaten a piece of toast before coming out. When I told him about my large fish and chip supper on the way to the start, he was less than impressed as he then remembered he was out for a comfy ride for a change!
Joking aside though, despite our shocking result, I had a cracking drive with thanks and fair respect to Colin for working his way through what looked to me to be a near indecipherable set of expert clues!
Massive thanks also to everyone who took the time to organise all the events, everyone who gave up their time to marshall and finally to all fellow competitors - your friendliness and cameradie really make these events the best!
Looking forward to the new season, I'm planning to give the Stag a rest and get the Dolly Sprint sorted for September! Hopefully Darren will have got his employment sorted by then so will be able to join in again.
See you all around!
Mike