21/09/2005

To Whom It May Concern:

I was invited as a consultant to a meeting held by the Wild Thing management on Monday night 19/09/05 regarding the plans for, and club rules for next year’s club competition and I can assure you that it sounds very exiting.

The people present were Pierre, Jill, Martin, Andrew, Peter Postimus and I.

At first I wasn’t sure why Peter Postimus was at this meeting, so Pierre told me that Peter is no longer with MSA and will represent Wild Thing at the MSA meeting this coming Sunday. I soon realised that this guy knows what he’s talking about and he really knows the rules backwards.

Believe me we can all do with this kind of knowledge working for us!

The meeting started on a light note with Martin telling some jokes and Andrew looking neat and clean as usual, sorry I forgot Stormy was also there.

Pierre painted the picture for next year and I must say he is quite artistic, and if we buy his art we will find ourselves on world standard tracks around the inner parts of the country every other week, think about it Sun City, an island on the Vaal and what the hell, maybe Ellis Park, and don’t forget our own Wild Thing.

Now, we can open another beer and say “ja, ja dream on” or we can get off our butts and help him do this.

Ok now you will say that I must also write my name under my shoes for identification purposes, maybe! but then maybe I was privy to the passion these two people have for this sport.

Pierre and Jill did do a great job with the organising of the Inland and they only had Gys to help them (I stand to be corrected). It now seems that other clubs and/or organisations or people are trying to take this away from them, they are also trying to disgrace them and therefore the Wild Thing club (of which I am a member) with all sorts of accusations and spreading rumours of stealing events and to even go as low as to tell possible event sponsors that Wild Thing has been suspended by MSA.

 (may the fleas of a 1000 camels infest their armpits)

Any way, after the art gallery we talked about the Rules and Regs for next year. This was compiled by Gys and he really did a great job. He took the rules & regs of this year did some panel beating, sifted through the input that he got from the questionnaires added them in order of demand and “Bob’s your Uncle” we had a working rules and regs proposal for the WILD THING CHALLENGE (can you hear the fanfare) so we did some more panel beating.    

One thing that Peter pointed out is that in the past rules have been made by clubs to suit their needs (legal) but if they had just referred to the MSA hand book they would most probably find that these rules are there already and much simpler. For instance we had the following in the case of a breakdown or fall:

A rider must complete 2/3 of a race/heat and pass the chequered flag to be classed a finisher. You could push your bike over the line and we even allowed outside assistance to get the bike to the line.

(Imagine Shummi pushing his Ferrari down the mineshaft with several spectators and his dad helping him)  

The MSA handbook states that a competitor must complete 2/3 of the race under own power to be classed a finisher. In the case of a lap race the breakdown or fall position will be rounded off to the nearest lap. (KISS)

The general rules are pretty basic, stock classes are stock classes, for safety you MUST fit nerfbars and a kill switch and if you want to you can fit spacers, an aftermarket rear axle (standard length) and you can fit either Kenda’s, Maxis or one other tire (name slipped my mind) to your bike.

The modified classes are pretty much limited to cc’s and age. The classes might look like follows:

 

Class                                       Status                          Age  

  50cc                                       Stock                             4 to 6_

  50cc                                       Modified                        5 to 8_

100cc                                       Stock                             6 to 10

100cc                                       Modified                        7 to 12

200cc 2st & 350cc 4st                    Stock                           11 to 15

200cc 2st & 350cc 4st               Modified                      12 >___     

Open 2st 200cc >                     All                                13 >___

Club 4st 350cc >                       Stock                           13 >___

Jnr Opens 350cc >                   Modified                      14 to 17

Opens 350cc >                        Modified                      17 >___

Vets 200cc >                           Modified                      35 >___

Ladies 200cc >                        Modified                      14 >___

 

There will be rules in place regarding the start line like, no gardening in front, behind or underneath bikes, no support crew allowed on the starting grid (1 a short skirt with umbrella maybe), no working on bikes on the starting grid, no gate sharing and so on.

There are rules regarding drinking alcohol by riders and representatives, riders attitudes towards each other, managers/parents towards other riders and dad’s towards their kids, mom’s & dad’s, friend’s & family running across the track etc.

All the general MSA race rules will apply, even that the clerk of the course can decide to protest a bike and maybe get the 1^st three bikes checked out in any given limited class or that he can decide for an incompetent rider to be taken of the track during a race if he feels that, that rider is a danger to himself and/or other riders.

I think that we are at the moment all worried about the rules but there is a whole handbook with general rules available, we should just read them, use them and abide by them.

At the moment I see only one problem for the future and that is that some of the people that are at present running our sport see our current Inland Competition as just a glorified club competition and our 2 monthly 200+ entries per event is not nearly as important as their 60 odd entrant, now and then regional races (they must be DINKSED I mean JINXED).

I would really like it if we can the get riders or their representatives together under one roof so we can discuss our problems and together with clubs like Wild Thing take charge of our sport.

AND THAT IS ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT!

Cheers

Wynand Van Der Linde

082 902 2817

wynand@angelfish.co.za

Ps. The contents of this document is not a statement but a Report by the author and not necessarily the views of any of the people, establishments or organisations mentioned.