2013 Victorian 6 Hour Relay

[Magpie]

The dates for the 2013 Victorian 6 Hour Relay are proposed for the 3rd and 4th of August. Is there any interest in putting a group together from Queensland to attend? Information is available from http://www.6hourrelay.com.au/index.html.

[adidistyle]

This falls right into the category of "things I'd like to do". So I would be interested.
Looking at the results I see all teams were 4-6 drivers.Traffic looks heavy at times.
And by the photos its looks really, really, really cold.

[Guran]

Yes that's all correct. You need at least 4 drivers / 3 cars per team. 50 cars on track at all times. It's cold, windy and it also rains a lot. There were two teams from Queensland this year - both from the Z Car Club. Would be great to see a team from MX-5 Club of Queensland next year!

[Magpie]

To keep some interest in this I have obtained a quote to transport 5/6 MX5's from Brisbane to Phillip Is (rtn) from http://www.cevacarcarrying.com.au/services/race-and-prestige-transport/

"I received your request to obtain a quote for the MX5s to Phillip Island.

The cost for this move would be $1051.64 per vehicle each way.

The vehicles would be loaded into the Race and Prestige Transporter in the Brisbane depot and unloaded at the Phillip Island race track."

It is on the expensive side but when you see what they will be transported in and the fact that you will not have to sit in a Sparco (for those that have them) for over 24hrs then it maybe a cheap alternative. It may even be possible to arrange for spare tyres/tools/etc to be sent on the truck.

Accommodation is avaialbe at Phillip Island for around $1,200 for a 4 bedroom house for 3/4 days.

[Kev05]

Accommodation is avaialbe at Phillip Island for around $1,200 for a 4 bedroom house for 3/4 days.

Should that be 3-4 days rather than 3 quarter day

[Magpie]

From Guran "Yep, you need all the details of each driver and their CAMS licence number, etc for each entry form AND full payment about three months before the event. Then you need to separately send an entry form for each driver on the day the entries open. Takes a lot of preplanning! Not a spontaneous thing."

Ok for all the Queenslanders thinking of this then please do so! Approx cost looks to be about $2,400 for a team for 6 people about 400a person (to be confirmed).

Again (thanks Guran) entries fill very quickly so there there is not much opportunity to think when they open.

[MattR]

If it is going to happen, get the money up front. The Qld Z club had a lot of gunna's and started with 24 serious EOI's and got down to 12 with a couple of ring ins when the time came. Also be aware that for the Z to go down there it was their second attempt to get a team up into the event, so it needs someone serious with a lot of time to spend organising it for this event to happen.

[Magpie]

Well I'm offering to organise, however probably not be the team manager as they recomend that the team manager be a non driver. However I still need to hear back from the MX5 Car Club Queensland on if they will give the nod to an offical team. I have had a heap of advise from Guran and understand that this will not be a simple job, the more info that people have the better decision they can make.

Guran has sent me a copy of the 2012 regs and if people are interested I can pass them on.

From 2012 Regs:
Entries will ONLY be accepted if on the official event entry form with fully paid entry fee. For 2012 Form A nominates the team and drivers, however every driver must also fill out a Form B. ONLY ENTRIES WITH PARTS A & B FULLY COMPLETED WILL BE CONSIDERED AS CONFIRMED ENTRIES.

For those who are thinking about this apart from the money side you will need:
Club Membership - Each driver must be a current member of a CAMS affiliated club and present proof of this fact at documentation.
Competition Licences - Each driver must hold a current CAMS level 2SJ licence or superior.
Prerequisite for L2SJ & L2S Licence Holders - All L2SJ licence holders MUST have competed at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in some form of competition, within the past 12 months or they will be required to participate in an observed practice session during practice for this event. Drivers holding a L2S and above licence who haven’t competed at the Phillip Island Circuit before must attend a compulsory special drivers briefing following the general briefing.
Tow Points - All vehicles must be fitted with an identified front and rear tow point of suitable strength to enable vehicle recovery
Scrutiny - Each vehicle must be presented to scrutiny in a ready to compete condition prior to entering the race track, both on practice and competition days. Each competitor and driver must present himself with ALL their documentation, to the Secretary of the Meeting prior to taking the vehicle to scrutiny.

[Guran]

A bit more advice ...

In addition to at least four drivers per team, each team will require a team manager and a helper to operate the pit board. Neither of them can be drivers. The drivers will need to help out with timing and pit board between their runs, as the team manager and helper will find it difficult to keep it all going for six hours straight.

Also we were told that for the 2013 event, a Form B for each driver must be posted in separate envelopes. Only upon receipt of Form A and Forms B for all drivers in the team are received, will the entry be accepted for consideration. Not sure why they want to do it this way, but that's what they said will happen next year.

[Tony]

Also we were told that for the 2013 event, a Form B for each driver must be posted in separate envelopes. Only upon receipt of Form A and Forms B for all drivers in the team are received, will the entry be accepted for consideration. Not sure why they want to do it this way, but that's what they said will happen next year.

I must not have been listening, but my recollection is somewhat different. I was under the impression that each envelope must contain an entry for one team only; presumably containing both Form A and Form B. Multiple team entries in the one envelope will not be accepted.

