Hill Climb "feedback thread" (New Pics page 4)

[bstardchild]

Hi All

Looking for feedback from any participants, spectators or any other perspective but I'd like this topic to stay focused on just the "Hill Climb" element please

OK it's earlier than normal because normally I have other distractions for the first week or so (picture threads of the show I never see) and I also chat with the rest of the paddock team and we throw some stuff around. Paul gewy is on a well deserved holiday with Gillian (Mrs Gewy who was with Tash in the sign on hut) so we covered some bits straight after the show but probably not enough so I'm going to go with my thoughts and I'm sure Paul will add his thoughts in at some point soon.

I also use this thread as a reference before we start organising the activities next year because frankly I am rubbish at writing stuff down in any detail so right now I have a few key words scribbled on the the back of a sticker backing sheet......... Thank you Chris Guy - it was the backing paper from the right sticker for your car - I wonder if you noticed I'd swapped it!!!

It was much better than last year so we're happy we had some lessons learned but there were areas that we didn't do so well

So from my scribbles

First word - Communication Yeah it's underlined twice cos I really screwed up here

I put together an info pack for the Morning session participants - I won't post the contents here but it looks like I need to make that clearer and more concise - bullet points would have probably worked better and down to a single page

- Approaching venue Paddock Pass in window
- Have DL, Insurance and MOT to hand for checking
- If you have purchased hill time and day ticket have the day ticket to hand (or the money ready)
- Briefing is 8.45 - paddock open from 7.15 traffic gets worse the closer to 8.00 and a lot worse after

I also fugged up with the security/orange shirted team members in not telling them that Paddock pass = "Gold Ticket" get the car in the paddock in anyway possible which resulted in me walking the queues to find morning session participants and get them to carefully creep down the outside of a queue to get them into the venue in time - yes we did encounter on coming traffic and create a little jam up which was fun of my own making.

Second word - Lanes....

I had planned to run lanes but when we filled up the paddock we started to do it in lanes and then the lanes started creeping and weren't very tight and we filled up front to back so we ran rows rather than lanes, This was a mistake and once we made it we had to carry it on all day and this means lots of cars running and moving forward a bit at a time - I'll go back to lanes next time as it works way better and people quickly understand what's going on and don't start their cars till their lane runs.

Third Word - Afternoon

Yep afternoon people need instruction too - a few simple points on a page would have really helped and saved people going to briefing first and then getting the cars - with just two of us it wasn't ideal so we created a new lane up to the entry point and people in that lane thought they weren't going to get a go)

- Paddock open from whenever the lunchtime is announced on tannoy (the hill will be quiet is a good clue)
- Enter by the gate on the corner by the show field (61-90 front of paddock, 91-120 back of paddock)
- Be in paddock before the briefing time

Forth Word - Guests/Gates/WTF (yes I know three words but all related to the same thing)

Last year we made the best of a bad situation having guests at the bottom and sides of the paddock and we learned from that - this year we tried to keep all the guests at the top or camping side of the paddock and we'd worked out that if we dropped guests in at the first gate by the resturant and RWYB participants in at the bottom it would be much smoother.

We like to run the Guest cars at the head of the groups - this means they are first up and first back down - This didn't happen - it got very weird in the morning and when the guest cars started getting mixed up into the RYWB groups it meant the one of us had to stay on the top gate till we had all the guest cars in at the top gate so resulted in delays when we could have got sessions turned round faster

The key to turning sessions round is to get all the returning cars off the hill so with 35 cars on the return road the last few are still straddling the hill if we can't get them in quickly the Hill control team won't restart the next group quite rightly (Safety).

Right so they were my "takeaways" from the hill - I'd really like to hear yours

I know not everyone who participated in the RWYB are on the forum so I will email the people who signed up for the morning session in advance.

[bstardchild]

Before I forget and it's not really 100% relevant for this thread but will illustrate a point of how learnings come from feedback however it comes.

The stickers have always been my little contribution to the track activities right back to the first event at Haynes when I got them done to make like easy for myself (and nearly forgot all about them) I love it when I see long term RR cars wearing all their previous years stickers with pride - I hate bring up the subject of stickers cos it opens up a big can of worms that really should stay shut - so that subject please leave it dead.....

