their is no excuse anymore, its time to put your racing numbers on...

here is my proposal for a buggy race series,

these events will be open events, that is they are open to anybody who wants to race, they are free, no entry fees , and no restrictions (unlimited racing) on kite size, buggy types or buggy weights...
newzealand is very lucky not to have restrictions placed on us regarding equipment setup, this means if you can build it or fly it, you can race it,
it also means your responsible for your own safety and other around you,
so if your peers deem you a danger to your self or others around you, you wont be welcome at race meetings
it is up to us to govern our own safety record.

all scores, times, top speeds, best laps, distances will be recorded (gps) and posted on this forum for all to see and debate in a sportsman like manner
however as some of you wont have a gps, so all tracks must have a clear start and finish point and set number of laps, therefore clearly denoting a winner who then earns his/her points in an oldschool analog fashion and is not debatable.
as this is a fun event you wont win any prizes, maby a free bbq for your efforts, but i do believe their may be a trophy in the making....gannet?

the overall winner will be the person who consistently comes first and earns the most points, this brings us to problem number 1....you cant make it to a race and miss out on some points...
the only way i see to get round this is to spread the races out so their is time to organise around it, so every 3rd/4th Sunday of the month, this gives a bit of flexibility regarding the weather....however racing Sunday will ultimately be dictated by the tides.

racing starts will be from 10paces back from the buggy,how you setup regarding buggy to startline is up to you, this will give us uniform and orderly starts and help to avoid messy kite/kite entanglements (hopefully)

now the quirky bit, the course, we all have our own ideas about a good race track, so i think that each racetrack should be build by a racer to his own design, this will give him/her th advantage to build the track to suit his kit ability better and giving him the advantage over other races, likewise he could build it to disadvantage his closest competitor...it could be a can or worms yet to be opened, but it will introduce a randomness to the race and keep us all on our toes.

that's it for now.
i will make a scoreboard (whiteboard) to keep record and bring to each race
actual rules will fall under class 8 paracart racing but i think some changes are to be made to that
but here they are anyway

www.bfslyc.org.uk/pages/fed_yachts_class8.aspx

here's my ideas.

mix it up.

zip round flags one day.
dragg race the next.
distance run maybe nuke muriwai and back
race through the dunes
hit grass and race through some paddocks.

different people will be better at different things.

Also if you want to attract more people to racing try not to put them off by being too good. maybe even have a handicap race or newbe section. That what happened to mountain biking to start with all bikes were similar and anyone could turn up on the day and race. then it evolved to a point that if you didn't have a 8" travel downhill bike you couldn't even ride the track or if you hadnt done 30 hours a week peddling yourd get lapped in a xc race.

Now apply this to buggy racing. you guys (gannet,al,jimmy,perin etc) are the best guys in the country zipping around on high spec specialised equipment doing 70,80,90kph.

Imagine the newbe turns up to give this buggy racing a shot. He's got a 4m pepper and a standard pl buggy. he's gona get creamed and possibly put off.

teams race is another idea.

yeah sounds good

max weight buggy 60kgs
no kevlar lines
balance weights on one end only

daves points system

the kiteworks/carkeek flags

sounds damm good

when's the first meeting
and better make the last meeting end of summer
so I can make the trophy
and for which track to run -put them all in a hat and pull one out 10minutes before the race

thanks for your input guys, totaly agree with your point plummet on trying to make it better for everyone as appose to just "us" lot,i was a newbie once and couldnt go fast atall. but as yet i havnt figoured out a way to put a handicap system in place that actualy allows a race to be won by actauly crossing the line first rather than points making you a defalt winner, Ie....you still actualy have to cross the line first to win, i dont believe in points saying you won even tho you really came fourth, its demoralising for the points winner and real winner at the same time, the only real way is to have the fast guys do more laps....smaller kites, heavier buggys, lower tyre pressure, all these things can actualy help.
i think a possibilty is to make the fast guys run a longer lap, ie have wider corners or longer straights,a chicane or some kind upwind haul to run in a effort to make the laptimes longer but it would take a lot of tweaking to get the laps synked so we can all still have a close race.so i think just a lap increase is the easiest way to organise it.
im sorting out a list of sundays with usable tides, bear with me, its a big list....i would say racing can start ooooooh.....now but probably best start of september so we have a bit of time to get sorted, and finishes in march....that gives us 6 races if we dont include dcember/xmas having 1 race a month.

