2 Day Meetings

[AndyY]

I note that the vast majority of meetings are over 2 days with a practice and race on each day.

This appears to me to be very "unfamily friendly" and a barrier to entry to those of us that have to carefully balance family time with our racing.

I'm hoping to come back to Mono next year but I will never be able to race over both days of a weekend, even at Donington Park, when I only live a mile away. I just couldnt get away with it!

Is there any consideration for having more events with, say, a single practice session and 2 x races in one day? I think that this is better value for money and better value for time. Time being a resource which, like money, also has to be spent wisely!

[Russ]

The whole point of having a Qualifier and a race each day is for exactly this reason. If you only want to do one day, you can.
Having 3 sessions in a day is possible, if the members wish to pay an additional 50% or so a day to go racing.
The cost of an entry is mostly driven by how much the club get charged for track time, more track time each day = more cost each day, it is almost pro rata.
Also many people have to travel quite a distance for each event, not something that you want to do for just one days racing. If I am to take on the M25 to get to Brands, I want to make sure I get the most out of it!

[Duncan36]

I'm the same as Russ. I've been racing in a series for the last three years and most meetings were over two days, with testing on the friday, so three days away. Luckily for me, my family always came to the circuit on the friday night, so they were part of it. I really didn't like the single day meetings, as it was all a bit rushed and a long way to travel in some cases in a day. Add to that a lot of the enjoyment was the social side and that didn't happen so much with the one day meetings

[AndyY]

Thanks for the replies. I fully understand wanting more track time for the expense of travelling but I would suggest that 1 x practice plus 2 x races on one day is the best compromise. And if the cost is pro rata, as stated, then that day's racing is better vfm than 2 x practice and 2 xraces over 2 days as there is an extra nights accom to pay for (not everyone wants to camp or can afford a motor home).

As I suggested, time is also a very big issue for some and some cannot afford the time to be away for a whole weekend. Under the current format I could enter just a single day but there is no way I would travel to Brands Hatch or Snetterton, for eg, for 1 practice and 1 race in one day; I might for 1 practice and 2 races. I wonder how many other potential entrants that applies to.

In the sports/saloon racing world the clubs and series that have shown most success over the past few years are those that have the best track time on one day.

[Duncan36]

Do not many people test on the Friday in Mono then? We currently head down on the Thursday night, test Friday and then quali and race on the sat and sun. I do understand where you are coming from, but I'm hoping the mono social side is as good as RGB has been and looking forward to some great race weekends away. Fortunately my wife is very understanding lol

[teamfoxracing]

6 mono sessions on one day is very hard work for
Mono team

Some people share cars

If you have a problem in race one not much time to fix
For race 2 if it's Sunday you have plenty of time

Mess up your first qualifying on a Saturday it doesn't ruin your whole
Weekend

I don't see any advantage of 1 qualifying and 2 races in one day

1 qualifying 3 races maybe but over the 2 days

I would say most race meetings 10 or so test on the Friday and I'd say at least
85 ?% of people turn up Friday late afternoon early evening and get set up for Saturday

There is still plenty of mono drivers and teams sleeping in vans , trailers , tents etc

Mono is not all motor homes and race trucks !!

[Duncan36]

Cheers for that Teamfox.

What the social side like? I wanted to pop along to a meeting before starting, but meetings clashed so it didn't happen.

[Nick Harrison]

I note that the vast majority of meetings are over 2 days with a practice and race on each day.

This appears to me to be very "unfamily friendly" and a barrier to entry to those of us that have to carefully balance family time with our racing.

I'm hoping to come back to Mono next year but I will never be able to race over both days of a weekend, even at Donington Park, when I only live a mile away. I just couldnt get away with it!

Is there any consideration for having more events with, say, a single practice session and 2 x races in one day? I think that this is better value for money and better value for time. Time being a resource which, like money, also has to be spent wisely!

Andy. Is not what you are suggesting provided by the Tiedeman Championship. All events are one day, one Q and two races. Will possibly expand to five events next year giving ten rounds which is only two short of the main Championship. Nick.

[AndyY]

I note that the vast majority of meetings are over 2 days with a practice and race on each day.

This appears to me to be very "unfamily friendly" and a barrier to entry to those of us that have to carefully balance family time with our racing.

I'm hoping to come back to Mono next year but I will never be able to race over both days of a weekend, even at Donington Park, when I only live a mile away. I just couldnt get away with it!