Anyway getting back to the point - Second year at Shelsley and I was going to send the stickers out with the info pack and get people to fix them to the windscreen as a "pass" so I had the stickers made in reverse print - same colour coding as before

Red Morning
Blue Afternoon
Green Guest

But had the colours as a background so that I could explain to the team that look after the traffic approaching the event that white numbers on coloured back ground was a pass and not cause confusion with previous years coloured numbers on white background that are stickers froim previous years.

Keefy advised me (quite rightly in hindsight) that it might not be the cleverest idea I'd ever had so I went with the simple "paddock pass" to get people entry (yeah that went well too covered already)

So there I was thinking it was just something that made my life a little easier and Shelsley didn't need them......

Till I went up to the Control room in the lunch break to try and see if I could find out why the guest cars weren't coming back in front and as a result we were losing time on changeover. Shelsley control use the stickers to log the cars going up the hill and note the numbers down so they know that no one as gone awol on the way up - except this year they couldn't read them so had to revert to number plates.....

Stickers are changing for next year to make the numbers larger because if you I can't make life easy for the team that control the hill then I really shouldn't do stuff like this should I?

They'd also really like us to put them on the screen top on passenger side and not on side windows as the window for catching the number is very small unless you are driving a forward control 101 in which case they'd like it on the passenger side front bumper

[alexcrosse]

Hi, first of all. Well done for all the organisation. I'm sure you're just being super critical of yourself but from my point it seemed like a military operation and I struggle to see where you could improve. I drove from camp site to paddock (on the road) so cant give feedback from the main(?) queue. I was in the grey R32 GTR in the morning sessions (if anyone has pics let me know).


Anyway feedback:
Stickers could work, but I don't really like sticking stuff to the window, why not just use the 'docs checked' white pen to scribble a big number on?

Shame about the owners of certain group B rally cars who were afraid to drive them in the rain, or even let people view them. Dad would have not been phased my weather in his 300bhp gp4 competition escort that was offered...

Shelsley staff & marshals absolutely were amazing

Really nice was knowing how many runs you're going to get. Zero stress.

Shelsley is a beautiful venue, first spectacled there about 10 years ago. I've wanted to drive it for years and it lived up to expectations. If you're there next year I'll bring another 150bhp with me

[bitsarrini]

Firstly thanks to yourself and all the other marshals/helpers. A great day (with the exception of the storm...... )

Suggestion: rather than issuing stickers / numbers why not issue passes (printed forms) for use 1 per run. (if you have 3 runs you get 3 forms). The passes would be filled in in advance by those owners running - ie name / car make/model colour and special features (there could be a section for a 'disclaimer' in event of something going wrong) plus reg no. (Obviously there could be a section for 'details about car/owner.)
Idea being that the cars line up in the three rows marshals' could scrutineer the cars and collect the tickets in order (very important) so that the commentator would could be passed these (in the cars running order). This would make for better commentary simply because you could look out the window at (say) a red Alfa and 'read' from the form submitted.

Obviously it might be necessary to start the cars one row after another - to save confusion. And simply counting the number of cars issued in each batch would ensure that those at the top end know how many cars to expect.

Only criticism of the event was that it took ages to queue to get in resulting in more than a few overheated cars/tempers. Is it possible to have more entrances? And have someone on the gate with a plan of where the various club stands are located.

[HoTWire]

Aug 26, 2015 7:55:59 GMT alexcrosse said:

If you're there next year I'll bring another 150bhp with me

... and your dad

[MrSpeedy]

You've already covered the points I was going to suggest.

Dedicated 'side entrance/queue jumping' for paddock pass holders. (I made myself look a cock when I passed a line of cars assuming this was in operation, only to have to reverse back again)

The rolling forwards slowly 'en masse' waiting to run did cause temperature issues for the first run (admittedly more of a car issue than anything. Hence why I was pushing it up the grid until the last minute)

Other than that, I thought it was extremely well organised and managed, so I doff my metaphorical hat to the whole team

[EmDee]

I had a great day. My feedback is as follows:

FLAWLESS VICTORY!


Big thanks to everyone involved, particularly yourself.

