COVKARTSPORT . . .
The Established Low-Cost Steppingstone Into Motorsport Founded In 1996
2007 PRESIDENT’S REPORT
What a year it has been! Some great racing and, thankfully, no serious injuries to report. Mostly highs, a few lows, record race attendances, record website viewing figures, a record attendance at our Annual Awards Dinner and, as is now traditional, amazingly close competition right to the final race of the year – in fact the closest in the history of COVKARTSPORT !
As we pay £1 every time you sign-in for a race meeting of our main Championship I am also very pleased that, with driver-attendances rising from 402 (a record in 2006) to 417 this year, we are able to pay £417 to our three preferred charities. We started this last year without any increase in cost to you and we shall continue to provide this support to our charities, hopefully, for years to come!
It was also excellent to see Paul Miles recover so well, from very serious illness, that he was able to race with us again in the second half of the season and, by the same token, it was good to see Lesley Westlake running about in a very positive way!
In January we introduced permanent scrutineering for the first time and I would like to thank Steve Stretton and Gary McCarthy for carrying out these duties so well throughout the year especially with our new weight catagories.
We started the year with another highly successful 3-round Winter Series (all at Sutton Circuit) but a lot of the new drivers, who were Sutton “experts” and had done well, found that they were no where near as fast on the circuits we use in our main Championship. Most, but not all, of them dropped out by rounds 2 and 3! This was disappointing to me as I expect “racing drivers” to have more fight in them! However, we worked hard on recruitment and our numbers have maintained very well.
2007 saw our first ever “Welsh Open Championship” at the 3rd Round of the COVKARTSPORT Championship and it proved to be, probably, the best event we have ever organized. This was certainly helped by the dinner-break on-circuit demonstrations of Ryan Lindsay’s AHS Challenger F.Vee single-seater racing car and SteveStretton’s Circuit Legend racing saloon. We will do this event again in 2008 even though it lost us nearly £800 because we subsidised your racing, the extra trophies, the banners and the advertising which all cost a lot of money and 70 drivers turned up, which is good, but we could have taken 90. This was in no way helped by the likes of Paul Clark who, having booked his place and failed to turn up or notify us of his non-attendance, became the first driver in our history to be fined! The message is: come along and race – it is a superb day out in beautiful Welsh countryside (non-members are allowed) and encourage others to come too! You may be pleased to learn that Mark Burgess, the Editor of “Karting” Magazine (I have known him for a long time) has accepted our invitation to race in our 2008 Welsh Open!
I couldn’t fault our event and race-organisation at all this year! It has been exceptionally efficient. Including the Winter Series we ran 10 race events with between 12 and 27 races at each event! It all ran super efficiently with almost NO hitches on the organizational front – and that takes some doing! I think you must thank Stuart Lindsay and Peter Realf along with me for that – but the “engine room” on race-days is undoubtedly Donna Lindsay, Barbara Stanley and Mike Lehane. We have a good team of officials!
The fact that Stuart uploads the results so quickly onto our website has contributed greatly to the popularity of covkartsport.com. Our website has now become so popular that it is taking well over 1000 hits per week which makes it one of the most popular karting sites!
Our hit-counter is independently maintained by Freewebs – not by us! These viewing figures are incredible and very pleasing!
In the past members such as Matt Lancaster, Paul Cox and Ryan Lindsay have all won the “President’s Award”. We only offer this prize if we think that it will benefit drivers, who have fulfilled all of our criteria, at a time that is right. So it gives me great pleasure this year to jointly award two very promising young drivers who have both met all of our stipulations and I know that these two young men will be hugely excited by the prospect of a full day testing in Formula Vee single-seater racing cars under the direct tutelage of Alan Harding and the AHS team at the BBC
Bruntingthorpe testing circuit in Leicestershire. This is not a “Red Letter” day – they will be driving these cars flat-out by the end of the test! Ten of our drivers applied to be considered for this award this year and, knowing the ten as I do – I would certainly have liked to have given all of them a drive in a single-seater – in many ways they all deserve it – but our two winners have just gone that little bit further to establish that they are the two correct winners at this time.
As you must be aware we are bringing in two or three new circuits to the COVKARTSPORT 2008 calendar in the hope that our 2008 season will be the best yet – our 13th successive season! We have also evolved our rules, just a little, in order to try to provide even better and even fairer racing for each and every one of you!
All of the drivers who supported us throughout the year made a massive contribution to the Championship – not just those who have won awards! Well done to all of you who stuck with it throughout the year! When we go racing incidents will happen from time-to-time but the bottom line is: Are we enjoying our sport? I genuinely believe, and the evidence suggests, that the majority of COVKARTSPORT members are!
Thank you for your support in this our most successful year and the best of luck in your future racing.
Report dated: 7th December 2007.
Signed: NSStanley.