Is there any consideration for having more events with, say, a single practice session and 2 x races in one day? I think that this is better value for money and better value for time. Time being a resource which, like money, also has to be spent wisely!

Andy. Is not what you are suggesting provided by the Tiedeman Championship. All events are one day, one Q and two races. Will possibly expand to five events next year giving ten rounds which is only two short of the main Championship. Nick.

Nick, the Tiedman Trophy is the ideal format in my opinion, and I had hoped to take part in the end of season events this year, but it wasn't to be. Hopefully next year, depending on the calendar and other commitments. I am encouraged to hear that it may expand next year. Not that championships are particularly important to me!!

[tonybishop]

One quali and three races every time for me , why not ? Race prior acts as quali , What's not to like ...surely format is not to suit those who turn up one Sunday a season

[ofarc]

I agree with ,Tony. 4 sessions. 1 qualy, 3 races.

[AndyY]

One quali and three races every time for me , why not ? Race prior acts as quali , What's not to like

In one day? Ideal.

[andrewcliffe]

I think 4 sessions in one day is pushing it just for routine turnaround tasks - fuel, recharging battery - let alone fixing any problems / damage that may occur.

[stevenconnor]

I see various people have replied with comments that could have been my own.

1. Tiedeman Trophy does run the one day format as standard. Main Mono runs the 2 day meeting format as standard except where impractical such as Oulton Park. But ONLY one grid so Mono outings are limited to 3, not 6 (or even the 7 we had at Oulton in the main championship finale with the combined practice to start the day) in the day. Maybe not such an issue for competitors but thank you TeamFoxRacing (agree 100%) for noting the strain on the Mono team.
2. The 2 day meetings do help people who might have problems in 1st practice or 1st race. At Oulton there were several cars being worked on that simply didn't make race 2 but would have made a complete extra day on the Sunday (thus they lost a championship round they had paid to race in making it very non cost effective)
3. We had several drivers in 2015 who did the 'car share' option of running different drivers Sat and Sun - only possible because of the 2 day meeting.
4. Several other drivers did some single days only when other factors prevented them getting to both days.
5. Our 2000 Champion was originally due to miss the 1st day at Brands due to return time from his holiday (family time being respected!) but was entered for the Sunday. Without the double day flexibility this could potentially have cost him 2 rounds rather than the expected 1 ... leading to a loss of the championship.
6. Non scientific research (chats in the paddock) have shown me most of our people seem to like the less stress of the 2 day meetings ...
7. Can't see the majority being happy with the idea of quali and 3 races IN THE SAME DAY... maybe a case for trying it over a 2 day event but has that issue about a bad 1st day result compromising your subsequent results... Mmm and would that be 3 rounds which would make the impact of missing a weekend (or second day - maybe family commitments) very damaging to someones championship commitments.

I help out my friends son in MX5 racing and they do some 1x Q and 3 x Races (but over 2 days) and the big thing I notice is apart from polishing the car, putting in fuel and doing the tyres, they sit around a lot with little to do because it is a road car based series... the amount of work going on to 'fettle' most of the Mono cars is much greater (as in most single seater racing).

When I started my racing all events were a single quali and a single race on one day of the weekend - that was all we got or expected. Thus 12 - 14 race weekends in the championship. The introduction of the 'double header' over 2 days was controversial for the sort of reasons that Andy suggests, then we all seemed to think "Wow, this is better, why didn't we have this before?" I found, if not doing a full championship, that the family time V amount of racing for, say, 5 double headers was much better than 7 or 8 (let alone 10) single events - the amount of in the garage prep time was the same for each outing (so a double meeting halved the time I was in the garage during the year), there was the one extra day away on an already 'race disrupted' weekend but the number of such weekends were less.

For the social side The Mono Hub at 1st Tiedeman meetinghttps://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 237&type=3
The excellent Brands BBQ https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 237&type=3


I guess this thread shows the 'we are all different' but we do seem to have a format the majority of members enjoy and the expansion of the Tiedeman should provide some degree of choice.

[AndyY]

Thanks all, I wasn't being entirely serious about the 1 practice and 3 races in one day, although I did do that when I used to race occasionally in the now defunct BARC-SEC meetings on the Silverstone Stowe circuit, but they were 2x10 min races and 1 x 15 min races on a 1 mile circuit. That was enough and a different kettle of fish to trying that for 15 or 20 min races around Donington!

I look forward to seeing the calendars for the main series and the Tiedeman Trophy, and having that choice.

Regards

Andy