Well that was a rush!

[Jason]

Phew, what a rollercoaster ride that was, adrenaline, fear, trepidation, elation, sleepless nights, early mornings - and all this just for the entry opening!
I'm always overwhelmed by the process, despite my best efforts to reduce the admin and increase the self serve, entrants always keep me on my toes. The system Keith has created for us is very good considering the lack of resources we work with - we don't have much money to spend, we're all amateur volunteers and we all have lives away from Club activity.
It takes a team to put this together and to keep it together  - although the web site takes a kicking when the event goes live, there's so much goes on in the back ground before hand, it's been especially tricky this year.
Anyway, we got there and the site didn't freeze, fall over or otherwise stop the show.
This time it's been very challenging, not least because of the high demand for places - sold out in under 5 hours.
Yes we have some residual issues, primary amongst those is the entrant numbering- we are not 100% sure what happened there but we have some duplicates - I will sort that out with Keith over the next couple of days, hopefully we can get the system  to do it but more likely I'll manually adjust. So, don't get attached to your entry number please!
I hope I've helped all those with website problems which seem to have been far fewer this time, most people heeded the advice and checked/updated their accounts long before entry went live. If you had problems please please please don't leave it to the next event to sort them out, report them via the website and sort them out when the pressure's off.
Reservists - we will try and get you all in, somehow. We don't take payment until a place becomes available and we always ask if you want the place before we do so. It may be very late in the run up to the start that places become available, as entrants fail to get cars ready or personal circumstances intervene and they withdraw - so prepare your cars and keep fingers crossed.
And finally, anyone with a status of 'revised', it just means that you made a change after payment, you're still "in". Anyone with a status of 'incomplete' it means you need to edit your entry and update missing details. There are a couple of payment anomalies so do check your bank account to male sure the right payment was taken and let me know if something looks wrong.

Jason

[Saltddirk]

Jason,

Thanks for assisting!

I must say it was less stressful than 2 years ago when the system hung while i tried to make a payment, only to find out that it was our side that had dumped the connection. So, thanks again for having facilitated the 2 step entry for me....

and indeed 150+ and counting, Derreck would be very chuffed, now let see that we can update the charity records too...

Dirk

[Tim Bancroft]

The 125 entry limit is simply down to the ability of our two breakfast stops to be able to cope with feeding 280-300 hungry people.

Those that have entered before know which one copes and which one does not. We will be visiting them this time to fully discuss our requirements and to try get them to understand that entrants are a tadge peckish after driving all day (and all of the night) and that to be standing in the cold is not great!

So its all very simple now, for the RBRR team:

1. Arrange all the Controls and Marshals: We need Marshals, so if you can please volunteer if you can.

2. Finalise the route.

3. Design and print the stickers and road book. We have had a re-think over the road book and will be issuing a ring bound full colour copy to all crews, as in previous years.

4. Liaise with MNDA and sort the JG Pages, this is the first task, expect info in early January.

5. Organise the Drivers Meeting

6. Get to Knebworth and set off the cars

Simple eh!

 

[thescrapman]

Tim

would there be a way of making the road book optional with the saved money being used to top up the charity pot?

Just a thought, especially as I have a colour laser printer, or 2 or 3.........

Not sure what they cost to print, and don't really need to know 

 

[Jason]

Colin, the roadblock is actually quite cheap to print in the scheme of things, it's regarded as a souvenir by many crews so we do like to make a nice one worth keeping.

UPDATE on the numbering  - we've had a fiddle and fixed the numbers! Keith's found a bug that's resulted in an 'extra' entry sneaking onto the live list - yes we have 126 live entries. Oops.

We are now working on how we get the extras through the food stops whilst preserving the integrity of the event. We'll get there, I hope!

 

[RobPearce]

Quoted from Jason-

 the roadblock is actually quite cheap to print

Needs a big 3D printer, though 😀

The joys of autocorrect, no doubt.

[Tim Bancroft]

Jason is quite correct, the cost of 100no roadbooks is not a lot less than 200. Many enjoy the book and as Jason states look upon it as a souvenir of taking part. 

 

The 2018 roadbook was a much improved document, so we will continue in that vein.

 

 

[Dannyb]

Hi,

Although I cannot take part in the RBRR 2020. Because of daughters 40th Birthday on the Saturday. I would like to help out with the Marshaling or other duties.

Danny

[Tim Bancroft]

Danny,

Never volunteer!

How about helping out at Knebworth on the Friday afternoon?

Otherwise, everywhere else must be too far for you?

[Tim Bancroft]

Please excuse my poor manners, thank you for the offer.

[Dannyb]

Yeah Knebworth will be easy.

I will be available for Friday and the Sunday if needed.  It will be a pleasure.

Danny

 

 

 

[Tim Bancroft]

Thank you Danny.

[Steve28]

Is blyth services definitely back for the first stop ?

 

steve

[McJim]

Would be good if it was.

Plenty of atmosphere and spectators that seemed to be lacking at Wetherby.

I hear that the services have expanded on the west side of the A1(M) which could give us more room.

But it's early days yet and I'm sure they'll be quite a few changes and additions that are in the process of being organised.

Jim.

[TedTaylor]

Quoted from timbancroft61-

Jason is quite correct, the cost of 100no roadbooks is not a lot less than 200. Many enjoy the book and as Jason states look upon it as a souvenir of taking part. 