N. Staveley Stanley
President of Covkartsport.
COVKARTSPORT
- The established steppingstone into motorsport!
2006
President’s Report:
Prepared by Nicholas Staveley Stanley
President of Covkartsport
INTRODUCTION:
I am pleased to report that this year has been extremely successful! A large amount of work has gone on behind the scenes for your benefit and there is a lot to report! We have encountered very few problems with circuits and karts, our total membership has been maintained at about 85 and our regular average turnout has stabilised at around 60 drivers. We have provided, and you have taken part in, highly competitive yet safe races which have been smoothly run within tight time-schedules! You may not have realised but we are also pleased to have managed to organise seven different tracks for you which is the first time Covkartsport has provided such variety in one season! We have also kept the ball rolling by instigating many new initiatives! We have even beaten the MSA by introducing plastic credit-card style Licences a full 12 months before them!
FIRSTS:
It has been a year of many “Firsts” for Covkartsport:
First Mini Winter Series
First Official Charity Contributions
First plastic credit-card style Membership Cards
First time that 7 different circuits were used in the same season
First official link to a single-seater racing team
First “Competitor” Stickers for cars (free)
First official slogan for Covkartsport (see heading)
First Road Safety slogan (contributed by “JT”)
First Road Safety Stickers for cars (free)
First full-colour A3 double-sided Photo’ Promotional Cards
First time we have advertised on “UK Karting” website
First time Poster Adverts at our venues
First time card distribution from our venues
First Press Officer for Covkartsport
First Official brand new Race Support Vehicle in the correct corporate colours and advertising Covkartsport!
CIRCUITS:
The seven different circuits/layouts that we used were:
Round 1: Red Lodge original circuit
Round 2: Sutton Circuit Clockwise
Round 3: Glan-y-gors Park shortened perimeter circuit
Round 4: Rye House Circuit
Round 5: Glan-y-gors Park full perimeter circuit
Round 6: Sutton Circuit anti-clockwise
Round 7: Red lodge circuit with new extension
It should be noted that, during 2006, both Sutton and Glan-y-gors Park re-equipped with brand new fleets of karts that you used on your second visits. These karts were ideally appropriate for their particular tracks. The GYG karts being powered by 400cc twin Honda 200’s – the most powerful karts ever used in the Covkartsport Championship but just right for the sweeping speed of one of the UK’s best karting circuits! Eddie and Tracey Davies also took the decision to install wet clutches on their fleet and the benefit to us, demonstrated in much faster pick-up, was there for all to see!
We should all recognise that we do not live in a perfect world and it is absolutely impossible to maintain a fleet of karts so that exact parity in performance is obtained however, being realistic, I have no justifiable complaints to raise with any of our circuits!
I was pleased with the new circuit extension at Red Lodge – it really gave you all something to think about and gave you an exciting and tiring lap! Rye House was new to us in 2006 but they too gave us excellent value-for-money and their circuit presented many fabulous overtaking opportunities! Our second visit of the year to Glan-y-gors Park saw us use their maximum distance perimeter circuit. Eddie and Tracey charged us £5. per head extra for this privilege but, in line with our policy of keeping all rounds at under £50. per driver, I decided to subsidise you all and keep the fee to £45. per head! This cost Covkartsport nearly £300. but I appreciate that many of our drivers, particularly those with family members racing, pay out enough as it is! I have to say that both the circuit and their new karts were superb – well worth the experience for Covkartsporters!
NEW WINTER SERIES:
January, February and March saw our inaugural Winter Series take place at Sutton Circuit. I donated a large Silver Challenge Cup: the “Stanley Cup” (no not ice hockey!) and I must congratulate Jordan Fitzpatrick on becoming a worthy first winner. This series runs to a shorter and entirely different format to our main Championship and proved to be very popular. There were no teething problems and these new events/rounds ran as slickly as our main Championship! It was noticeable too that the Winter Series drivers were faster, at Round 1 of the main Championship, than the drivers who had not taken part. The Winter Series is now a firm fixture and all three 2007 dates are already organised!
DRIVERS & STANDARDS:
The best racers at Covkartsport are very very good! They help to improve the standards of our newer and novice drivers and I am pleased that our general racing standards always seem to improve year by year. Many drivers who are quick have poor judgement in overtaking but that judgement improves. Many drivers who are ragged go onto smooth out their styles and many of our drivers then go out and compete successfully in MSA owner-driver competition and higher motor racing. We may only be a hire-kart competition but don’t kid yourself that we are poor racers – our best drivers have always proven that this is simply not the case – and we have real strength in depth!
