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Midland Hill Climb Awards Dinner

Last night was the Midland Hill Climb Championship awards dinner and it was nice to get out and see everyone again. I was asked to put together the presentation for the evening that shows the details of each award winner along with a photo. To try to make it a little more interesting I produced a slide show for each driver that played while they were collecting their award. Those clips are on youtube now if anyone wanted to have a look.

Midland Hill Climb Championship Presentation Slide Shows

To get that done I had to make sure I had all the Midland Championship events processed and uploaded so I could select some photos for each driver so if you look though the site you will see some of the "coming soon" gaps have been filled. To get everything done in time I've been spend a huge number of hours on photos recently so the remaining events wont go up at the same rate but I will get them done as soon as possible.

There are two Loton events left to do and I'll get those done next so as that is the Midland hills complete.

Thank you to everyone that has expressed an interest in CDs. Once the Midlands are done I'll send out an email to let you know and I can then produce CDs for those where all the events they were at have been completed.

If you haven't registered your interest please fill in the form and I'll make sure you are kept updated. There is no commitment to buy at this point.

Rich

Quick British Championship Update

Following the two rounds at Shelsley Walsh at the weekend Scott Moran has extended his lead in the British Hill Climb Championship. There are still three other drivers who could claim the title - Trevor Willis, Roger Moran and Wallace Menzies - but Scott's lead is now virtually insurmountable.

Next weekend is the second trip of the championship down to Gurston Down near Salisbury where Scott won both runoffs earlier in the year. Even if he wins the first runoff of the event this time, and his closest competitors gets no points, he still will not claim the title [1]. It can only be after the second run off that the championship could be decided, and it is fairly likely it will be.

Due to the dropped scores used in the championship, where a drivers best 28 results from 34 rounds are used, it is very hard to say who needs to do what over the weekend to keep the championship open or to win it [2]. I am going to see if there is any way in which to condense it down into a crib sheet so as it is a little easier to tell if the championship has been won or who is still in the running rather than the confusion that normally comes with the last few rounds.

While I'm making a post can I say sorry for the 'coming soon' events in the gallery. I process and label the images before putting them on the site and, with a business to run and losing most Fridays due to packing and travelling to events, sometimes I run out of time. I'm trying to focus on editing the latest event and then using any spare time on past ones rather than just being months behind. To give you an idea I currently have 4007 photos waiting to be sorted. If I spend just a minute on each one that is over 66 hours work. They will get done - eventually.

I'd like to thank everyone who has supported me again this year. It has been really good to get to know a few more drivers and other people around the sport and it really is a great group of people. I'm feeling fairly burnt out now after doing so many events this year, and editing so many images, so I'm going to have a think over the winter about what I'm going to do next year.

See you at Gurston.

Rich
Full Championship Table - ZiPP Facebook Page - My Facebook Profile

[1] If Scott was to win with a hill record in the first runoff his lowest possible total points score for the year would be 243.
If Roger and Trevor both failed to score they would still both be able to overtake Scott with future results - if they won with records in all the remaining rounds their totals would be 261 and 250 respectively.

[2] With realistically 3 drivers involved in the fight and two runoffs over the weekend there are over 1.7 million (11*11*11 * 11*11*11) possible results combinations to take into account.

Remote Camera - Working to get new angles and be more creative

New for 2011 I will be using a remote camera to bring new angles to you and also to help ensure I get a shot of every competitor.

Since I am track side on a press pass I think it is important to do my best to get a shot of every competitor. To date this has meant I have been focusing on shooting safe shots, where I know the majority will come out ok, and not taken many riskier shots where maybe only 1 in 10 attempts will produce usable results. I hope the remote camera will be able to take on the job of getting a shot of everyone in the can and give me more time to try some new things - and maybe even to talk to more drivers! (Please say hi if you see me about)

So what is the remote camera? Well it is a small Canon SLR that can be placed in places that would be distracting, dangerous or impossible for me to stand. Generally I expect it will be clamped to the back of armco so it will be somewhat protected. Originally I was going to use my old SLR for this but I have brought a new camera to get the better quality from it - so I'm going to try to avoid giving you the chance to drive over it!

The camera is then connected to a radio shutter release which I can either trigger myself from a safe location or, hopefully the majority of the time, can be set off using a light beam similar to those used to time the cars. By using the Burt strut to trigger the camera the system can be left alone for a set of runs and the results can be edited quickly as the cars will be in similar positions in all the frames. John & Roger Warren of MMTS Ltd (the timing providers for the majority of events I go to) have been a big help with this and their site at www.resultsman.co.uk is a great help in getting photos labelled.

