A little bit of Club History...

[sdrcc]

I was thinking about the track, and want to give it a little more character, basically because it means a lot to everyone who races at it!

Almost every circuit has a track name, and just as importantly, names for the corners and features. (Let's ignore the American's need to number all their "turns")

If you've ever raced at Stonehaven, or can think of a name, please submit it to this post.

So, lets get back to the numbering system used by the Yanks.

If we look at layout 1, the normal rotation is clockwise. So if I number the corners 1, 2, 3 etc, use these numbers to re-name these parts of the circuits. I've included a pic to remind you of the full layout....



Corner 1 - the banked corner - ?
Corner 2 - the cut through - ?
Corner 3 - hairpin at the end of the straight - ?
Corner 4 - the 90 deg left hander or the 180 deg left hander on layout 4 - ?
Corner 5 - the big loop - this could be split in two, or left as one - name or names please - ??
Corner 6 - the sharp right-left than brings you back on to the original circuit - ?
Corner 7 - the right-hand hairpin right in front of the old pits area - ?
Corner 8 - the sweeping 90 deg left that climbs back up the hill - ?
Corner 9 - the double corner, the fast 45 deg right, then the sharp 130 deg right - again, do we split these - ?
Corner 10 - the chicane - could split, could keep as one - ?
Corner 11 - final corner 180 deg that leads to start-finish line.

Now I don't want to call the corners "the big loop", "the cut-through" etc, as there's little excitement. Lets really get some thinking going here. Suggest your favourite car, your favourite racing driver, new or old, or someone worthy who's worked or been with the club and deserve to be remembered.

It's not permanent, and maybe someday, if we get a huge wad of sponsorship, we'll have to rename them - Sparrows, for instance, for the hairpin at the end of the straight. That's the sort of thing I'm thinking about.

Plus the straight needs a name, like the Hanger straight at Silverstone. I'd like to suggest we call it the Viaduct Straight or the Glenury Straight, as the viaduct is called the Glenury Viaduct. If any locals know why or where the name comes from...

As for the layouts, we have 4 layouts and would also like to have names for these. I'd quite like to have proper names, important people in the history of the club, famous Stonehaven people, popular Stonehaven & District celebs (but please try and keep the references related to motor vehicles or motor travel, etc, or very famous drivers, etc.)

Now the names will all be collated and we'll go through the options at the AGM. I prepare a post when I get a few suggestions together, so you can read through them and get used to them, prior to voting at the AGM.

Have fun, and I'll see you all in October.

[Bt]

I took the liberty of editing the pic Dom and adding some numbers so everyone knows exactlly what corner were on about. Also here's a couple of suggestions of the top of my head, good idea naming the track :)



1. Clark Curve
-The Brabham Straight-
2. Sparrows/The Follow Through
3. Melbourne Loop
4. Coppice
5. McCrae's/Dingle Dell
6. Bustop Chicane, i'd consider corner 7 part of this sequence.
7. The Old Hairpin
8. Ascari/Ascari Curve
9. 130R
10. Tamburello/The Esses
11. Taylors Hairpin

[Dan]

All sounds good boys.......will keep thinking of suggestions! 8)

[Gary Dunn]

I think the original circuit should be named after whoever did most to create the track in the first place. I don't know too much about it, but I believe there was a guy in 'Aberdeen'? council who was a major influence.

Maybe other layouts or corners on any Committee Chairmen/etc who served the club well?

Naming bits after motor-racing people seems a bit tenuous to me...?

[Dom]

I like "Parabolica" for corner 1 - I think that was the original idea when the track was built, to mimic the famous corner of Imola, sadly no longer with us...

And I like Bryan's suggestion for turn 9, but we should call it "130L" rather than Suzuka's 130R. They use R to signify radius, but we can use it to mean left! :D

Does anyone know who holds the ultimate, by any means (RC), track record? It's probably with a 1:8th IC, but they should get a mention. Maybe Layout 1 could be named after them?

Does anyone know who the founder members were? Sadly the current documentation doesn't record such facts. It's always been known, never written down, and I don't have the facts. Can we suggest anyone from that era?

I agree with Gary D, about using too many irrelevant references to past drivers, but I think we should have one or two references to really great scottish drivers.

I like the idea of a Clark curve, and maybe a Stewart hairpin.

[Bt]

I thought about the 130L but it didnt have the same ring to it and the angle wouldnt be that far away actually, if you take it from the point in my pic where the number 9 is to where you would come out of the corner, if you went of horizontally to the right as per the pic.

I also thought of a few other suggestions since the first lot and one of them was stewarts, cant really not give him a mention ;) maybe corner 8 would be suited to clark curve if number one is going to be the parabolica.

I dont know who holds the ultimate record round stonehaven but i'm sure keith adamson wouldnt be too far away, I remember back in the day of wide scale(converted buggy's) his car was rather quick shall we say ;) same go's with graeme's wide scale, he was definately the king of stonehaven back then. Dont know much before then except bruce edwards had many successes in the ic class years ago.