Whilst a few members have voiced concerns about “being nerfed off by some idiot” I can assure you that our standards are consistently higher than those in official MSA-organised racing which can be both brutal and costly! Imagine having your lovingly nurtured and polished kart, that you have spent countless hours preparing, demolished through no fault of your own and the track marshalls didn’t see the shunt. It will now cost you £120. (just to put in an official complaint to the Clerk-of-the-course) which you will lose if the incident cannot be corroborated in your favour notwithstanding the cost of the damage to your kart and your race-day fees and expenses if this was a DNF in a final! I accept that we are competitive (and need to be) but the MSA shunt rather reduces the Covkartsport shunt to a mere inconvenience! Take my word for it – the higher you climb up the motorsport ladder the more devastating the disappointments become! Develop the character now at Covkartsport to take racing incidents with dignity and you could go far – you will certainly enjoy your racing more!
ORGANISATION:
We all owe an extreme debt of thanks to Stuart (engine-room) Lindsay and Peter Realf and to scorekeepers Donna Lindsay and Barbara Stanley and Chief Grid Marshall Mike Lehane. Thanks to them (not forgetting the co-operation of every driver) we have run what can only be described as a slick and professional operation! You have a very professionally run club – it doesn’t happen overnight and is the culmination of years of experience! On occasion we might say of others “They cannot run a p***-up in a brewery” but they could never justify that criticism against us! The logistics and behind-the-scenes activities required to make Covkartsport run well are more extensive than most could imagine and have been executed faultlessly by the organisers in 2006! We should also not forget the circuit management and track marshalls who have all done a splendid job for us this year and, as we know from circuits we have subsequently dumped, can really mess up our events if they are not on top of their game!
PUBLICITY:
This year we have spent a record amount on stocks of advertising and promotional merchandise: hats, cloth badges, car and visor stickers and the very attractive double-sided A3 promo-cards! The promo-card took me some time to design with input from Stu and Pete but it has gone down really well everywhere! We hope that you will utilise all of these items to help promote and create an even better impression of Covkartsport! Please feel free to give the cards to anyone expressing an interest!
Now a right kick-up-the-exhaust-pipe for those members who have not been advertising Covkartsport: It annoys me greatly that more members are not displaying the Covkartsport cloth race-suit badges or their free helmet visor stickers! The visor stickers even act as a useful sun-shield in bright weather! If our club is good enough for you to race at - then there is no excuse for not proudly advertising Covkartsport. Be proud of your club and help us by advertising. It looks great in photographs, makes the club look more professional and encourages new members to join - which in turn will benefit your own racing and help us to keep your fees suppressed! Think about it! I cannot make you display them but you are giving us a massive snub if you don’t!
Whilst reporting upon publicity I should say that our website is, thanks to Stuart’s good work, taking record numbers of hits probably because it is so regularly updated! The race reports by Martin Whitelegge, in our “Kart-Write” Newsletter, just get better and better – I hope that you all read them and smile at Martin’s brand of humour – it is excellent! In the summer we appointed Brian Slater as Press Officer and he has done “Exactly what it says on the tin” by ensuring that race reports have been published regularly in both the local press and the National “Karting” Magazine. He has also achieved some free additional local advertising for us!
CAUTION:
Let’s not take this out of perspective because I think that Covkartsport runs well but everything in the garden isn’t always rosy. Very occasionally I have noticed some aggravation (nothing too serious or out of hand) relating to alleged on-track incidents. Most of this is low key and soon forgotten - it is just normal competitive human behaviour. Pete, Stu and myself have always tried to smooth things out for you but we did not tolerate Tit-for-tat actions - I have demonstrated that I will act if I think that it is required and if there is some corroboration but I sometimes think that I would rather negotiate with terrorists than have my ear continually chewed by an irate parent! Covkartsport has always been known for its friendly off-track espirit-de-corps and this WILL be continued at any cost! We are all there to ENJOY our racing! Part of race-driving is learning to look at a situation from more than just your own point of view and accept any disappointment with dignity! A good driver will quickly re-focus and get on with their next race! At the track I always try to sort out your problems to the best of my ability. I look at incidents dispassionately and give a fair conclusion in line with the latest MSA rulings so please have some respect for my experience. As a current MSA Licence holder I receive quarterly reports of all of the MSA Judicial Tribunal verdicts (the highest motorsport court in the UK) that I read assiduously!
MOST IMPROVED DRIVER:
It ha been a great pleasure to watch most of our drivers genuinely improve throughout the year but our top-10 shortlist of Adam Wheeldon, Dermot Lehane, Jordan Fitzpatrick, Danny Henney, Shaun Jobson, Gary Calvert, Steve Thornton, Sian Lindsay, Beth McCarthy and Sarah Westlake deserve special recognition as they all made superb strides! Deciding the winner took some agonising over and was almost too close to call! The winner will not be announced until the Award is presented at our Annual Dinner but the driver’s name has already been engraved on the Silver Challenge Salver! We took into account style, aggression, judgement and points scored though usually the winner will come from mid-table.
