Hi guys,
First and of course foremost I want to apologise for the length of this post, I hope some of you can be bothered to read it all but I do ramble when I’m hyped up. We on the Committee all wanted to thank you for coming along to our newly revamped Renault Turbo UK Festival weekend. We hope you all had a great time as we did too - we’ve had some fantastic and constructive feedback. We know it wasn’t perfect but for a first bash, I think we all did pretty well judging from the general consensus. After all, if it was completely perfect then how will we keep growing and make the weekend better next year for you?
I’m not going to lie, running the actual day itself, never mind the months of organisation behind the scene has been a challenge, but Steve and I in particular have found it to be so worth it. I just wanted to talk about some of the peaks and troughs and discuss some ways in which we think we can make 2013 even better.
First off, we wanted to talk about what seems to be the main negative thing that came up (so we can talk about the positives at the end and finish on a high hehe). A couple of people in particular weren’t happy with the show and shine results and although I have suggested we make some changes next year and consider Bluntys idea of having a detailing company do the voting perhaps, the club still strongly stands by the fact that everyone that was awarded a trophy for their car, more than fully deserved it – well done all. :agree:
Positives from the members (yay)
It’s great as I’ve spotted already in only a couple of days since the show finishing that the same few highlights from various people keep coming up:
1) Free rolling road – I’m not sure if you know but this was originally going to be charged at around £30 per run, which is on par with regular shows. However, it was thought that this has probably been a depressing year for most and we are in a double-dip recession afterall, the decision was made on the day not to charge a fee for the usage. We’re all so glad that it was used throughout the entire day and was such a big attraction. The M-Tech lads were great, for which Steve has already personally thanked them for on the club’s behalf. It was nice for them to be so busy and not sat around bored and from the chat with them at the end of the day they actually enjoyed themselves too, which is of course a plus also.
2) Driving tuition – Again this was charged last year and as this had already been paid for by the club, it was offered in sessions for nothing. We had such great feedback last year from people that did it that it seemed only beneficial to offer this out again. Everyone who went out with one of the TAOL instructors said they learnt a lot and even learnt that the limits of their car were higher than they expected.
3) Memorial plates – From the looks of how fast people came running for them they seemed to be popular – this was a fantastic idea of Steve’s to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the club.
4) The new track style – So many people said to us that they loved Blyton as it suited the cars well , and also that the smaller camping area brought everyone closer together and felt less cliquey (and more sociable). I’m glad it worked out like that as I hadn’t thought about it previously but it’s a great point and something we will always need to consider going forward.
Positives from Blyton Park
Steve and I both also spoke to Richard and Jane Usher throughout the day and also at the end of the day and they seemed really happy with the club, so of course we were really pleased. They’re also more than happy to have us back again next year should we wish to and they have even offered to freeze their 2012 prices for us (well done everyone for making such a great lasting impression :agree:). I bumped into Richard on the Sunday morning when I was collecting some bits and he was proudly hammering his RTOC memorial plate onto his wall in the cabin, he loved that!
I personally really liked that Richard himself gave the drivers briefing. Afterall, who knows the track better than the man who built it?! Quite a few people also said the same to Steve and myself at various points.
In Richard’s own words:
“It was fantastic to be part of your day and to meet members with such pure love and enthusiasm for the marque”
I think that sums up our RTOC members perfectly so that was lovely for us to read!
The biggest compliment we heard throughout the day was that this was the best one yet. Obviously not everyone will agree but if Steve and I were sat on chairs, I think we’d have fallen off them at the thought of hearing those words, so thank you. I can speak for all of us when I say that all of the Committee involved in making this happen don’t do it for gratitude or anything, just for the love of the club and the great friends we’ve made through being part of the site. However, as with anything it’s always a great feeling to hear that people had a good time, we did too :D
A HUGE thank you goes out to the members who helped us throughout the day and who all made offers without us even asking – You’ve NO idea how grateful we are for that as it made such a difference to us *** Sending RTOC hugs through cyberspace**
Next Year
We’d really like to know what you enjoyed, what you didn’t and if you’d like us to rebook at Blyton again? Likewise, if you had any favourite parts of the weekend or if you have any of own ideas for 2013 that you’d like to be considered, please speak up :D
Next year we definitely need some more hands on deck, we seemed to have managed to create a success, but with some more enthusiastic people on board we can have the day running even smoother in 2013 ( I might even get time to take people up on their offers of going out on passenger laps – I was stuck with the walkie talkie and doing paperwork instead throughout the day lol).
Now to end on some of my personal highlights:
1) Walking back towards the campsite and seeing a big brown tent 20 feet in the air, flying towards the field. It was raining bags of crisps and car keys all over the site! Poor Alastair but I’m glad you managed to get everything back (apart from the loaf of bread). :laugh:
2) Listening in on the walkie talky that Jane Usher provided me with, I got all the good goss... “YELLOW M3....BLACK FLAG, GET HIM OFF!!”.... 5 minutes later...”WHAT’S THE M3 DOING THIS TIME, BLACK FLAG HIM!”....repeat a few times throughout the day, haha. I think Jaffa was having lots of fun out there ;)
3) The French guys all getting stuck in with the Brits, we loved having you over so please come again! :francais:
4) The little rave up on Saturday evening in the barn, it was 100% the people that made that. I gatecrashed Johnboy, Lou and Emmas little party at the front of the stage and even learnt some new dance moves. Random but these are the things that make my weekend, awesome people!
5) The sun! I was fretting all week about the rain ruining the weekend but our luck was in. Big shout out to Mother Nature, yo!
6) Seeing Dave Reed’s car hit 278bhp on the dyno! I don’t think even the M-Tech boys could believe their eyes and they run a rolling road for a living. That’s one way to make your mark on your first National Day isn’t it Dave?!
7) Seeing all the people that I adore and miss, I wish I could see you all more but weekends like this get us all together, and it’s like I only saw you yesterday (awwwww). I loved meeting so many members, old and new that I hadn’t previously spoken to, and hopefully have made some new friends from it.
8) Watching the Red Arrows fly over on Saturday. I totally geeked out watching that, it was pretty special!
9) Learning that CarCrash is actually quite posh with his prawns on the BBQ, who knew?! The accent is all put on Governor!
10) The moment in the barn when everyone was having fun bouncing around and Steve stopped and turned to me and shouted through the noise, “We did this!” That was awesome, I looked around and was like “oh my god, we did!” **Gives Steve the biggest High 5 ever**
11) Meeting so many new people throughout the entire weekend, you’re a lovely jubbly bunch and I’m so glad we have such a versatile group of people on the club.
12) My final point – watching everyone stop what they were doing to help those who had broken down or needed parts. Believe it or not this doesn’t happen so freely and willingly on other clubs - This is what we call the RTOC Spirit – **PROUD**
Lots of RTOC Love
Dawn & Steve
