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James Cater Racing

~ Realising the childhood dream…

James Cater Racing

Tag Archives: MSA

From 2nd to 4th via The Naughty Step…

07 Tuesday Nov 2017

Posted by jamescaterracing in Formula Vee, Rules & Regulations, Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

750 motor club, appeal process, clerk of course, complaint, letter, MSA, msa uk, naughty step, penalty, stewards, video, yellow flag

Here is the full video of the yellow flag violation:

So, yeah, I had no idea I’d done anything wrong, as I either didn’t see the yellow flag (the only thing I cared about in that race was the white car behind me) or thought the marshals further on had the green flag.

Bear in mind the camera is much higher than my eye line, and so my vision was very much blocked by the cars between me and the incident (ironically, the stationary car causing the yellow was Jamie Harrison who had just won the B class championship!).

I wasn’t intending to violate the yellow flag conditions, the safety of marshals and other competitors was in no way compromised, and I later dropped four or five places down the order so didn’t gain any advantage.

I do not in any way dispute that I overtook under a yellow flag – only the fact that the imposed penalty took me from second in the championship down to fourth in the final race deciding the season.

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Called to the Clerk of the Course

My name was called after the race to go see the Clerk of the Course, and to take my video footage with me – which I did very promptly, breaking off celebrations and went straight there. I still had no idea I’d done anything wrong, and thought they were checking my footage to try to catch someone else doing something (I didn’t think I’d be able to help here, either).

I was told what I’d done after the Clerk had spoken to two other drivers, and we reviewed the footage. She said she had three choices of penalty for the offence:

  1. Exclusion from the race.

  2. A 10 second time penalty.

  3. Points on my race licence.

I pleaded for her to take the third option – especially as several other Vee drivers had been caught overtaking under yellows in the previous race, and NONE of them had been given any kind of penalty at all.

She was firm but friendly, and argued that the consequences to my championship were not her consideration. Fair enough but COME ONE!

I had no choice but to sign the document to say I’d done it.

I was told that I could appeal the decision on one of three grounds if I paid the fee (about £240!!!!!!!) in cash within 30 minutes:

  1. That the offence had never happened.

  2. That the penalty applied was too harsh or unfair.

  3. Another option that I don’t recall.

Of course my grounds for appeal would be that the penalty was far too harsh as it would decide my championship position, and lose me a podium trophy.

In the circumstances, I would be effectively paying £240 to make sure I held onto second in the championship. After all, nobody would be so heartless as to turn down my appeal on those gorunds, would they?

750 Motor Club were supposed to be there for us drivers, to keep us happy, and would make a sensible and compassionate decision, right?

Appealing the penalty to the stewards

I told the race organisers that I would be appealing, and that stopped the clock as I ran to the paddock to try to raise the cash – but someone had let it slip that they could take payment by card if they had to. I should hope so too! Who carries any cash these days – let alone that much?

It had already been around 2 hours after the race finish, so most were packed up and heading home. Tim Probert handed me my two third place trophies as I went past, but I gave one back telling him it was in dispute. Then I went back up to the Stewards with Glenn, Michelle, and James Harridge and chatted with them about my options and what was happening.

I had to write out a statement on my appeal form, in which I made it clear with my first point that I was appealing the penalty, but the Stewards were already pressuring me to hurry up as they wanted to leave for the day.

I waited while they sat in another room considering it, and reviewing my footage.

There were two stewards from 750 Motor Club, one head steward from the MSA, and an observer there.

They called me in and questioned me about my appeal, asking me to watch my footage again.

I thought this was a bit strange but did it, and they told me repeatedly that I’d overtaken under a yellow flag.

I already knew this, and had acknowledged that in my previous meeting with the Clerk of the Course.

The 750 Steward kept telling me I’d overtaken under a yellow flag and would not budge an inch or listen to anything I said. I seemed to be getting through more to the MSA steward, but every time I seemed to be persuading him to my side of things the 750 steward would chime in again telling me I’d overtaken under yellow.

He kept repeating that their recommendation for overtaking under yellows was to exclude me. When I asked why there were three options available to them he refused to answer or discuss it.

Again they kept going over the aspects of my yellow flag violation, speaking about the safety issue (oh, where the marshals were on the opposite side of the track, well off the track, and behind other cars??) and insisting that I had overtaken before the green flag post.

It was like I was arguing with a bunch of people that the sky was blue, but they just kept telling me that the grass was green.

The whole atmosphere was extremely hostile, with all of them against little old me. I stayed polite and calm, but couldn’t help feeling they would just bully me down on anything I said. You are technically allowed to take in a representative, but are told in no uncertain terms that this is discouraged and the stewards don’t like it.

