dsmith
09 November 2003, 20:28
Impressions from this year's event (I went from 91 to 96 and again 99)
Pre-booked stages. Given the lack of stages ours matched what we would have picked anyway - so it worked but only because of the limited number of stages.
Car Parking. Crychan - In and out quickly with no real problems. Then hit heavy traffic through Llandovery. Made it to Resolfen OK and again got into the stage reasonably quickly. Parking marshalls were quite slow letting people know that the queue wouldnt be moving and park where we were though - which wasted time. Some Tw*t douple parked though and everybody waited an hour to get out. :angry: Rhonda - waht a joke :angry: Get there over an hour early and find "the ar park is full" :???: Wtf ? Thought the point of pre-booked car parks was that that couldnt happen. Top marks to the Police who were doing their very best to let people know and get people parked up safely asap. Rally organisation noticable by its complete absence.
Marshalling/Spectator areas. As always marshalling very hit and miss. Some excellent - some who gave the distinct impression of only turning up to get a free ticket. In some areas there were 30+ marshalls around the spectator pens clustering together - all blowing their whistles (with everyone 30 yards from the track :rolleyes:) then 400 yards up the stage no marshalls and no whistles.
I have to say we didnt find a problem wandering up the stage away from the pens as we always used to. we certainly werent alone and still found some areas at least that seemed to be marshalled in the "classic" style. i.e. a few marshalls every few hundred yards. letting people know when they were standing in truly stupid places (why DO some people stand on the outside of fast bends!) and generally helping people enjoy a good safe day out - without being overly officious - a big thank you to those marshalls.
Timetable. We couldnt make friday but got all of saturday and sunday morning in. made it a 1.5 day event for us. Hopefully they'll use the change to september next year to give us a full day of rallying on the last day - though I will miss the damp cold of the welsh hills @ 7am on a foggy november morning :o
Finally Brecon Curry house. never again :o
Overall - I enjoyed it but it did seem to lack the "adventuring" spirit of following it in the early 90s. And for all the protestations of the orgainsers that its "better this way" - if they can still cock up car parking arrangements then something clearly isnt right is it ?
Deano
Pre-booked stages. Given the lack of stages ours matched what we would have picked anyway - so it worked but only because of the limited number of stages.
Car Parking. Crychan - In and out quickly with no real problems. Then hit heavy traffic through Llandovery. Made it to Resolfen OK and again got into the stage reasonably quickly. Parking marshalls were quite slow letting people know that the queue wouldnt be moving and park where we were though - which wasted time. Some Tw*t douple parked though and everybody waited an hour to get out. :angry: Rhonda - waht a joke :angry: Get there over an hour early and find "the ar park is full" :???: Wtf ? Thought the point of pre-booked car parks was that that couldnt happen. Top marks to the Police who were doing their very best to let people know and get people parked up safely asap. Rally organisation noticable by its complete absence.
Marshalling/Spectator areas. As always marshalling very hit and miss. Some excellent - some who gave the distinct impression of only turning up to get a free ticket. In some areas there were 30+ marshalls around the spectator pens clustering together - all blowing their whistles (with everyone 30 yards from the track :rolleyes:) then 400 yards up the stage no marshalls and no whistles.
I have to say we didnt find a problem wandering up the stage away from the pens as we always used to. we certainly werent alone and still found some areas at least that seemed to be marshalled in the "classic" style. i.e. a few marshalls every few hundred yards. letting people know when they were standing in truly stupid places (why DO some people stand on the outside of fast bends!) and generally helping people enjoy a good safe day out - without being overly officious - a big thank you to those marshalls.
Timetable. We couldnt make friday but got all of saturday and sunday morning in. made it a 1.5 day event for us. Hopefully they'll use the change to september next year to give us a full day of rallying on the last day - though I will miss the damp cold of the welsh hills @ 7am on a foggy november morning :o
Finally Brecon Curry house. never again :o
Overall - I enjoyed it but it did seem to lack the "adventuring" spirit of following it in the early 90s. And for all the protestations of the orgainsers that its "better this way" - if they can still cock up car parking arrangements then something clearly isnt right is it ?
Deano