Salcey Forest Regional Event

Salcey Forest is somewhat different from SMOC’s last major event in 2006, the Sprint Championships in a Milton Keynes park, but with careful planning it can produce some complex conventional areas and legs. I was pleased when asked if it could be used for the Midland Championships and hope that with Robert Dove’s new map it provided sufficient testing challenges. Congratulations to all class winners. The location is ideal for the three regions, with easy access to the M1, but the increasing popularity of the forest with the general public ruled out the north east part which had been used previously, prompting us to base the courses in the southern half of the map. We had been warned that there would be a little forestry work over the summer, but in the event the plans changed and we were faced with some major works which caused John to rework the yellow and orange courses in the final days preceding the event. Hopefully the forestry work didn’t cause too many problems for the rest of you.

One other unexpected problem was caused by the parking team who had reported for duty expecting their remaining members to arrive, but it turned out they did not, leaving the team short-handed and too busy to ask for assistance, for which my apologies for any inconvenience. Hopefully the problems were no more than that to most, although the lack of co-operation from a very small number of drivers did make things worse for others and I make no apology for their behaviour.

Everything seemed to run smoothly in respect of the competition itself, for which my thanks to the small band of SMOC club members, for several of whom this was their first taste of a regional event. A big thank you also to Peter for his controlling and help on the day.

Thank you all for coming, I hope you enjoyed your day.

Keith Downing