Radio Fine Print at Stingray 24hr

[Martin Harrold]

Some of you may have seen the little news item in the Club section of this week's 'Autosport', revealing that Radio Fine Print will operate throughout the Stingray 24 this year. That got fed in through the good offices of Edd Straw, a journo on the mag and team driver of car 97.

I've been to Le Mans several times and always enjoyed the coverage given by Radio Le Mans. In fact, without it, it would be difficult to follow the event. Our famous 2CV enduro has now become very well established at Snetterton, and with Simon Leith pushing hard on the promotional front, it is growing as an event, year by year.

With planning restrictions limiting the times of commentary on the circuit PA, I decided a while ago to try to put together a temporary radio station for the '07 race. The idea had the immediate support of Jonathan Palmer, boss of MSV, and Jamie Hopper, Operations Manager at Snet. The Ofcom licence procedure is in hand and we have rented a radio transmitter / studio truck for the weekend. Alan Hyde will lead the commentary team again, and his colleagues so far are local racing journo Lewis Beales, a long time friend of the race and Edd Straw, who's done pit lane at Radio Le Mans, will be helping when not driving.

Our very own Ainslie Bousefield will be looking after the Club's interests and he's persuaded a local BBC Radio producer to help wth the studio operations.

Radio Fine Print will transmit the race commentary, alongside the circuit PA. When the PA is turned off at 6pm, the radio will continue. This means that everyone will know what's going on. That's marshals, pit crews, officials, Pistonfest people, campers and spectators. In fact, everyone except the drivers in the race cars.

Interspersed with the commentary will be interviews in the 'studio' and with people around the circuit. A new and mopre powerful radio mike system is planned for the circuit which will help. BARC CoC Ian Watson is even considering our proposal that the observer in the safety car has a mike, and if circumstances permit, could report on track incidents.

The radio will carry adverts. There are four opportunities for associate sponsorship, at £500 each. For that, the sponsor will get a mention in any printed material promoting Radio Fine Print at Stingray 24 and they will have 2 x 60sec (max) radio ads transmitted each hour. (Note - for technical reasons, Ofcom require that we only transmit pre-recorded ads.)

So far, we've signed up one sponsor, Medea, who will be promoting their InkRite compatible ink cartridges on the radio and doing demos during the event.

If anyone knows of any other company or organisation who might like to take up one of the available associate sponsorships, then please let me know. Through my Fine Print brand, I'm taking the financial risk of the radio venture, so the 2CV Racing Club is not exposed. For legal reasons, my company is the licence holder.

I'm very much hoping that Radio Fine Print will make our major race weekend even more enjoyable for all. It should help enhance all the work being done behind the scenes by many club members and other people. Within reason, the radio will be available to anyone who has anything interesting, even humorous, to say.

We are working with Medea on an idea to produce a race sheet at the circuit. We'll talk nicely to Dick and other photographers about taking pics of all the drivers and the cars - which is impossible to do before the race weekend. We'll place those into a pre-prepared template and print them off on demand. It would be right up to date, with starting grid etc. The inks will be supplied by InkRite and the paper by TECCO. We would sell them for £1 each, all of which would go to charity.

[Chris Yates]

Well done Martin, excellent news! Sounds like you've been very busy with this one :)

I hope it works out very well for all involved.

[Paul Robertson]

What  a brilliant idea , i personally think it was excellent and something we should be keeping up in the future.
Thank you
Paul

[Andy Craig-Smith]

Here here,
The radio broadcast was excellent. It kept me ammused and informed in the very small (and wet) hours.
Well done.

[Martin Harrold]

Thanks for kind words, and many people in the paddock also stopped me to say how much they enjoyed it. A common theme was among the worthy catering staff, who could listen while toiling in their 'kitchens'.

Real thanks of everyone should go to the commentators. Alan Hyde and Lewis Beales, supported by John Church on the music side and Mike, the engineer who connected everything up and made it all work. I know that Alan and John both almost literally fell asleep on their stools. There were supposed to be three commentators, but someone, not me, made a cock-up of the scheduling.

I can almost guarantee now that it will go ahead again in 2008, for we've learnt how to do the whole thing at a lower cost next time. What would be good is for those racers who have companies or products they'd like to promote, to start thinking now abut buying some radio time. I covered most of the cost this year, but, ouch, I don't want to carry it all next time. £200 from each of eight companies would do the trick in 2008.

The 4pp Race Sheet leaflet was put together in the Venue Office, by Chris Coverdale of Print & Save. Witty, the lovely lady photographer got pics of all the cars and they were placed, but she found it impossible to get all the drivers. Also, inkjet prints and rainwater don't mix. They did actually produce 40, and we'll see if roughly one per team can be mailed out with Snails Pace.

Thanks to all of those who were involved in organising the race. I know that Steve, Paul and Trev did a shed load of work, but many others did their bit. Despite the miserable weather, all of my crew enjoyed it and they are already planning how we can improve on 12th. ECAS may have returned, but Team Fine Print have pushed a little nearer the front of the grid.

[David Bain]

"Team Fine Print have pushed a little nearer the front of the grid."

And the big hammers and other panel-straightening devices were out among those who were pushed . . . allegedly.

[Dean Watson]

As one of the marshals out there in the wet and wild Norfolk countryside on a post on my own, I have to say that the radio was a welcome dose of sanity in the small hours of monday (02;00 - 06;00 Senna Straight)

THANK YOU Fine Print, I do hope that you can make it a regular feature,

[Pete Sparrow]

well done Martin, a very welcome addition to the race. I hadn't imadgined it would work so well. Lewis's Norfolk twang seemed to get worse as it got darker or may be i was just tired. overall, brilliant. :D

[Nick Roads]

martin

the radio was brilliant other than it stopped me from sleeping in the back of my car on my breaks as I tuned in to it.