I had chance to test the system for the first time at Loton Park last weekend and am very pleased with the results. Thankfully, as that is the hill I am at the most, the Clerks of the Course know me and are used to me doing puzzling things! Hopefully, as I get examples of what I'm doing, it will be something I can clear with other Clerks.

As the remote shots will all be very similar I will add them in to a sub albums so hopefully the main albums will stay interesting to look though. The remote shots will show up whenever you search for photos of a driver.

Post a comment below or use the contact form at the top right if you have any questions.

Hope you all have a good 2011 season.

British Awards Dinner - What a Shocker.

There I was minding my own business clapping along to the presentation at the British Championship Awards Dinner when my name gets called. Eak! Those of you that know me know I'm quite a quiet, hide in the background type of person so walking out in front of everyone is really not where I am comfortable and so the next few minutes, probably just a few seconds in reality, is a bit of a blur.

I'm truly honoured to have been awarded the Moran Motorhomes Marshals Trophy for 2010 for services to the sport, or something like that! - I can't remember the exact sub heading that was on the awards paperwork and I really am still quite puzzled why I received it. But thank you.

I really felt out of a place taking an award that is so clearly named 'Marshal' - many of the midland marshals will tell you that one of my favourite sayings is 'But I'm not a Marshal' when being invited to use their facilities or their social events - so it meant a lot to me when the past winners who were there on the night offered their congratulations and made me feel welcome in their 'club'. That's Vicki Harper, Dave Wickham, Peter & Dave Smith and Jerry Sturman. Obviously thank you also to everyone else that has offered their congratulations.

Through spending the majority of my time at events on their side of the fence I have watched marshals, and rescue, at work and have utmost regard for the work that they do to make the sport possible. Trackside, between start and finish really is a separate world to the paddock and spectator areas with a totally different atmosphere. It's a pity that those worlds stay mostly separted after a meeting, with many marshals not getting to put faces or names to cars or helmets, but unfortunately I think that is the nature of the sport and them being on post all day. I know I found the same problem when I was spending all day up the hills and that is why I now try to spend more time in the paddocks, but unfortunately that's not an option for them. Anyway, I think the lack of sleep is catching up with me and I'm starting to ramble!

Thank you again for the award, thank you for your support, thank you to everyone that helped me have a fantastic night last night and I look forward to seeing you all thoughout 2011 - Oh, and of course congratulations to all the other award winners.

Hill climb season over - 2010 CDs now available

Well that is the 2010 hill climb season over. It's been a long one for me, 23 weekends & 32 events, but it has been a good year. It's been good to get to know a few more drivers and also get the very kind feedback thoughout the year. Thank you all, and a special thanks to the mindland marshals for keeping me entertained in the evenings.

It was a year ago today that I first published my '1 Day at Shelsley Walsh' timelapse video. That has now been watched around 8000 times so thank you for all the good comments that has recieved.

Over the last few events I've had drivers asking if I will be selling CDs of all images of them for the year again. I will be.

Rather than charge based on the number of images I've decided to sell them at a fixed price of £40 for all images of a driver from 2010. I think that is a fair price for drivers that I have captured at a few events and is a bargain for those whose path I have crossed more frequently.
Single images can be brought for £6 each, delivered by email. Please use the checkout option in the gallery to let me know which images you would like.

To find how many images I have you can search the gallery using the driver's name. I take the names from the entry lists so if it is a name that is sometimes spelled differently, e.g Steve and Stephen, you may need to search for both.

If you would like to order a CD please enter the drivers name in the box below, along with any alternative spellings, and click the Buy Now button. That will take you to the secure payment pages run by PayPal where you can pay using a credit or debit card or using an existing PayPal account. I will then get the CD made up and posted to you.

Please Enter Driver's Name

If you have already purchased images from this year (thank you!) and would like a full CD, please order the CD as normal and I will then issue a refund to match what you have already spent (excluding the postage costs if applicable). Just to be clear, that means your total cost for the year will be £40. When ordering please make a note on the Paypal page under 'special instructions to the seller' to say what you have purchased before so I don't miss it.

If you have any questions please use the contact form and I'll get back to you asap. Please also contact me if you would rather pay by cheque.

Thanks

Rich

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