New sprint @ Odiham Sept 3rd

[kartaphilos]

Hi,

Been a quiet year for me with family duties (well quiet from a competition point of view), I hope the various championships are going well and everyone is having fun.

I have spent a little time helping to organise a new sprint in the South East at Odiham airfield in Hants (RG29 1QT) - fittingly called the 'Chinook Sprint' due to the squadron stationed there. It's the first time an MSA event has run here for many years (40?) and promises to be a good course being 1.9miles in length and using mostly perimeter roads. So it should be good run with very little use of cones to mark corners. Regs can be found on the FDMC wesbite - http://www.fdmc.org.uk/ChinookSprint2011.php

Here's a bit of blurb from the regs
--
Sutton & Cheam MC and Farnborough DMC in conjunction with Odiham Car Club are pleased to offer competitors the opportunity to compete at an exciting new venue – RAF Odiham in a new event staffed by the highly experienced team behind the Abingdon Motorsport CAR-nival, the Scorpion & Chieftain Sprints and the Sprint Royale. Many thanks are due to the enthusiastic staff at RAF Odiham who have made access to this venue possible and to the Commanding Officer: Group Captain S J Shell OBE MA RAF for giving us permission to use the airfield. Despite being sited on an airfield, the 1.9 mile course will not be boring, there are smooth sweeping corners and crests to keep you on your toes and ensure that the convoy run is worthwhile! And since we are using natural roads and Perimeter tracks there will hardly be a cone in sight. The entry fee has been minimised so as to promote entries and the event is being observed for inclusion into several 2012 championships. Two more good reasons to enter now! As well as providing an exciting day’s motor sport, the event is intended to raise money for the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA) and at least £10 of your entry fee is destined to support this very worthwhile charity.
--

Cheers,
Matt

[kartaphilos]

Here's the course map for those interested - http://homepage.ntlworld.com/s.taylor8817/FDMC/Odiham%20Course%20map.pdf

I was away both days there was a site visit to plan the course but as it's 1.9miles long I'm expecting those squiggly bits will be at least as big as esses at Shelsley (rather than chicanes).

[RobMargel]

think real url is http://homepage.ntlworld.com/s.taylo...urse%20map.pdf

tempted as local but not a member of any of those clubs, is the MAC affiliated with any of the orgs?

rob

[PP Racing]

an event 7 miles from home !

[steveoms]

Just a few miles for me shame the family can't come and watch

[kartaphilos]

Rob, thanks for the url fix. Not sure what associations MAC is affiliated with. If it isn't we may be able to invite more blubs/assoc's - I'll check into it. You a member of any other clubs?

Steve - They are allowed in the paddock area which will give a view of the finish. Given an operational air base roaming spectators are deemed a bit tricky for the first year. Not sure if that would change for next year with a couple of spectator areas.

Piers - close enough for you to bring your Dallara along, home in time to feed the kids :-)

Cheers,
Matt

[PP Racing]

looking at the track map need a taller gear !

[kartaphilos]

Here's some pics of various parts of the course taken from a track recce by one of the FDMC club members Odiham Track recce pics. I'm pretty sure most of the track will appear as is with cones only marking out a couple of the wider areas and maybe to stop corner cutting.

Matt

[kartaphilos]

The Odiham sprint was held today and went very well. The course turned out even better than what already looked good on the map and photo's. Very enjoyable, didn't feel like a typical airfield course to me. Good surface, very flowing corners with decent speeds through many of them, only a couple of areas that were a bit 'coney' or fiddly.

Congrats to Piers who got a BTDBTDBTD in his immaculate Dallara....well done!

Here's a couple of videos from the day from the drivers perspective to give you an idea of the course and it corners and speeds (at least for a roadgoing car).

First my best run which was a 1:40.5ish. A decent run but I reckon another second at least to come off. T2 @ Odiham

Here's my last run where that missing second was going to go. The plan was working great for the first two corners then it rapidly became basic error comedy run time. Comedy Run @ Odiham

We're hoping to make this a permanent fixture on the calendar and hope to get a date for next year sorted in a couple of months.

Cheers,
Matt