Track League starts again April 19th. You will need to register first and you can only do that online here.
You no longer need to send us your BC membership/licence details (if you have any). These will be checked in person when you sign-in at your first event.
The schedule will be uploaded soon, but first two weeks will be quite short due to daylight, so we are planning to start the racing at 6:30 rather than 6:45.
We also need a full set of volunteers. This year sees us start the requirement of each (senior) league member doing one weeks volunteering. This can be in any of the roles listed on the volunteer sheet. We have the first four weeks available, and more will be added as the season progresses here on our volunteering page.
Firstly, would like to say a massive, massive thanks to all the helpers and volunteers who filled the various roles over the past 6 weeks. The races simply wouldn’t happen without you.
We would like to make special thanks to all the judges and organisation folks who made it happen including (but not limited to) Isobella “Izzy” Beattie, Simon and Theresa Tamplin, Andy Brown, Freddie Hick, Tess Agnew (see you at track league) and Sharon (and Thor!) Spicer, all of whom have been there every (or as near as damnit) week! Also to Paul Barnard, Stu Bettis and Bob Lovett who have marshalled every week they raced (which was all but one I think). Also to all our commissaires over the series, Phil Jemmison, George Cory, Jason Ginn and Paul Tunnell.
But whoever you are, no matter how many times you stepped up, once or every week, a massive thanks for keeping the local racing alive.
The provisional results are now up on BC at the following link. Any issues please raise them from the contact us page by midday Monday 27th March when they will be sent to BC to be finalised.
Just to set your minds at rest, we have the volunteer positions covered now so racing tomorrow is ON,
Just for your information there are spaces available in all the races tomorrow. Women’s race is £15 on the day and the others are £18. Card payments only please.
09:10 WOMEN CATEGORY 3/4 10:00 OPEN CATEGORY 3/4 10:50 OPEN CATEGORY 2/3/4
Quick notice to say that the volunteer list is looking quite short for race #2 tomorrow. If the slots are not filled by 5pm racing isn’t going to happen. We are also short a judge in the “primary” roles (the non-marshals signup sheet) if anyone wants to volunteer for that.
A quick note to remind all accredited senior and youth A/B riders that there is some free track time at Preston Park tomorrow (March 5th) to help make up a decent sized bunch for the accreditation session. No payment or booking necessary, just turn up. Session will run from 12. You can borrow a bike but accrediting riders have priority on those. A few people will be needed to take turns being marshals and on the gate.
Just in case you had heard about our troubles getting a commissaire, someone has stepped up (George who was there last week, thanks George!) and so we are going racing as planned.
This week sees the women’s race expand to a Regional A Circuit 2/3/4, same as the open 2/3/4 which means 15 points for a win!
The open 2/3/4 is looking good at 11 entries but the women’s and open 4 are still short of the ten entries to be eligible for the full points, otherwise it’s 3, 2 and 1 for the top three only (as per BC regulations). Time to rope in some friends!
You can enter here, but we also have a very empty volunteer sheet so far, so please click here to sign up either yourself or a friend/family member you can bring along. No volunteers means no races!
Week #2 Results
With life getting in the way I’m afraid I only just uploaded the results from week #2 so hopefully BC will make those official tomorrow. Apologies.
Race at Preston Park every week!!
In case you didn’t know, SCRL run an 18 week track league through the summer every Wednesday evening from mid April until mid August. As luck would have it, track accreditation is scheduled to run right after the racing this week! So if you are racing anyway and local enough to pop down of a Wednesday evening why not try it out? We have a few bikes for hire, for those of you that do not have a fixed gear bike, and these are “one and done” sessions lasting about three hours, so why not give it a try? You’re already at the track, what have you got to lose? Sign up for accreditation here or read more about the process and our track league here.
We will also need some people to marshal that for a couple of hours. Please sign up for that here.
The entries are starting to build up, but where are all the women racers? If it looks like there will be no entries at all we may cancel that race and replace it with something else to make use of the track time.
Volunteers are good for race #1 but races #2 and #3 are still missing volunteers, so please sign up here to make sure the day goes ahead.
If you don’t already, you might be interested in racing our track league through the summer every Wednesday evening. If you have UKVA accreditation, it would be great to see you at our weekly league this year. If you are not UKVA accredited, read on …
Track Accreditation
We have arranged two track accreditation sessions to run on Sundays March 5th and 12th, right after the races finish. These will cover both parts 1 and 2 of the accreditation at once so that there is no need to arrange a second session (note that this is NOT UKVA accreditation, read more about that here).
Accreditation is for senior riders. Youth members of PPYCC and VCJ will be accredited at their regular Saturday morning sessions. If you are (or are a parent of) a youth rider not a member of these clubs, please contact us for suitable options.
We will also require volunteers to marshal the track, just the same as racing. Please sign up here or get a friend to. No experience is necessary.
These sessions will also be open to already accredited racers (seniors and youth A/B only) to get some track time and to help out. There is no charge for these riders, just turn up.
Well that’s the first one done and dusted, we are away! Thanks once again to ALL the volunteers who helped out to do their bit and keep the racing alive.
Provisional results are available against the event on the BC website here.
The sun shone on us for a great mornings racing but I’m afraid I managed to not get any pictures, but here’s a still from the finish line video of TAAP Endura rider Jamie Pullen throwing it across the line just in front of PP One Resourcing RT’s Paul Barnard from the 2/3 race.
If you have any pictures of this or the other races to share do please put them on our Facebook open group SCRL Racers Forum.
We are still a bit light on marshal volunteers for week #2, so please put your name down at this link. Which leads us on to some more serious news on the volunteer front.
Become a British Cycling official & volunteer
As well as the local volunteers we always need, we also need British Cycling officials to run BC sanctioned races.
With the usual levels of retirements and relocation over the past few years but with the addition of COVID preventing racing and thus, being able to train new officials, the South East is now VERY short on the volunteers required to act in an official capacity (i.e. commissaires). Whilst being a circuit race on an extremely small circuit reduces our need somewhat (we essentially only need commissaires) some of our winter series races are in doubt due to the lack of qualified officials.
Other events, such as road races, face a similar issue across the board in race officials, AMS volunteers (which are becoming more of a requirement to get police clearance for road races), convoy drivers, motorcycle marshals etc.
So it has never been more important for the racing community to come together to do their bit if we want to keep road and circuit racing alive.
Please have a read of the British Cycling “workforce” page here and consider any roles you might be able to fill.
The list of courses currently open and their locations are here.
If you have a number of people willing to take on a particular role, perhaps from your club, you might be able to get BC to arrange extra courses to run. Each section in the list of courses above has links for the appropriate people at British Cycling to contact.
There is a healthy entry list for the open 2/3 races and the marshalling for the first race has been filled by the 2/3 riders. Kudos to you for stepping up!
Unfortunately the open 4th cat and the womens 3/4 cat are not looking so good right now. As a result the marshalling is looking thin on the ground for the other two races.
We need cover for all races or none of them will proceed (I hardly think anyone expects riders to turn up and marshal a race if they aren’t getting a race).
If you or someone else can cover a marshalling duty please help the league out and sign up. Or if you are an entrant try to persuade a friend to come along and cover for your race. The times for the races can be found on the calendar page.
To sign up to help as a marshal at the first race click here.
