C2C2021 - Thank you for taking part

[Chriss]

Finally Club Triumph has got to run an event in the Covid era.  I don't think I have ever seen a group of participants so keen to get started for an event.  Gagging for it would put it mildly.  

The route we eventually drove was a bit of an  improvisation most of which I had not been able to reconnoitre beforehand.  Feedback was that a few thought it a bit too difficult, most thought it was great and some fantastic. We were not helped by the fog. The Headlands Restaurant did exactly what we asked of them and I certainly enjoyed my fish and chips and big breakfast.  If you did too please would you give them a thumbs up on Google Reviews and Trip Advisor.  They went out of their way to help us and I would be very happy to start their again.

Chris Gunby has mailed me to say that after a night in Carlisle Hospital, he and Nigel Hill should be ok and will be getting home, unfortunately not so for the car. It looks as if Paul Smith, Dorota Malczak and K9 were rescued by superhuman effort from Dave Kirk and John Talbot, assisted by Don Cook and Ian Pearce.  Well done guys.    

There were 26 finishers and honoury finishers.  There was only one was a mechanical retirement.  That shows the high standard of preparation from the teams. Great work.

I hope that everyone did not feel that the event was over regulated.  It felt to me that while organising the event 10% of the work was the event and 90% was regulation from Motorsport UK, GovUK and Scotgov.  There is normally some regulation, and for all events CT has they have to conform to MSUK General Regulations and CT regulations that are event specific. This is why we have to have the Declaration and Indemnity acceptance. However, It was a consequence of the additional Covid Regulations that lead to the route changes, the Alston quiet zone, the lateral flow testing and me having to provide much more information to MSUK. I hope we won't have to do most of that in future. Thank you all for being so tolerant and for being so helpful.

Building the new Website and Forum also created a lot of work for this event.  It is the first CT event to use the new system.  I hope you did not find it difficult.  I have not had a number of the features that the previous website had, but I felt the system was easier to operate.  A number of you would have bought t-shirts if you realised you could buy them at the same time as buying entry. From my point of view I need more information at the point of entry, as many entrants did not complete their information until very near to the event and some did not. 

Mass emailing all participants was one feature that we have lost, so I have had to address all my communication to the entrants on the assumption that they would spread the news to their crew. This happened in the majority of cases, but some entrants did not keep their crew up to date.  I noted that some of the crew were keeping themselves up to date on the Forum. However, not that many of the participants were using the Forum and that I could not rely on the Forum to broadcast messages that everyone would read.

CT lost lost the facility to broadcast text messages. It did not work that well and was difficult for me to operate.  This year there was no facility to broadcast to the entrants. My mistake in transposing phone numbers from the web system to the Entrant information did not help as the numbers were jumbled in order and I could not phone individuals.  I apologise for that, it would have helped me understand what happened at the accident. Next year I intend to operate a whatsapp group so that I can leave voice messages or texts. You will need this app for next year.

I have used Google Maps to plan the route. It is easy(ish) to use and gives accurate distance and time calculations, but it is lacking in ease of transfer to SatNav systems. Howard Brissenden will be fully involved in planning the route next year and we probably won't use Google Maps, but other systems that ease the downloading to SatNav. I used SatNav to navigate for the first time this year and it does have advantages once you take the leap of faith and relinquish control.  The main advantage is that the crew can rest and be relatively fresh when it is their driving stint. Although this event isn't the endurance of the RBRR the nature of the route makes the driving and the navigating much more intense.  Looking at the state of everyone at the finish, if I had asked "Who's up for going round again?"  The answer would have been "Yes, but I am too knackered to do it now."

The above paragraphs indicate that for us all to enjoy the preparation and running of the event better and to be less tired at the end we all need to up our IT game a bit.  I'll have to get a smartphone and gen up on SatNavs and we'll need more information at entry.

Anyway to end, thank you all for entering and being so helpful in the preparation of the event.  I hope that you enjoyed it and are up for it again next year.  It would help for that if you gave feedback below, perhaps as what went well, what could be done better.  Some suggestions I have had also are, can we have polo shirts as well?  and now that we have had to do the event with a lot of daylight, would you prefer the events to be run say in June.  This will result in more quiet zones. Some really love driving in the dark, some may like to look around a bit.  

Cheers, Chris