Either way, the point that Bryan made previously is worth reiterating. In order to avoid disapointment, read the Sup Regs carefully; and then re-read them again! You do need to have everyone ready to download and fill out their entry forms, collate them and then get them posted to the organisers by express post the same day that the form is released on the 6 Hour web site.

It was my first Phillip Island 6 hour this year and there were a few take home messages that may be of interest to other potential first timers:

1. Limit your team to four cars. It may be different for the Victorians who get an opportunity to drive PI a number of times throughout the year; but if you are travelling from NSW or Qld you will want to maximise your time on the track to make the trip worthwhile.

2. Penalty laps will loose you the event; bonus laps will win you the event. In the lap scoring calculation, penalty laps are on the divisor side of the equation, so a single penalty lap will halve your score. Info on the scoring system can be found here: http://www.6hourrelay.com.au/scoring%20the%206%20Hour%20Relay.pdf. In retrospect my nominated lap time was far too optimistic for the level traffic and variations in weather. While I didn't incur any penalty laps, I didn't score any bonus laps either.

3. PI is a very fast circuit. It's nice and wide, and while there are numerous overtaking opportunities you will need to be prepared for lots of traffic (both faster and slower) mixed in with the likelihood that the track will be sopping wet at some stage or another. Chances are it will be cold and windy too. You will have lots of fun, but it can be "hectic"; possibly not an ideal event for someone with very limited track experience.

4. There is loads of accommodation on Phillip Island; everything from motels, B&Bs', to holiday units and holiday homes. Some of the houses can accommodate up to 12 or more people. Decide on what suits your team's needs and have a search on the internet. Even though there seemed to be plenty of vacancies, I think it would be wise to book reasonably early. There's plenty of places to eat and drink too.

That's about it in a nut shell. I hope it helps...

[Guran]

I must not have been listening, but my recollection is somewhat different. I was under the impression that each envelope must contain an entry for one team only; presumably containing both Form A and Form B. Multiple team entries in the one envelope will not be accepted.

Whoops! Now that you put it that way, I think you're right Tony. I heard something about requiring separate envelopes and it makes more sense that they were talking about entries from multiple teams. Thanks for correcting my mistake.

Penalty laps will lose you the event; bonus laps will win you the event.

That's the perfect way to sum it up. Both are important if you want to finish at the pointy end.

Good luck Queenslanders! I hope we see you enter a team or two next year.

[Magpie]

OK it would appear that a team of 4 drivers (with cars), a manager and pit person, so 6 people per team is the magic number.

Again thanks for all the advice on getting a team together with luck you will see a MX5 team from QLD there in 2013.

[Guran]

The 6hr Regularity Relay was run and won this weekend. We had three teams from MX-5 Club of NSW travel to Phillip Island to compete. Provisional results are HERE.

Our teams finished 19th, 25th and 26th out of 50 entries. It was mostly dry on the practice day and rain predicted for Sunday, but we still nominated what we thought were quick times for a dry track (my 2:06 was 1.2s faster than my best lap on Saturday). Unfortunately, the track was considerably faster on the Sunday which caught out many teams, including ours. So we copped heaps of penalty laps - I contributed two for our team. If (wishful thinking) we had avoided any penalty laps, our three teams would have been 2nd, 3rd and 7th ... that's how important it is to avoid those penalties. One of our teams actually scored the second highest number of bonus laps, but their penalties dropped them down to 26th.

On the other hand, you can't be too conservative with the nominated times. The four teams that avoided any penalty laps finished 1st, 2nd, 12th and 15th - the latter two scored very few bonus laps.

[Magpie]

Thanks for the update! The QLD MX5 team did not eventuate so maybe in 2014!

[greenMachine]

Do it!

My first time there this year, and it was great. Better than great. Six hours of track time, divided between the team drivers, varied weather conditions, lots of overtaking , lots of being overtaken .

I was offered the chance to compete when a car was withdrawn as a result of mechanical dramas, and grabbed it with both hands. This had been on my radar as a low key 'must do that event one day' type of thing, but when offered an opportunity it was not a chance I was going to knock back. In fact, it looked like a bit of a fairy tale come true when we held a comfortable lead at quarter time, then all three of us (one had completed his stint) managed to break our nominated times, one car went out with a clutch problem, and with the penalties from breaking our nominated times putting us out of the running for a podium, we went out and partied. I had nominated a 2.07, which was faster than my practice times, but ended the day with a 2.02, which illustrates the value of seat time, but also highlights the difficulty of nominating a 'not to be broken' lap time for the Sunday. This was my third or fourth visit to the Island, so I was not starting from scratch in learning the circuit, so if you are new to the circuit, and serious about a good result, you can see the nature of the problem.

I would caution that your team comprise drivers who are used to handling traffic - there is a LOT of it, not all as respectful of lack of experience as you would hope. Some of those cars were bloody fast - ask the man (not me) who nearly had his mirror taken off by a Mustang on the back straight . As I said above, we are the meat in the sandwich, doing a lot of overtaking, but also being overtaken ourselves fairly frequently.

So, to summarise, just do it.