back the horse up,
what about, two race events around the same flags open class and
standard class(STD PL buggy and a newbe)

or a long and short course , shorter for the std buggies then first over the line wins
move the short flags in and out depending on who is racing on the day ? still if that happened i might drag out my little foot again.

hey guys, im kina stoked with this piccy, fully locked up going sideways round a flag...short course racing at its best at the moose....pic id by perrin, cheers bro...this is me at my best.

AWESOME , beautiful dance around the flag

what time was the race .
I could have done two events at the same time

my cross up wasn't too bad either

http://picasaweb.google.com/perrinmelchior/Moose09#5394928368680991554
http://picasaweb.google.com/perrinmelchior/Moose09#5394928368680991554

Is this a real NZ champs. Can't do a proper NZ champs with out the South Island boys. Where do you propose to have events. If its all in one place then it becomes a bit of a local thing.

hehe i was just about to say that. come on boys think its time to head south of the bombays.

a real national event would have 5 or six event rounds. count your best 3 finishes.
chch
nelson
fotxon
raglan/mt maunganui
muriwai/orewa

thats a hard one...in my view its as real as we make it..if we all band togeather and make stuff happen then we can have a nz race circit....
i dont know how to incorporate the south, let alone the south island...at the moment its to small to be worth traveling to a race as its not organised, but that can change....all we need is a good set of dates, a database and a proper starter an you have a race...its real easy to have a shortcourse 10 lap over the line finish race, i think there the best....and have a bit of fun on the side with gps but then you have to compile all the info and thats a job an a half
what i did recon is we hold independant races and see whose leading in points at the end of the siries and have an inter island/district standoff...but thats a race result thats left to the gods, he who had the best wind wins kind of thing and ruins the sporting goodness...

totaly open to ideas.

ps,welcome to the forum F.O.W loved your story for gannet..
hope you enjoy.

Race Hard. get a champion. I hope that it really takes off. Its a really exciting thing that takes buggy riding to a new level of skill and speed. Just remember that if you use NZ in the title then you must include All of NZ and not just the few that live close to Auckland or get to the moose.

I really think you should be talking about an Auckland series or reviving the old Western Circuit name. Or maybe a northern circuit which could be affiliated to a mid NZ and southern circuit.

build it and they will come. thats an old mountain biking saying. the same would occur with buggy racing.
Look at the moose and blue balls. people extrude themselves out of the woodwork to go to those events.

i think we could hold one race at the moose, one at blueballs and one in the south island. half the fun is whipping out some flags and planning on the fly. Auckland champs would be fine too , just dont call it national champs then no one can be offended. If you look at the location of willing participants it should point to particular locations being suitable

you know,i forget that fellas like the F.O.W have done it all before....we need you back man.....i arrived on the kitebuggy block only 3 years ago, all iv ever wanted was to go racing and never got the chance, now the shortcourse has shown up i just thought it was worth persueing,i actualy had no idea you guys had a race already up and running...i dont wanna encroche on that in any way.....but i do wanna race, so i vote we keep the old spirit alive..

i agree that wipping out flags is half the fun but the rest of it is actualy racing proper with winners and losers, and thats what im in it for, and to do that you need a guy with a big whistle...

and somebody to make flyers...

Hmmmmmm???

If I am around I will hold the score sheet and wave the flag.