[hmsmotorsport]

Well run from my point of view. It would be nice to have managed four runs, I know some people in the afternoon managed five but then that was probably dependant on the weather and lack of afternoon entrants.

One piece of feedback from my group though...

Because of the 'invite only' morning session most of our lot thought that the afternoon would be rammed and therefore decided not to bother bringing their documents and enough cash. They were a little disappointed that the afternoon session remained quite quiet. Truth be told I'd imagine the weather had a lot to do with that but it's something worth considering.

[rob0r]

As a spectator this year it seemed like a job well done to me. Things looked very slick with getting the cars back down and the next set up. Nice work guys! I hope to get back up the hill next year

[mylittletony]

I took 2 photos and 2 videos this year, here's my second photo:



I took my first passenger ride of 3 gatherings with EmDee and was thoroughly impressed at the slick-nessity of it all (not his driving)

I have to say dealing with so many people with crowd meandering around while keeping a smile on your face is impressive

Sure, you can always make improvements, but I thought it was an excellent set up.

[HoTWire]

Only negative from me was that I didn't get to go up... that isn't your fault though, that is my cars ! .. and the 2 hours sleep I had making it a touch unsafe for all involved haha. Next year though, next year!

[bstardchild]

I will reply to all the points raised so far but this one got my attention

Aug 26, 2015 9:55:19 GMT hmsmotorsport said:

Well run from my point of view. It would be nice to have managed four runs, I know some people in the afternoon managed five but then that was probably dependant on the weather and lack of afternoon entrants.

A little red MX-5 in the afternoon told me on his last run it was his 7th go and he only ran in the afternoon

Aug 26, 2015 9:55:19 GMT hmsmotorsport said:

One piece of feedback from my group though...

Because of the 'invite only' morning session most of our lot thought that the afternoon would be rammed and therefore decided not to bother bringing their documents and enough cash. They were a little disappointed that the afternoon session remained quite quiet. Truth be told I'd imagine the weather had a lot to do with that but it's something worth considering.

OK great point well made and constructive

What about pre-booking both morning and afternoon would they have applied??

We've been asked before for single run sessions and we've never been slick enough to do that but after this year I really think we could do that - in fact I think we could do it in conjunction with a group of 30 in the paddock

I really don't mind constructive or critical feedback - I was in a little bubble in the paddock - like a goldfish in a bowl - my viewpoint is very focused and yes I am a bit self critical I'm not beating myself up about it I just want to share my thoughts and also get all of yours - Next year could be year 3 at Shelsley - would really like to put a chair in the paddock and just watch it all run without any effort and maybe pick my camera up and get 120 pictures of big grins inside safety helmets - all day my camera was 20 feet from me but I never found time to pick it up......

[bstardchild]

Aug 26, 2015 9:19:16 GMT MrSpeedy said:

Dedicated 'side entrance/queue jumping' for paddock pass holders. (I made myself look a cock when I passed a line of cars assuming this was in operation, only to have to reverse back again)

Yes - we need something cleverer but please people - I know many of you were travelling some distance - I opened up 45 mins before normal gate open and at 8.15 we were still 20 cars short of 60 hence why I went wandering down the roads instead of doing what was really needed

Aug 26, 2015 9:19:16 GMT MrSpeedy said:

The rolling forwards slowly 'en masse' waiting to run did cause temperature issues for the first run (admittedly more of a car issue than anything. Hence why I was pushing it up the grid until the last minute)

Lanes will be in use next year cones and tape will stop it all going pear shaped in the paddock

There was just enough space for 3 lanes of 10 cars in the top half of the paddock provided people tucked up neat behind each other

[bnptrs]

No criticisms from me at all;

I camped so fortunately was about the 4th car in the paddock. First time up the hill at retro rides and thanks to the clear instructions and Ian I didn't have any doubts as to what I was doing and had a right laugh. Everyone in the paddock was friendly and courteous of each other (well it seemed) too which was nice.

Oh, and the Marshall's at top and bottom were nice and friendly too which is always a bonus! Probably helps that everyone respected them which doesn't happen at some events I've been too.

Here's to hoping I can run it again next year with more work done to the car!

