Hi Guys and Gals

As some of you might have been aware there have been ongoing discussions and applications made to the ALRC for a rule change to allow dislocation/relocation cones to be fitted to trials vehicles. This rule change has gone through the relevant stages and a decision has been made that they are not to be fitted to vehicles competing in any ALRC run events.

There is another ruling regarding handbrakes, after a request had been made for the installation of line locks to be fitted as an alternative instead of handbrakes. The ruling was that all “vehicles shall be fitted with a braking system capable of holding them when parked, it shall be activated by a single operation and shall be external to the engine and gearbox”.

Another issue that has come to light on a recent club weekend was that we had a runaway caravan. Please note: some caravan hand brakes do not hold a caravan in reverse on a steep incline due to the operation of the brake over-run device. If uncoupling a caravan that you have just reversed into a space on any incline, it is heavily advised to put chocks under the wheels.

Scrutineering at events.

I would like to bring the following to your attention.

Taken from the ALRC 2007 Hand Book (known as the ‘green book’!), page 82, sections E 4.1.4 to 8 and E 11.3.4:

• An entrant shall, before the event, satisfy himself as to the eligibility and safety of the vehicle…

• The act of presenting a vehicle for official scrutiny shall be deemed a declaration of its fitness and eligibility and an acceptance of the consequences of such a declaration not being valid…

• …obtaining a scrutineer’s approval at pre-event scrutiny does not indicate that the Scrutineer is accepting responsibility for the safety or road worthiness of the vehicle, not does it indicate that the vehicle complies in all respects…

• So if the vehicle is examined during or after an event and found to be out of compliance with the regulations it may be excluded from the results….the entrant has no come-back against the scrutineer.

Please take careful note of the above. Scutineering before an event should only be a spot check of a limited number of key safety and eligibility features of a vehicle’s condition.  Contrary to popular opinion, the Scrutineers do want you to compete; they aren’t really looking for reasons to stop you, however if they do find something untoward then they will have to act upon it.

A Scrutineer’s duty is to report an unsafe or ill-prepared vehicle, or one that doesn’t comply, to the Clerk of the Course.  It is the Clerk of the Course’s decision to make the judgement as to whether the vehicle is allowed to compete.  However annoying or upsetting, this process is in place to protect you (from yourself sometimes!) and others from possible danger – which you could avoid by better preparation.

The reason I have drawn your attention to the above points is that, with the competitions becoming more heavily attended, too much time is being taken up with the detailed scrutineering that we have been undertaking. Consequentially the start times for events are drifting which can make for a very long day – especially in bad weather.

In future, a more limited series of safety / eligibility spot-checks will be performed, which may change from event to event (just to keep you on your toes!).

However newcomers and new vehicles attending an MROC event may be subject to a more detailed examination of their vehicle first time around. 

If any of you out there are unsure as to what you should be doing / checking for, everything you need to know is in the Green Book of which you should have a copy. Alternatively, if any of you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact me, or catch me at one of the events.

Richard Smith – MROC Scrutineer.