I can't really comment on the south scene but I will give a little history of the northern scene.
Since 1995 we have had a series of meets in the north island formerly called the Western Circuit. We had events with silly names in Wellington, Waikawa, Aotea, New Plymouth, Tauranga, Baileys. We had buggies at a bunch of Kite festivals and had a couple of 5 day road trips bashing beaches all down the west coast on the way to the NZKA national festival. One year we had 6 events. The survivors of this action are the Blue balls and the Moose Meet.
For a few years we had a bunch of comps. Flag racing, Pursuit racing, a freestyle comp, 1/4 mile drag A 50km race, a game called Restaurant parking and many a midnight challenge. As it went on it became harder to get everyone in one place to sort it all out. Then kitesurfing hit and was a big distraction for a while. Before long we had got out of the habit of competing.

Even though the name has not been used for years Craig Hansen is the Current Western Circuit Champion.

There have been a number of NZ opens run at NZKA national festivals. Wigram 1994, Napier 95 and Eltham 96. I think there was a NZ champs of some kind in Canterbury in the not too distant past. I could be wrong on that one. The Napier and Wigram events had flyers from all over including internationals. The last NZKA one was won by Perrin from Kiteworks.


Another NZ open would be great. One event. One place one time. Everybody agrees and knows in advance. Properly organised and administered.

The Western Circuit currently has 2 events. This can easily be remedied if anyone is keen to organise and attend more.

There is plenty of scope for an outlaw racing series to keep you all in shape for more serious affairs.

Personally I don't get around like I used to and I don't have a big whistle. If I am there I will lend a hand providing it does not keep me out of my buggy all day.

i cant work out which i enjoy more , i used to organise thundercats and be the head ref for the televised events / race director . I would enjoy doing that for buggies and a new breed of keen young folks and old folks alike. I would also like to race, mainly Hansen , hehe. its ironic i challenged Craig to a race and then ended up organising a staggered start , 10 laps and didn't join in. I think the blurr would have been pretty good, and i think petes yak 3.4 would have stolen the show if he coud keep it in the sky. I spoke to Ruudje this morning, he is getting a full set of Vapors blue / white/grey very soon , id say Craig will have Vapors at the ready too, if that happens it wil be a rare day Craig does not win the event unless any of you lot were going to invest in a full quiver of Vapors too. For full on racing to be as fun for me Al i would want a full set of Vapors too so at least it came down to kite/driving skill and buggy design/weight. I really like our current set-up for that reason but it is inevitable more serious racing will happen.

If you want to get out of the trap of having to keep up to date then pusuit racing is an option, providing people are willing to share their kites.
When we used to do pursuits we got 2 identical kites and everybody used them. When the wind changed we got 2 other identical kites.
Its a double edged sword though. Trouble is there are only 2 racing at a time and there is a lot of waiting around. Then people go for a ride and when it comes time to call them they are 2kms away playing in a sand dune. Its great racing if people are disciplined enough to show up for their heat. Both riders get a good start and clean air to fly in for the first part of the race.

thats the nature of racing jimmy.... no matter what sport it is. if your organising the race you can selfishly construct a course that better suits your equipment that others.. hehehe.

firstly, a race would not be a race without you in it jimmy, it just wouldnt be the same...idealy we would coherse a girlfriend into flag waving and the like so we can all get into it.
secondly, and this isnt ment to offend jimmy, but nobodys ever gona have a full set of vapours for racing,
i dont think itl ever get that serius, bringing me to my next point, i definently dont think shortcourse racing is about the kite...
far from it,its about the pilot and that suits us lot with our totaly random kit just fine, BUT as soon as a course gets long or upwind anything other than a racekite will lose whoevers hands its in, SO i think for now we have to stick to shortcoursing for sportsmanship alone, or atleast have a race just for racingkites for thoes who have them..
i love the idea of pursuit racing with the same kite, think thats about as fair as it gets, we should definently try it, but i truely believe its going to be a struggle to find 2 kites the same, letalone 2 for each windspeed change.

not offended at all, i was thinking craig could easily have a set, he had a set of reactor2's last time so while we were looking for our kites with 2m gaps he had the correct kite, and also all the skill to make it talk . even if we had all the same kites it still would not be even some kites just go better than others. lets find a way to allow for this, like the short course, another advantage is it takes up less room on the beach to allow people to pass