CHARITY:
At the start of April I took the decision that Covkartsport ought to be donating some money to charity as this is something we had never done on an organised basis. Whilst members will put their hands into their own pockets they are already involved with the expense of a racing weekend and some budgets can be very tight. It is therefore far easier to deduct just £1 from every driver for each event they attend. We are able to do this and absorb the cost without increasing your own fees (though it does reduce our prize fund) – so Covkartsport is effectively donating £1. for every event that you take part in! This season we are donating £402. to split between three local sources (£134. each): Warwickshire Air Ambulance, Myton Hamlet Hospice and the Oncology Unit at Coventry University Hospital Trust. Anyone wishing to audit this procedure is more than welcome to do so and our attendance figures, for every event, are always published and available on our website. £402. is not a huge amount but if every sports club in the country followed our policy the charities would benefit massively!
FINANCES:
I am satisfied that 2006 has seen the club run on a sound financial footing. There has been a lot of forecast expense and, at the end of the year, the club is £800. in overdraft which I am financing interest free. An overdraft was predicted and takes into account stocks of the new A3 promotional cards, new merchandise and the new plastic membership cards all of which should last until the end of 2010. It should be noted that, if we were not giving money to charity and had not subsidised all drivers at Glan-y-gors Park, we would have an overdraft of less than £100! We have to be very careful with club funds as, in order to keep your fees as low as possible, we calculate to generate just enough. I hope that you are grateful that not one of the organisers has ever claimed any expenses from Covkartsport!
AWARDS & PRESENTATIONS DINNER:
December the 8th sees us return to the prestigious Stoneleigh Deer Park Golf Club venue where a Michelin-starred chef will have prepared our Christmas meal! This year our Guests-of-Honour will be Geoff Deacon and Ken Oldham the co-owners of Sutton Circuit with their respective partners. Again, in line with Covkartsport policy, the cover charge of £16. is artificially low in order to enable as many family members to come as possible. At the time of writing it looks as if we should have well over 100 guests and, with spot prizes and a *raffle table full of good prizes a happy time should be had by all!
HONORARY LIFE MEMBERSHIPS:
This is an honour that we give to only a very few members who all must have served us outstandingly in various capacities over the years. Currently we have five: Cliff Wagstaff, Steve Radburn, John Thompson, Paul Cox and Ryan Lindsay but this year, unusually, we are awarding another five! It is a great pleasure to make retrospective awards to Covkartsport’s first sponsor Gary Maxwell and to former Coventry Bees Speedway star Frank Smith. We are also awarding current drivers: Vince Cogzell, Robin Lang and Bob Moss for their support and good competitive driving in our Championship – all with over eight years of continuous membership – we have greatly appreciated their contribution and their example to other less experienced members. It should be noted that our Life Members can always be relied upon for karting advice and will give the benefit of their experience in matters of dispute.
THE PRESIDENT’S AWARD:
Provided that we can maintain or increase our membership we will be able to give the President’s Award in December 2007 this will be a fully funded day-long test-drive (value = £500.) in a single-seat Formula Vee racing car with the Allan Harding Racing Team (AHS) at the BBC “Top Gear” Bruntingthorpe Test Track. This could well lead to advancement into single-seater racing for a driver showing exceptional talent coupled with the ability to listen and learn! We require written notification, as soon as possible, of those who wish to be considered (we have received one already!) for the 2007 Award. No novice driver can be considered, no driver in their first year at Covkartsport and no junior who is not 16 years old at the time he is due to climb into the single-seater!. This Award has to be “earned” by a committed driver who we consider will be able to make full use of it and represent Covkartsport well in much the same way as Ryan Lindsay who won the last “Presidents Award” in 2004 which was a fully sponsored drive in Senior MSA National Gearbox Kart Racing. Ryan rolled up his sleeves, got stuck in and did very well indeed. He attracted the eyes of the AHS team and drove his “Rookie” year in single-seaters this year which culminated in him qualifying in pole position, in the final round at Oulton Park, when he was fastest in a National field of 40 drivers! For 2007 the AHS team have purchased an outlawed Mclaren F1 software/electronics device that is legal in Formula Vee. This will be installed and run and developed on Ryan’s car! I am sure that we all wish Ryan every success in 2007 – I will be going along to support him as often as I can – can you come too?
YOUR PRESIDENT:
I retired from National Gearbox Kart Racing two years ago when it became apparent that I needed surgery (although I still hold a current MSA Licence) and this January saw me undergo a 5-hour abdominal operation that took me longer than expected to recover from. As a result I was unable to compete in our winter series - many thanks to young Ryan Lindsay for taking me to watch the first Round. However I did manage to actually compete in three rounds of our full Championship coming overall 4th, 4th and 1st with 5 race wins and 4 fastest laps. These will be my final races so it pleases me to go out on a high! I don’t think that you will ever see me racing again! My health has not been good this year and I have lost over two stones in weight, frequently feel very sick and have an arthritic right knee. I know that “JT”, Bob Moss and Robin Lang will all give me a good kicking for retiring as early as 55 years but it is how you feel in yourself! I have always loved racing but, equally, I get a lot of satisfaction from see others enjoy racing when I have had a hand in bringing that about!