[MrSpeedy]

Aug 26, 2015 11:53:57 GMT bstardchild said:

Aug 26, 2015 9:19:16 GMT MrSpeedy said:

Dedicated 'side entrance/queue jumping' for paddock pass holders. (I made myself look a cock when I passed a line of cars assuming this was in operation, only to have to reverse back again)

Yes - we need something cleverer but please people - I know many of you were travelling some distance - I opened up 45 mins before normal gate open and at 8.15 we were still 20 cars short of 60 hence why I went wandering down the roads instead of doing what was really needed

To be fair, I could've had my car in the paddock earlier as I'd decided to walk over to signing on at about 07.50 instead of driving over, as for some reason I was concerned I'd be getting in the way of the guest cars unloading/other things happening so far in advance, and of waking everyone else up in camp. In retrospect, that was a mistake! However, my brain doesn't function, at all, until I've had at least two cups of tea and an hour of being awake!

[bstardchild]

Aug 26, 2015 12:11:22 GMT bnptrs said:

Everyone in the paddock was friendly and courteous of each other (well it seemed) too which was nice.

This is really important to me - the paddock should be like the forum board rules - being considerate to each other. Exceptions to this can't be met with cats in the paddock

I was really really impressed with people this in past years w've had people kicking off because they think they've been missed out - swapping lanes like idiots on a motorway traffic jam - I don't want any of that stuff - you'll all get a go or three be nice be relaxed and it'll be way more fun.

Actually thanks Morning and afternoon people - yes I had a big smile on my face all day - that was one of the major reasons

Aug 26, 2015 12:11:22 GMT bnptrs said:

Oh, and the Marshall's at top and bottom were nice and friendly too which is always a bonus! Probably helps that everyone respected them which doesn't happen at some events I've been too.

They were super friendly last year too - the Marshall's do what they do for free - people should never forget that they are giving up their free time so that others can play and have fun - I'm sure they do it because they enjoy it too but having people say thanks goes a huge way to making them feel appreciated

[bstardchild]

As a result of a PM conversation and Alex has no issue with me sticking it here so I don't forget it for next year

Aug 26, 2015 12:03:35 GMT alexcrosse said:

If anything, it might be worth making it obvious who to contact (specific emails for, rwyb, guest car application, camping info) so if people want information but privately it's easy

[bnptrs]

It may be worth as you previously mentioned Ian - having the paddock open to the morning cars on Saturday night.

I was up and ready to come to the paddock as soon as it opened on Sunday morning, but waited to see if anyone else was going to start their car. Hungover people and a car with a 2.5" straight pipe may not have mixed (although it was alright in the end!)

[bstardchild]

Aug 26, 2015 12:42:45 GMT bnptrs said:

It may be worth as you previously mentioned Ian - having the paddock open to the morning cars on Saturday night.

Absolutely I wanted to do that - it just got lost in the other activities that needed to be done

Aug 26, 2015 12:42:45 GMT bnptrs said:

I was up and ready to come to the paddock as soon as it opened on Sunday morning, but waited to see if anyone else was going to start their car. Hungover people and a car with a 2.5" straight pipe may not have mixed (although it was alright in the end!)

Best alarm clock ever was Blown_Imp blown imp firing up for the first sprint run at Haynes in 2009 - a totally unsilenced (open megas) supercharged imp that we needed to run first because the noise meter was gonna come out fairly quickly after that one. Trackside when from a few to hundreds - just like magic

See what I mean - memories - I gets lots of those with this event

[jpex]

I can only add massive amounts of praise, thoroughly enjoyed it last year and this year.

I was in the afternoon session and did 6 runs, bowed out on an awesome last run as to not overcook it.

organisation from my point of view was absolutely spot on, couldn't have asked for more really.


Even the lovely ladies in the hut allowed me to pay £20 and come back with another £10 as I didn't even on plan on running the daily up the hill and didn't have enough cash on me!


RRG has still got to be by favourite weekend of the year hands down, only further compounded by the opportunity to see the cars being used for what they should be used for.




I will just add I don't think it worked badly from my point of view re pre booking the morning session.
The under subscription for the afternoon session presumably caused by the rain, if the afternoon session would have been prebooked with people hoping for a nice dry track only to decide on the day that they don't want to risk bending their car, it could end up being a quiet afternoon for the show and we wouldn't want that!!