At Last -Radicals banned.....

[Melv]

For years I have been banging on about the problems with the discrepancy in speed of Radicals v. other cars on trackdays, proposing separate sessions, if not separate track days for this type of car. Well, RMA have taken it a step further.....down to the few spoiling the day for many, but a step in the right direction....


"Day Member Radical Sports Car Owners Banned from RMA Track Days
After some pretty inconsiderate driving at earlier events this year we reluctantly accepted a few Radical sports cars for our recent Spa event on the very firm understanding that they had to behave themselves and stay well out of the way of our regular customers. Whilst the majority did so there were small number of thoughtless drivers who showed no respect whatsoever for our required standards and consequently we have reluctantly taken the decision to ban most Radicals from future RMA events. The only exception being RMA Gold level members or higher who are true track day enthusiasts rather than racers using our events for cheap testing."

 

[carreraboy]

About time .... but I fear the £££ will be hard to turn down with others, I recall a day at brands GP were there was huge thread here, ot just Radicals but any single seater, Atom, KTM etc should not mix with cars .... thus Bike track days, car track days and single seater tossertesteroe days ....

 

[Melv]

And further comms from Graham Clarke at RMA:


"Re: Radicals - for anyone interested, if not please delete.

It appears my decision to ban non RMA Members in Radicals has caused a number of people to post a variety of opinions on the Pistonheads site. One or two of the comments were in agreement with the decision, some weren't, several were quite amusing and some clearly from those who had little concept as to what they were talking about.

Whilst I would welcome any help differentiating between my left and right at drivers briefings and would fervently agree with Melindi that Fiat Multiplas should be banned - Radicals do represent a unique problem, at least they do to me and a lot of RMA regulars! Personally I think they are fantastic cars and never refuse the opportunity to drive one myself, the problem is they are just too good, they go round corners far quicker than conventional cars, consequently their closing speed is often extremely high, they can also be more difficult to see in the rear view mirror as they sit below the 'normal' line of sight.

I totally agree that in an ideal world we would ban the offending driver but the problem there is one of identification, a lot of the cars look vaguely similar, especially to someone who has been frightened silly by a 150 mph overtaking manoeuvre that they considered dangerous. We used to take our own marshals to Spa but that's no longer possible and the local guys don't speak English, there are no conventional marshals at Silverstone and not always at Donington, so external feedback is almost impossible and it's equally difficult to identify offenders from the CCTV. I readily admit to being 'poacher turned game keeper' and know every excuse in the book, probably having invented some myself! Individual confrontation doesn't usually work, as any regular racer knows you never admit to any wrong doing and have always behaved impeccably!

All those factors make it pretty difficult to be sure you are banning the right individual although I'm sure some people will disagree with me. So, to get it right, we have not banned Radicals completely and will be happy to accept any genuine track day driver who is prepared to respect our rules and make a nominal commitment to RMA by becoming a member and we know who's driving what. Our lowest membership being Gold costs just £100 plus VAT for twelve months and the member receives a £30 discount off each RMA day, that's just four events, or two visits to Spa to get your money back and will hopefully prevent the racer using and abusing our events for cheap testing.

Anyone with anything constructive to add is welcome to write to me at gc@rmatrackdays.com or call me on 07836 348565."

 

[davidcross]

Can u just clarify that for an open pit lane track days organised by MSV for example ,radicals or the like will still be able to participate?

 

[Melv]

Yep!! This is RMA only........

 

[Paz]

I hope this sets a precedent for the TDO's too.

Last year at Silverstone GP Arena on another organisers day I got overtaken by a Radical going into Brooklands just as I was turning-in, luckily I stayed on track by keeping my line, the Radical was on Luffield before I had time to react!

Not all Radical drivers are the same but there are only a few of them that are more considerate.

 

[davidcross]

So what happens if u get reckless people driving JP1's, u ban them as well?? It's not the car its the individuals. Anyone can be dangerous in ANY car

 

[Neil Haughey]

That is true and the closest I have got to an incident on a track day was with a 996 GT3 RS funnily enough given that we are on a Porsche forum.

Having said that much of the logic they are giving is the same logic used to put open wheelers in one session and tin tops in the alternate sessions on test days.

 

[h_____]

Gets worse than that, Single seater test session, I've seen split between Formula Fords and Slicks and Wings. As the 2 dont always mix very well. So thats then a 15min test session, or 13mins if you include swap over time, take away out and in lap, and you've got 9mins at somewhere like Oulton which is about 4laps. Testing gets expensive.

Radicals, JP1s, Junos, Gunn, Caterhams new car - where do you stop? Think it has to be done on a case by case basis. I get RMAs point, One of the other TDOs has just banned Caterham Race cars due trouble they caused at Cadwell recently.

It will blow over! I did a day at Silverstone last year, the car that caused me most trouble was a 964RS!!!! (Nobody on here!).

Ban the people not the car, if you cant make that work then fine you have to ban the car - for the sake of the rest of your customer base.

 

[seawise]

can't see an issue with RMA's stance - they haven't banned the car entitrely, just 'non-members' attending with them. there is nothing to stop a Radical owner paying £100 to become a member of RMA, which is still a lot more cost effective than going to a test day. u can see Graeme is just trying to weed out those amateur racing drivers in cars that are massively quicker than stock machinery and thus could cause a pretty horrendous accident on a non-competitive private trackday.

 

[chfs911]

I thought poor driving was what they have the black flag for?

 

[davidcross]

I hire and drive radicals and JP1"s for corporate days. How would I get round that??

 

[Melv]

See above. It has kind of been spelt out!!

 

[davidcross]

i almost nodded off reading it its so dull!!!!!

 

[h_____]

I dont think test days are actually much more expensive than testing, esp. RMA, more likely that the calendar fits in I think. With the rise in trackday days and corporate events there seems to be less test days now.

The issue with relying on the black flag is described above. ...... they cant always use their own marshalls and they cant accurately identify the cars. I think this sort of thing will come and go. Its not the first time its been done. I noticed Sports 2000 testing in with Open Wheeled cars at Snett, again to do with pace than anything else.

 

[davidcross]

Not to mention the FAFFING about getting corporate custy to fill out a load of dull forms just to do a track day paid for by his broker and pay an extra £100 or the trouble only to go round like any other loony with little experience.
Total waste of time. As you other guys say, its what the marshals are there for end of