Rally - Complaints dept.

I must be slipping. Only had one phone call complaining about my report on the recent SACC meeting (http://bit.ly/1Raici7), and even then it was only one ‘fact’ which was being questioned. Wait till they read next week’s ‘Motorsport News’! Maybe I’d best buy a tin hat and learn to duck.

But if I didn’t print this stuff, very few of you would find out what was being done by your clubs for your benefit at these gatherings.

Gone are the days of club reps laboriously writing up reports of meetings attended, outcomes decided and actions to be carried out which would then be printed in Newsletters and posted out to members. You’d think that in these days of social media, compiling and circulating such information would be easier. Apparently not.

The majority of car club websites are out of date and not updated regularly. Speaking as one who tries ever so hard to keep his own website up to date, I understand the problems, but we all need to try harder – for the sake of the sport.

However, the SACC has printed its own report of proceedings on its own Facebook page which is encouraging, although their version contains even more facts - but less opinion and comment! Whether that’s a good thing or not, you decide.

The trouble is there are still many people out there who are unaware of the big changes currently underway in how rallies are being organised, particularly with regard to spectator access and control, so there is an urgent need to inform not just club members and fans, but the wider public too.

In a week’s time we’ve got the RSAC Scottish Rally and at the meeting the other night it was reported that they were struggling to attract sufficient numbers of marshals to satisfy the new criteria. Troubling times, eh?