 

The 2018 roadbook was a much improved document, so we will continue in that vein.

 

 

I have to agree about the Road Book as a souvenir.  As some may be aware that my Woodie misbehaved and after most of the year trying to sort out an engine problem (or three of four)  I had to withdraw very late in 2018 when a final problem cropped up with just days to go.

Gutted to have missed my third RBRR (as being now in my mid seventies not many more chances with my mobility problems) but at least have the road book.  And because the Monmouth control was about 25 minutes from where we live Woodie did decide to behave a bit and we at least got to that control in the middle of the night - and the very very nice men marshaling did give us a signature!!!!

I bet Woodie had a right laff looking at all those other cars that had driven to JOG and back down but had only had to drive 15 miles for his one !!!!!!!

Now to hope that I can come off the reserve list and get that third RBRR in 2020.

MUT

[McJim]

Mike Charlton told me that Blyth had expanded yet I can't find any information on it.

Even the company's own website makes no mention of it.

Anyone local who can confirm that Blyth is now also on the west side of the A1(M).

Jim.

[Tim Bancroft]

Jim,

I think that they have built another small car park. I am not sure if they have built another services on the northbound side, seems unlikely...still considering the prices of everything that is sold at MSAs throughout the UK, they probably have plenty of spare cash to do such a thing. 

When we used Knebworth for the start of the 2016 RBRR, this meant that all the cars were more or less in convoy up to Blyth. The car parks could not cope with an influx of 125no Triumph cars, this meant that we all queued to find a space and then get our books signed. Therefore for 2018 we decided that the only answer other than find a new venue for the first Control was to move up to the next MSA or so up the A1. Wetherby looked very good, so was chosen. In 2018 owing to the poor weather, it seemed that Joe Public did not want to drive to where ever they were heading to, but stop at Wetherby...it was extremely busy, making it possibly the worse Control we have ever used for the RBRR.

Therefore, we are ideally looking for a new venue.......????? If not able to find one, Wetherby will be used.

Probably the biggest problem caused by the interest in the RBRR is finding locations for Controls.....a nice problem eh!

[McJim]

You're kind of stuck no matter what you do.

125 cars are still going to be fairly well bunched up until they start to pull over to refuel on the A1(M).  Even then, they'll be pretty close together until you hit the A68.

You don't have many options, Grantham before Blyth and the entry will arrive en masse within the space of 15 minutes. 

Blyth will have the same problem but at least there will be spectators and a great atmosphere.

Wetherby will, hopefully, be dry next year (does it rain often in Yorkshire?) and will be a better location as a result.

Your only other options are Ferrybridge, which is slightly off route with a less than straightforward route back onto the A1(M).  We ended up heading east along the M62 in 2010 and we had planned Ferrybridge as a fuel stop.

The other option is Scotch Corner about 200 miles into the route where the entry will have started to spread out a little but now you're encroaching on Carter Bar.

There are no other obvious locations that can cater for 125 cars at short notice.  None of the garages or smaller rest stops such as Leeming Bar have enough space.  Although I did notice last time that the petrol station at Barnsdale Bar had an adjacent and easily accessable adult store next to it and it was still open as we filled up.

Wetherby might be the option that you have to take.  It has plenty of space but a tank trap as you enter the car park.  How many exhaust systems were sacrificed that night?

Personally, I would go for Blyth.  I could easily forgive the lack of space as a pay off for the atmosphere and the popularity of it for spectators.  No other stop comes close to the number of onlookers along the entire route.

Jim.

[thescrapman]

Could you have 2 first controls, one at Blyth for odd numbered cars and 1 at Wetherby for even numbered ones?

[McJim]

That would be a nightmare to organise.

Cars turning up at Wetherby when they were supposed to stop at Blyth.

Yes, that would happen.

How many people turn up at the start with a sat nav and no road atlas.

Totally unprepared and blindly following the cars in front into the wrong control.

When you're organising an event or rally, there is a cardinal rule. 

KEEP IT AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE.

Introduce unnecessary difficulties and brace yourself for the mayhem that will inevitably follow.

I speak from long experience organising events.

Jim.

[tr4tom]

Jaynes cafe at Blyth??? half a mile from the A1/services...

 

Decent car park, decent brew and im sure they would accomodate us!!

 

Tom

[PeteStupps]

Quoted from tr4tom-

Jaynes cafe at Blyth??? half a mile from the A1/services...

Just googled it https://goo.gl/maps/Qqn4ue1CAMeBibum9 , it has got a massive car park. Whenever google earth took the picture it was a lot emptier than Blyth services, which is only a stone's throw away. 

[Steve28]

I'm not sure that Jaynes cafe  is big enough and i believe there is overnight parking for lorries  there too Blyth is bigger and i think  could be organised better if you could get permission to use the top end of the lorry park for the cars that go there to see the RBRR to park in.

 

steve

[Tim Bancroft]

As Jim states, we always try to keep it simple.

I am sending Dave Langrick up on a scouting mission in the New Year, I am sure we will sort. Its not like Wetherby was a disaster, but as Jim states, Blyth was great for atmosphere. Maybe we allocate more time to the first Control....

Lost a few regular Marshals for this RBRR, so help is needed by CT members.

[Tim Bancroft]

Jayne's cafe is not suitable, cars will have to cross the oncoming traffic and the road to go back to the A1(M). We looked at it a few years ago, we decided not to pursue.