I test-drove both the Rye House and new Red Lodge circuits for you, which I enjoyed, so I will probably continue karting in a small test-driving role. I must apologise to Martin Whitelegge as he won’t be able to mention “El Presidente” in his excellent race reports in future! Not racing has helped me, in my role as President, to be more active in helping our members at Covkartsport events – something that I will certainly continue to do!
I must also apologise to our members for not getting our Kart Racing School off the ground. Obviously my health has been against me but the Race School is the only aspect of our pre-season plan which has not taken place! I am still keen to talk about both basic and advanced racing skills and, even more importantly, the psychology of a true racing driver – so I am hopeful that a few specific sessions can take place next year – if you are interested!
NEW MEMBERS:
We need to encourage new members to join for 2007. I hope that you can all utilise our eye-catching A3 promotional cards and all of the positive points made in this report in a recruiting drive which can see our overall membership increase to the maximum limit of 100 drivers. Our computer software schedules can cope with this so it would make the club even stronger to have this depth of competition! Don’t forget to claim your £5. finders fee, against your race-day fees, for every new member you directly recruit!
THANKING YOU:
Thank you for supporting us in 2006! Every driver is valued at Covkartsport – even if you came last (so what – someone had to!) – don’t forget these “Nick-isms”:
“It is the drivers who didn’t win that made the Champion!”
“Winners value the strength and depth of a competition!”
“Just set your goals on improving - the wins will eventually come!”
SUMMARY:
2006 has seen Covkartsport move onto a new plane of credibility. We, the organisers, have done everything we possibly can (constrained by your very low race-day fees) to ensure that you have a really excellent Championship – and you do!!!!! I have years of experience of many competitions within motorsport and Covkartsport shapes up exceedingly well! You can and should take a real pride in that!
We now move forward into 2007 (our 12th consecutive Championship year) hoping that you will all play your part in making it our most successful season yet!
Nick.
N. Staveley Stanley,
President of Covkartsport.
*The Raffle table, at our annual dinner, is also subsidised by Covkartsport.
Report dated 1st December 2006
- The established steppingstone into motorsport!
2006
President’s Report:
Prepared by Nicholas Staveley Stanley
President of Covkartsport
INTRODUCTION:
I am pleased to report that this year has been extremely successful! A large amount of work has gone on behind the scenes for your benefit and there is a lot to report! We have encountered very few problems with circuits and karts, our total membership has been maintained at about 85 and our regular average turnout has stabilised at around 60 drivers. We have provided, and you have taken part in, highly competitive yet safe races which have been smoothly run within tight time-schedules! You may not have realised but we are also pleased to have managed to organise seven different tracks for you which is the first time Covkartsport has provided such variety in one season! We have also kept the ball rolling by instigating many new initiatives! We have even beaten the MSA by introducing plastic credit-card style Licences a full 12 months before them!
FIRSTS:
It has been a year of many “Firsts” for Covkartsport:
First Mini Winter Series
First Official Charity Contributions
First plastic credit-card style Membership Cards
First time that 7 different circuits were used in the same season
First official link to a single-seater racing team
First “Competitor” Stickers for cars (free)
First official slogan for Covkartsport (see heading)
First Road Safety slogan (contributed by “JT”)
First Road Safety Stickers for cars (free)
First full-colour A3 double-sided Photo’ Promotional Cards
First time we have advertised on “UK Karting” website
First time Poster Adverts at our venues
First time card distribution from our venues
First Press Officer for Covkartsport
First Official brand new Race Support Vehicle in the correct corporate colours and advertising Covkartsport!
CIRCUITS:
The seven different circuits/layouts that we used were:
Round 1: Red Lodge original circuit
Round 2: Sutton Circuit Clockwise
Round 3: Glan-y-gors Park shortened perimeter circuit
Round 4: Rye House Circuit
Round 5: Glan-y-gors Park full perimeter circuit
Round 6: Sutton Circuit anti-clockwise
Round 7: Red lodge circuit with new extension
It should be noted that, during 2006, both Sutton and Glan-y-gors Park re-equipped with brand new fleets of karts that you used on your second visits. These karts were ideally appropriate for their particular tracks. The GYG karts being powered by 400cc twin Honda 200’s – the most powerful karts ever used in the Covkartsport Championship but just right for the sweeping speed of one of the UK’s best karting circuits! Eddie and Tracey Davies also took the decision to install wet clutches on their fleet and the benefit to us, demonstrated in much faster pick-up, was there for all to see!
