The 2023 Championship season is drawing to a close. The final round of the Touring Championship has been run and won, and the Rally Championship winds up with this weekend’s Southern Classic VCRS.
Being Club Championship Scorer is a challenge at times. Most published event results do not include the relevant HRA Car Category, they don’t show the crews’ ages or DoB, and there are always new names to me who may or may not be novices or former graded competitors returning to the sport. I do what research I can, I have HRA and Vic grading lists to refer to, but there is still a fair bit of guesswork that then relies on members to pick up and correct me when necessary.
As far as car categories are concerned, Wikipedia is great to tell me when a particular model was introduced—if the results give model info; if not, b-team rally media photos from the event can be compared to Wiki images to identify the model and then intro year. If a vehicle is shown as PRC on the entry list and that model was first made in 1980 or earlier, it is probably a P81 car; however, the event regs may not have a class for historics, so H81 cars get shown in the P81 category. If a pre-1981 car is modified beyond the PRC specs, it can be scored in an R25 category and is usually identified in results as Club or CRC, but not always.
Competitors’ ages are needed to work out who is a Master (over 55); most of the time it needs a bit of guesswork. I use whatever means I can to get a date of birth— Fb used to provide me with these dates, but people are more cautious about publishing their DoB these days. A lot of people I know, who seem young to me, have told me they are Masters, so I need all competitors to let me know when they are over 55.
One thing I have no trouble with is knowing who is an HRA member or not. Our membership secretary, Kate, checks every set of results against the database and lets me know. You won’t score points if your membership is a single day overdue— even if the event organisers failed to notice when you booked in.
So, there you have it. I’ve done my best, but it is up to you, the HRA members, to let me know of any discrepancies or queries.
Nick Wright
HRA Championship Scorer
clubscorer@hra.org.au
13 November 2023
See the 2023 HRA Championship Scores page for the progress scores after Bagshot.