You can call in other drivers as witnesses – which I was asked if I wanted to do – but why would I when I was arguing the PENALTY??!

They asked me to leave the room as they discussed more, and I knew I had no chance at all – and the 750 Motor Club Steward was the main one properly gunning for me. Thanks for the support.

I was called back in and they told me that their decision would stand, at which point I again tried to tell them that they were deciding the championship with a penalty, and THAT was what I didn’t want to happen!

I was threatened with total exclusion again for raising my point, so decided to just shut up.

They told me to go back and wait outside and then they would be out soon with the forms to sign.

“Can’t you post them to me?” I asked, having been there for around three hours.

“No, you need to sign to say that you agree with our decision.”

I didn’t thank them as I left, but also resisted slamming the door on my way out. There was no chance I was giving them another second of my time, so told Glenn, James and Michelle that I was leaving now and wasn’t going to say I agreed with their decision.

I was left with the feeling that the appeal process is totally pointless and just a money-making scheme. I felt that the club at least would have cared that deciding the final race of the season with a penalty (that didn’t even need to be applied!) doesn’t look great for the club, and none of the drivers would appreciate it, either!

I have some pride shining through the bitterness over it all as I got the decision through the post a week or so later, when I read the “Driver left” bit where my signature should have been.

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I just have to remind myself that they can’t take away the fact that I did it on track – I won that second place in the championship with a great drive after a head-to-head scrap!

I have also filed a formal complaint with the MSA about how my appeal wasn’t even heard or discussed by the stewards in that meeting, which they have failed to respond to in their stated 10 days. I chased it up a few weeks ago and was told that it will be looked at, and they apologised for not sending an acknowledgement.

We’ll see how that goes – I’m guessing absolutely nowhere. Either way it won’t change the result – but maybe people standing up a bit will get them to change things in the future?

I’m debating uploading my full complaint letter to them, but will hold on and see what they respond with, first. So far it’s been over a month…

2015 Formula Vee Highlights Video

09 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by jamescaterracing in Formula Vee, Racing, Technique, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2015 championship, 750 motor club, childhood dream, compilation, crash, formula vee, highlights, joovuu, MSA

2015 Formula Vee Highlights Video

Here’s all the action and moments charting the story of sliding into the cockpit for the first time, to blasting away from a race grid in a National championship!

Hope you enjoy it

You can’t believe how much work goes into videos like this – I had to go through every bit of footage, noting bits to include, train myself up on video transitions and stuff, spend hours compiling it all and getting it to fit, then scrapping so many cool overtakes that it broke my heart!  Then another few hours processing, checking, and uploading it!

A lot of work – but I loved it!

Feel free to comment with any suggestion, improvements, likes or dislikes!

ARDS Test: The Medical

26 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by jamescaterracing in ARDS Test, Racing, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

ARDS test, check up, doctor, driving, formula vee, license, medical, motor racing, MSA, national b license, racing, test

ARDS Test: The Medical

***My apologies – it seems I never posted this blog on here!  This was from January 2013, and a very important step in getting your race license.***

https://i0.wp.com/www.clubmsv.co.uk/media/25224/go%20racing%20pack_248x165.jpg

The final piece of the jigsaw to be granted an MSA National B Race License is to book and pass the full medical checkup.

It is essentially the same as what you’ll need for top quality life insurance.  Most Doctors charge around £100 for this.

I did some searching around, and found others had paid a lot more than this, and some as little as £50!

On a recent first aid course at work, I asked the instructor on the off-chance he’d know someone who could do a good price, and as it turned out he did!  As a PCV license holder, he was subject to regular medicals, and used a Dr Hill based in the West Midlands area.

I called the number I’d been given, and spoke directly to Dr Hill (I’ll add his details below) – no nonsense, nice and friendly, and he offered me his first available appointment on a weekend.

This involved a bit of a trek to Shrewsbury, but getting somewhere closer to home would be a longer wait, and at least it’s a pleasant drive out that way.

And he said it would be £40!  Bargain!

So the day came, and off I headed, praying my urine sample didn’t leak in the car on the drive over (as it turns out, a can of Guinness exploded in my car on the journey, but I suppose it’s a more pleasant smell to put up with).

He prodded me about a bit, asked the important questions (about diabetes, epilepsy, non-motorsport related mental defects etc), listened to my heart and breathing, and did a full eye test for vision and colour blindness.

I’m pleased to say my eyes are perfect.  My blood pressure, on the other hand, wasn’t.

The first time he took the pressure, he’d been asking me about what I was racing and stuff.  I’m sure this might relax most people, but even typing about the chance to climb into a Formula racing car now gets my adrenalin going!