We should all recognise that we do not live in a perfect world and it is absolutely impossible to maintain a fleet of karts so that exact parity in performance is obtained however, being realistic, I have no justifiable complaints to raise with any of our circuits!
I was pleased with the new circuit extension at Red Lodge – it really gave you all something to think about and gave you an exciting and tiring lap! Rye House was new to us in 2006 but they too gave us excellent value-for-money and their circuit presented many fabulous overtaking opportunities! Our second visit of the year to Glan-y-gors Park saw us use their maximum distance perimeter circuit. Eddie and Tracey charged us £5. per head extra for this privilege but, in line with our policy of keeping all rounds at under £50. per driver, I decided to subsidise you all and keep the fee to £45. per head! This cost Covkartsport nearly £300. but I appreciate that many of our drivers, particularly those with family members racing, pay out enough as it is! I have to say that both the circuit and their new karts were superb – well worth the experience for Covkartsporters!
NEW WINTER SERIES:
January, February and March saw our inaugural Winter Series take place at Sutton Circuit. I donated a large Silver Challenge Cup: the “Stanley Cup” (no not ice hockey!) and I must congratulate Jordan Fitzpatrick on becoming a worthy first winner. This series runs to a shorter and entirely different format to our main Championship and proved to be very popular. There were no teething problems and these new events/rounds ran as slickly as our main Championship! It was noticeable too that the Winter Series drivers were faster, at Round 1 of the main Championship, than the drivers who had not taken part. The Winter Series is now a firm fixture and all three 2007 dates are already organised!
DRIVERS & STANDARDS:
The best racers at Covkartsport are very very good! They help to improve the standards of our newer and novice drivers and I am pleased that our general racing standards always seem to improve year by year. Many drivers who are quick have poor judgement in overtaking but that judgement improves. Many drivers who are ragged go onto smooth out their styles and many of our drivers then go out and compete successfully in MSA owner-driver competition and higher motor racing. We may only be a hire-kart competition but don’t kid yourself that we are poor racers – our best drivers have always proven that this is simply not the case – and we have real strength in depth!
Whilst a few members have voiced concerns about “being nerfed off by some idiot” I can assure you that our standards are consistently higher than those in official MSA-organised racing which can be both brutal and costly! Imagine having your lovingly nurtured and polished kart, that you have spent countless hours preparing, demolished through no fault of your own and the track marshalls didn’t see the shunt. It will now cost you £120. (just to put in an official complaint to the Clerk-of-the-course) which you will lose if the incident cannot be corroborated in your favour notwithstanding the cost of the damage to your kart and your race-day fees and expenses if this was a DNF in a final! I accept that we are competitive (and need to be) but the MSA shunt rather reduces the Covkartsport shunt to a mere inconvenience! Take my word for it – the higher you climb up the motorsport ladder the more devastating the disappointments become! Develop the character now at Covkartsport to take racing incidents with dignity and you could go far – you will certainly enjoy your racing more!
ORGANISATION:
We all owe an extreme debt of thanks to Stuart (engine-room) Lindsay and Peter Realf and to scorekeepers Donna Lindsay and Barbara Stanley and Chief Grid Marshall Mike Lehane. Thanks to them (not forgetting the co-operation of every driver) we have run what can only be described as a slick and professional operation! You have a very professionally run club – it doesn’t happen overnight and is the culmination of years of experience! On occasion we might say of others “They cannot run a p***-up in a brewery” but they could never justify that criticism against us! The logistics and behind-the-scenes activities required to make Covkartsport run well are more extensive than most could imagine and have been executed faultlessly by the organisers in 2006! We should also not forget the circuit management and track marshalls who have all done a splendid job for us this year and, as we know from circuits we have subsequently dumped, can really mess up our events if they are not on top of their game!
PUBLICITY:
This year we have spent a record amount on stocks of advertising and promotional merchandise: hats, cloth badges, car and visor stickers and the very attractive double-sided A3 promo-cards! The promo-card took me some time to design with input from Stu and Pete but it has gone down really well everywhere! We hope that you will utilise all of these items to help promote and create an even better impression of Covkartsport! Please feel free to give the cards to anyone expressing an interest!
Now a right kick-up-the-exhaust-pipe for those members who have not been advertising Covkartsport: It annoys me greatly that more members are not displaying the Covkartsport cloth race-suit badges or their free helmet visor stickers! The visor stickers even act as a useful sun-shield in bright weather! If our club is good enough for you to race at - then there is no excuse for not proudly advertising Covkartsport. Be proud of your club and help us by advertising. It looks great in photographs, makes the club look more professional and encourages new members to join - which in turn will benefit your own racing and help us to keep your fees suppressed! Think about it! I cannot make you display them but you are giving us a massive snub if you don’t!