My kids also could get it 5 miles away in the B&B they stayed in.

I will sign up for £200 of sponsorship from my company Chemical Recoveries next year towards the radio costs. I think I should be able to get the same or a bit more from a fuel company as well.

[Ainslie Bousfield]

Yep I thought the Radio Fine Print was an excellent addition to the whole weekend.

If we can continue with it I am sure it wont be long before there is a pit lane competition between teams for the flasiest radio to listen to it on.

Wayne will be bringing his 1,000W De Walt no doubt.

Well Done Martin

[Simon Crook]

Is there a huge cost involved to get the broadcast available on the internet for those of us who could'nt make it.

well done to you all

[Nick Roads]

martin

picking up the previous comment

you could find out how mst timing upload their data to the internet from snetterton. According to a pistonheads thread the lap times were available live over the net

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&t=396309
quote was:

Live timing is very good, updated every 10 seconds.

Ted is in car 30 (PH#1) and has moved up from 32nd to 25th - only 21.43 hours to left - go Ted go

Second PH team (PH#2), now called Deudeuche, car number 31, started higher but have dropped to 18th.

to stream radio up to the net you do not need much bandwidth as I understand and to stream is pretty cheap and I could cover that - if you combine it with a web page which links to the msttiming and some display ads you may have a (more) attractive sponsorship proposition. Also maybe pistonheads or stingray might be intersted in getting involved via their website to host/ manage it? One problem might be rights for music but you seemed to block music which was on the radio being broadcast at the track easily enough so I guess that problem can be easily overcome?

the major problem I would see is having an Internet connection up to the Internet which is reliable and has enough bandwidth - mst seemed to have found one

if you want to contact me then I could perhaps look into a bit more

a final thought would be to make sure that the sponsorship from this does not affect the general 2cv 24 hr sponsorship. Not sure how that works or how much money is involved - but maybe they can enhance each other.

[Martin Harrold]

Back now from my hols in the Vaucluse. Drove up Mt Ventoux, 26km hillclimb to the top of the world. Found out that they do a sort of Good wood thing there each June, so maybe we'll enter the 2CV there next year. Lot's of parades and eating and drinking in Carpentras. It's only 600 miles from Calais !
First, Team Fine Print did push towards the front, but not literally. We had the odd front wing to straighten when people cut in front at Russell, several times, like most, but the biggest bash was when Agent Provocatueur spun in front of us at Riches and we had no choice but to T-bone it (our old car, incidentally). That lost us 15 laps to sort. Otherwise the car ran perfectly for the full 24hrs, same engine, and no technical problems at all apart from disappearing head and spotlights - just one of the 4 was left at the end. All were powered by www.hids4u.co.uk so any one was powerful enough to light the way.
Glad everyone enjoyed Radio Fine Print. I decided it should happen, so made it happen and paid the bills. As Trevor W and Steve P will confirm, I've now largely cast off my habit of unintentionally upsetting people and just got on with it. The only impact it had on any other sponsorship was to enhance it, if anyone took the trouble to go and talk about their special interest with Alan Hyde, Lewis Beales or John Church. I hope that it will always be like that.
Nick - thanks for offer to chip in the the cost for next year, and hopefully others too. If anyone commits early, we can maximise their brand or product exposure in  anumber of ways. I like the idea of streaming it to the net, and will talk to the technical chap who set up all the kit - he's probably got some ideas but more input from everyone is very welcome. I'll set up an e-mail group for all those specially interested in the radio and keep them posted.
The 24hr radio is just one of many things that a lot of people are doing to build the race, sometimes against the odds (let's hope that the met Office can be a bit more helpful in '08 ). Gary Watkins super two page feature in Autosport is another thing which will help.
Always remember, the biggest British crowd at a race, after the GP, is at Le Mans, and that race hardly gets a mention in our national press. The third biggest crowd is probably at the Goodwood festival, and last time I went, I could hardly see over the top of the straw bales.
Lots more people are finding that the Stingray 2CV 24Hr Endurance Race is a very special experience - Gary Watkins said that he's not sure he enjoyed it, but he'll certainly be back. The track is licensed for 46 2CVs - and if we had all those grid  place filled in '08, what a spectacle that would make. People might grumble about 3 cars in every garage, but at the Nurburgring 24hr, they have as many as 8.  And now is the time for everyone to start planning and start committing for '08.

[Martin Harrold]

No sooner suggested by Nick and others, than it is done. Here is the reply from the radio tech man:

"Yes it is possible to 'Stream' the radio/ commentary onto the web. If you have a 2CV club website you could add a button that says 'Live commentary' or similar, you select that and then would have audio. It is not something that I do but I know a company that would do it via their audio server. There would obviously be a cost, I am not sure at this stage what that is. It would rely on getting an internet connection from the site.
The dates are in the diary for 2008".

So, it looks like it will be done for 2008, and planned well in advance so we can all get the word out. Did anyone else follow Le Mans at the w/e on Radio Le Mans streamed onto the web, plus the excellent race data and news notes on the ACO website ? We can give the location of the MST times easily enough. What we want to organise is a news notes facility, giving a record of what happens during the race.

I've today got a third sponsor for the radio for 2008. Now that the web cast is sorted, the price for the remaining sponsor slots has gone up to £300.

[Trevor Williams]

Martin
Might be a bit early to start planning for 2008
If we dont get more cars out for Anglesey and the remaining rounds, we could be looking at no championship, and therefore no 24 hour race
Trevor