Ray Formula Vee chassis

Added to this, I’d woken up with The Lurgy.

So I had it recorded at 140/90 on the form – which isn’t ideal, but shouldn’t cause any problems.

The whole thing was done very quickly and efficiently, he stamped my ARDS license application form, and I was out the door within a very short time to go and find things to do in Shropshire on a Sunday when you’re ill.

I gawped at a few floods in the area and then went home to get the last parts of the form filled in ready for the New Year when I could send it off.

So it’s all in the post – practical and medical tests done and dusted, passport pic attached, and within the next week or so I should be sent out my first ever National B Race License!

In the mean time, the Motorsport International Show is on at Birmingham NEC shortly, so I shall hopefully get my race equipment cheap from there.

Then it’s time to talk about getting the Formula Vee booked in to a test day – and I can take to the wheel for the first time and see…

Who knows?  If I’m Senna or Slow!

Bring it on!

*** If you need a reasonably priced medical check, and are based close enough to the Wolverhampton/Shrewsbury/Kidderminster area, contact Dr Hill on 07802 690 896.

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Read the other blogs in my ARDS license series:

ARDS Test: Following My Childhood Dream To Be A Racing Driver

31 Friday May 2013

Posted by jamescaterracing in ARDS Test, Formula Vee, Racing, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

ARDS, formula vee, go racing, MSA, national b license, pack, racing, rookie, test

ARDS Test: Following My Childhood Dream To Be A Racing Driver

Note: This was first written on 20 July 2012, when my journey first started. This is a new blog created to purely document my racing.

From my earliest memories, I always wanted to be a Racing Driver.

Well, that and a Bounty Hunter – and as I’ve been a Surveillance Operative/P.I. I’ve pretty much covered that one.  But didn’t get to shoot Bad Guys.

After riding sportsbikes for 12 years, and having blogged about the bike trackdays, you’d be forgiven for expecting me to be banging on about getting my bike racing license here – but no!  This is the ARDS National B License for four wheels!

I’ve only been driving cars for 2 years, but found straight away that I enjoy driving almost as much as riding a bike.

The thing is, I’ve crashed bikes and know it hurts!  Whilst I am pretty quick on two wheels (on road and track), I’m not going to push my limits into the kind of realms where I might be looking at actually racing.  Trackdays for bikes, whatever they try to claim, ARE racing, anyway!  You thrape the Hell out of your bike, try to be the fastest in every session, and the only thing missing is a trophy for anyone at the end.

I’ve never driven anything faster than a 14 year old Honda Civic Sport, but have done any advanced training I could grab, such as learning from Police/Pursuit trained drivers to a Skid Control course as soon as I’d passed my test.  I’ve done karting and am pretty fast there, too, but am under no illusions that drifting a kart will bear any resemblance to hammering a full-size car on a circuit.

I’ve grown up around the racing scene – namely the 750 Motor Club, as my Step Dad (Glenn Hay) raced Formula Vee single seaters.  He still owns several cars – one is being run currently by Rob Cowburn – but as he’s looking at racing again himself, and my sister Michelle Hay also passed her ARDS license a few years back he might run out of spare cars before I get enough cash to be able to try a race myself!

Doing a bit of research online, it seems first you have to buy the ‘starter pack’, which contains loads of useful info for the budding racing driver including a handbook of contacts for various ‘stuff’, a DVD to prepare you for the test itself, and the application forms.

The practical test and written test are done together on a half day course at just about every circuit, with most costing around £300.  That’s for a written test to show you can do everything safely and know the flags etc, and then you use their cars to hammer around a track and show the instructors that you can be trusted on track to not kill everybody around you.

It seems Silverstone also offer a whole days course for £400 – which includes all the above plus a lot more track time in the morning including more skid control training.  This option seems like a bargain for another £100 over the half day – especially as you get to use their Caterhams, rather than what appear to be things like Honda Civics and Peugeot Hairdressers at the other tracks.  I quite fancy a blast in a Caterham!

You also need to find a Doctor to give you a full medical examination – this is around £100 and I’m not happy about it!  Some people have told me you can get it done for half this, so it may be worth shopping around.

Assuming you pass all that, you just get the application forms back (there might be another fee here), and they send you your shiny new National B Race License in return!

And then the first step of the childhood dream is in motion!

I shall do a series of blogs about each stage of my application for anyone who’s also interested in doing the ARDS test, and if you have any more info or tips please feel free to post a comment!

You can get the initial pack from these two sites:

http://www.ards.co.uk

http://www.msauk.org/site/cms/contentviewarticle.asp?article=784

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