Whilst reporting upon publicity I should say that our website is, thanks to Stuart’s good work, taking record numbers of hits probably because it is so regularly updated! The race reports by Martin Whitelegge, in our “Kart-Write” Newsletter, just get better and better – I hope that you all read them and smile at Martin’s brand of humour – it is excellent! In the summer we appointed Brian Slater as Press Officer and he has done “Exactly what it says on the tin” by ensuring that race reports have been published regularly in both the local press and the National “Karting” Magazine. He has also achieved some free additional local advertising for us!
CAUTION:
Let’s not take this out of perspective because I think that Covkartsport runs well but everything in the garden isn’t always rosy. Very occasionally I have noticed some aggravation (nothing too serious or out of hand) relating to alleged on-track incidents. Most of this is low key and soon forgotten - it is just normal competitive human behaviour. Pete, Stu and myself have always tried to smooth things out for you but we did not tolerate Tit-for-tat actions - I have demonstrated that I will act if I think that it is required and if there is some corroboration but I sometimes think that I would rather negotiate with terrorists than have my ear continually chewed by an irate parent! Covkartsport has always been known for its friendly off-track espirit-de-corps and this WILL be continued at any cost! We are all there to ENJOY our racing! Part of race-driving is learning to look at a situation from more than just your own point of view and accept any disappointment with dignity! A good driver will quickly re-focus and get on with their next race! At the track I always try to sort out your problems to the best of my ability. I look at incidents dispassionately and give a fair conclusion in line with the latest MSA rulings so please have some respect for my experience. As a current MSA Licence holder I receive quarterly reports of all of the MSA Judicial Tribunal verdicts (the highest motorsport court in the UK) that I read assiduously!
MOST IMPROVED DRIVER:
It ha been a great pleasure to watch most of our drivers genuinely improve throughout the year but our top-10 shortlist of Adam Wheeldon, Dermot Lehane, Jordan Fitzpatrick, Danny Henney, Shaun Jobson, Gary Calvert, Steve Thornton, Sian Lindsay, Beth McCarthy and Sarah Westlake deserve special recognition as they all made superb strides! Deciding the winner took some agonising over and was almost too close to call! The winner will not be announced until the Award is presented at our Annual Dinner but the driver’s name has already been engraved on the Silver Challenge Salver! We took into account style, aggression, judgement and points scored though usually the winner will come from mid-table.
CHARITY:
At the start of April I took the decision that Covkartsport ought to be donating some money to charity as this is something we had never done on an organised basis. Whilst members will put their hands into their own pockets they are already involved with the expense of a racing weekend and some budgets can be very tight. It is therefore far easier to deduct just £1 from every driver for each event they attend. We are able to do this and absorb the cost without increasing your own fees (though it does reduce our prize fund) – so Covkartsport is effectively donating £1. for every event that you take part in! This season we are donating £402. to split between three local sources (£134. each): Warwickshire Air Ambulance, Myton Hamlet Hospice and the Oncology Unit at Coventry University Hospital Trust. Anyone wishing to audit this procedure is more than welcome to do so and our attendance figures, for every event, are always published and available on our website. £402. is not a huge amount but if every sports club in the country followed our policy the charities would benefit massively!
FINANCES:
I am satisfied that 2006 has seen the club run on a sound financial footing. There has been a lot of forecast expense and, at the end of the year, the club is £800. in overdraft which I am financing interest free. An overdraft was predicted and takes into account stocks of the new A3 promotional cards, new merchandise and the new plastic membership cards all of which should last until the end of 2010. It should be noted that, if we were not giving money to charity and had not subsidised all drivers at Glan-y-gors Park, we would have an overdraft of less than £100! We have to be very careful with club funds as, in order to keep your fees as low as possible, we calculate to generate just enough. I hope that you are grateful that not one of the organisers has ever claimed any expenses from Covkartsport!
AWARDS & PRESENTATIONS DINNER:
December the 8th sees us return to the prestigious Stoneleigh Deer Park Golf Club venue where a Michelin-starred chef will have prepared our Christmas meal! This year our Guests-of-Honour will be Geoff Deacon and Ken Oldham the co-owners of Sutton Circuit with their respective partners. Again, in line with Covkartsport policy, the cover charge of £16. is artificially low in order to enable as many family members to come as possible. At the time of writing it looks as if we should have well over 100 guests and, with spot prizes and a *raffle table full of good prizes a happy time should be had by all!
HONORARY LIFE MEMBERSHIPS:
This is an honour that we give to only a very few members who all must have served us outstandingly in various capacities over the years. Currently we have five: Cliff Wagstaff, Steve Radburn, John Thompson, Paul Cox and Ryan Lindsay but this year, unusually, we are awarding another five! It is a great pleasure to make retrospective awards to Covkartsport’s first sponsor Gary Maxwell and to former Coventry Bees Speedway star Frank Smith. We are also awarding current drivers: Vince Cogzell, Robin Lang and Bob Moss for their support and good competitive driving in our Championship – all with over eight years of continuous membership – we have greatly appreciated their contribution and their example to other less experienced members. It should be noted that our Life Members can always be relied upon for karting advice and will give the benefit of their experience in matters of dispute.