[Paul_L]

How marshals corner for turn 3, as everyone seems to shout marshal when theve screwed up the braking

Paul

[bruce]

Dont think the wide touring cars would be that close to the record and they only ran 4 minutes!

Stuart Mess and Ian Cowieson were some of the founding members. I'm sure Ian could fill us in on the story. Also Stuart, Ian or Alan Gordon might have the 1/8 IC record. I'm sure an IC car must have done more than 17 laps in five minutes at some point.

Is parabolica not the last corner at monza (and mexico i think)?

[Bt]

damn i think your right bruce

goes back and edits post so not to look like a total fool :P

Correct me if i'm wrong but i'm sure Graeme used to run 13laps round stonehaven in 4mins, if not 13 it was definately 12.

[Yokman]

Can't remember what lap scores Graeme got with his wide electric car when we raced 4 mins but he used to hold the 5 minute records for all 3 tracks with his scale SST. The original track was 17 in 322.? the cut off track was also a 17 and the full GP track was a 16 lapper. In 1999 at the Scottish GP Jamie Booth (HPI) lowered the record for the original track to 17 in 317 and the following year also with an HPI, Scott Winter did a 17 lapper in an even faster time (can't remember what it was).

The outright track record is held by Gary Culver with an 1/8th IC car and if I remember correctly was 21 laps. This was set in the late 80s or early 90s. For 1/10th IC (235 wide 2WD) Graeme holds the record from 1999 with 19 laps and for 1/10th IC scale I think Graeme set a fast 16 lapper last year when only about 8 people entered the nitro open and there was no grip. I think nowadays a scale IC would be capable of an 18 lapper if there were enough cars to put some grip down.

When the track was altered to put in the current variations, Mike Henderson had names for the 3 layouts. The original (grey tarmac) was called the "Classic Track". The longest layout incorporating the bumpy extra loop was called the "Grand Prix Track" (confusingly, it was only used once for the SGP in 1998 and since then the SGP has been held on the classic track). The cut off track unsurprisingly was called "The Cut Off Track".

Founder members of the club did include Stewart Mess, Ian Cowieson, possibly Alan Gordon & Bruce Edwards and another guy whose name escapes me. I know that at least 3 of the founder members donated a considerable four figure sum to get the track off the ground.

I think naming various parts of the track is a good idea and quite like Indianapolis or Daytona for the banking reflecting the fact that it is banked. You could then go down the Reedy Straight to the La Source hairpin. I then run out of ideas apart from the cut off which could be called The Scrapyard as that seems to be what most cars are fit for when they try to negotiate it at full speed.

Keith Adamson

[bruce]

The wides were just about as fast in lap times then as scales. Dont think we would get one to go that fast for 5 minutes though!

I'd forgotton how fast the 1/8th cars were. 21 laps!!

Kevin set FTD at this years GP with 17 5m 6s ish. I think slightly faster times than that have been done at other GPs.

[graemeC]

No one seems to have mentioned the most important man in the clubs history....Alan Wilson
The work he did in building the track and rostrum was outstanding...and he's back involved with touring cars.

You could name the s's Wilsons wiggle or the banking Cowieson curve.....

Oh and it was me having a chance meeting with Alan Wilson that lead to the formation of Aberdeen Radio Control Car Club.....bloody hell that was a long time ago....and we changed it to Stonehaven when we got the ground at Stony.
We raced on a car park near the site of the carnival at Aberdeen beach first....that was with Mardave 8th scale flat pan cars....no diffs....no suspension....great fun, we also raced at Woodhill House and the site of the Exibition centre before building the Stonhaven circuit.
A lot of the money raised for the track was made by selling fruit machine tickets...you had to peel back three windows to reveal the usual cherries etc to see if you had won a prize.....I sold thousands of the blody things.

Happy memories...

GraemeC

[GeorgeH]

No one seems to have mentioned the most important man in the clubs history....Alan Wilson
The work he did in building the track and rostrum was outstanding...and he's back involved with touring cars.

You could name the s's Wilsons wiggle or the banking Cowieson curve.....

Oh and it was me having a chance meeting with Alan Wilson that lead to the formation of Aberdeen Radio Control Car Club.....bloody hell that was a long time ago....and we changed it to Stonehaven when we got the ground at Stony.
We raced on a car park near the site of the carnival at Aberdeen beach first....that was with Mardave 8th scale flat pan cars....no diffs....no suspension....great fun, we also raced at Woodhill House and the site of the Exibition centre before building the Stonhaven circuit.
A lot of the money raised for the track was made by selling fruit machine tickets...you had to peel back three windows to reveal the usual cherries etc to see if you had won a prize.....I sold thousands of the blody things.

Happy memories...

GraemeC

It has been a great long time since I went racing at Stonehaven. Do any of the 1/8IC Guys still race at the circuit? My old PB is gathering dust in the attic. I miss belting round the banking then sliding off into the first marshalling post :D

And what about the Committee? who's running what now, and are the same guys still worrying about having their names on the 25year lease? :)