THE PRESIDENT’S AWARD:
Provided that we can maintain or increase our membership we will be able to give the President’s Award in December 2007 this will be a fully funded day-long test-drive (value = £500.) in a single-seat Formula Vee racing car with the Allan Harding Racing Team (AHS) at the BBC “Top Gear” Bruntingthorpe Test Track. This could well lead to advancement into single-seater racing for a driver showing exceptional talent coupled with the ability to listen and learn! We require written notification, as soon as possible, of those who wish to be considered (we have received one already!) for the 2007 Award. No novice driver can be considered, no driver in their first year at Covkartsport and no junior who is not 16 years old at the time he is due to climb into the single-seater!. This Award has to be “earned” by a committed driver who we consider will be able to make full use of it and represent Covkartsport well in much the same way as Ryan Lindsay who won the last “Presidents Award” in 2004 which was a fully sponsored drive in Senior MSA National Gearbox Kart Racing. Ryan rolled up his sleeves, got stuck in and did very well indeed. He attracted the eyes of the AHS team and drove his “Rookie” year in single-seaters this year which culminated in him qualifying in pole position, in the final round at Oulton Park, when he was fastest in a National field of 40 drivers! For 2007 the AHS team have purchased an outlawed Mclaren F1 software/electronics device that is legal in Formula Vee. This will be installed and run and developed on Ryan’s car! I am sure that we all wish Ryan every success in 2007 – I will be going along to support him as often as I can – can you come too?
YOUR PRESIDENT:
I retired from National Gearbox Kart Racing two years ago when it became apparent that I needed surgery (although I still hold a current MSA Licence) and this January saw me undergo a 5-hour abdominal operation that took me longer than expected to recover from. As a result I was unable to compete in our winter series - many thanks to young Ryan Lindsay for taking me to watch the first Round. However I did manage to actually compete in three rounds of our full Championship coming overall 4th, 4th and 1st with 5 race wins and 4 fastest laps. These will be my final races so it pleases me to go out on a high! I don’t think that you will ever see me racing again! My health has not been good this year and I have lost over two stones in weight, frequently feel very sick and have an arthritic right knee. I know that “JT”, Bob Moss and Robin Lang will all give me a good kicking for retiring as early as 55 years but it is how you feel in yourself! I have always loved racing but, equally, I get a lot of satisfaction from see others enjoy racing when I have had a hand in bringing that about!
I test-drove both the Rye House and new Red Lodge circuits for you, which I enjoyed, so I will probably continue karting in a small test-driving role. I must apologise to Martin Whitelegge as he won’t be able to mention “El Presidente” in his excellent race reports in future! Not racing has helped me, in my role as President, to be more active in helping our members at Covkartsport events – something that I will certainly continue to do!
I must also apologise to our members for not getting our Kart Racing School off the ground. Obviously my health has been against me but the Race School is the only aspect of our pre-season plan which has not taken place! I am still keen to talk about both basic and advanced racing skills and, even more importantly, the psychology of a true racing driver – so I am hopeful that a few specific sessions can take place next year – if you are interested!
NEW MEMBERS:
We need to encourage new members to join for 2007. I hope that you can all utilise our eye-catching A3 promotional cards and all of the positive points made in this report in a recruiting drive which can see our overall membership increase to the maximum limit of 100 drivers. Our computer software schedules can cope with this so it would make the club even stronger to have this depth of competition! Don’t forget to claim your £5. finders fee, against your race-day fees, for every new member you directly recruit!
THANKING YOU:
Thank you for supporting us in 2006! Every driver is valued at Covkartsport – even if you came last (so what – someone had to!) – don’t forget these “Nick-isms”:
“It is the drivers who didn’t win that made the Champion!”
“Winners value the strength and depth of a competition!”
“Just set your goals on improving - the wins will eventually come!”
SUMMARY:
2006 has seen Covkartsport move onto a new plane of credibility. We, the organisers, have done everything we possibly can (constrained by your very low race-day fees) to ensure that you have a really excellent Championship – and you do!!!!! I have years of experience of many competitions within motorsport and Covkartsport shapes up exceedingly well! You can and should take a real pride in that!
We now move forward into 2007 (our 12th consecutive Championship year) hoping that you will all play your part in making it our most successful season yet!
Nick.
N. Staveley Stanley,
President of Covkartsport.
*The Raffle table, at our annual dinner, is also subsidised by Covkartsport.
Report dated 1st December 2006
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