Safety Fast! Notes for February 2008

Hello again. I'll kick off the Notes this month with a reminder that the SW Centre Annual Dinner and Presentation of Awards will soon be upon us. It will take place at the Limpley Stoke Hotel on Saturday 1st March 2008. Fuller details are available on the website or direct from John Bird on 0117 956 0175. Members and guests who wish to stay overnight should contact the Hotel directly on 01225 723333 to reserve a room. When making a booking please mention that you are attending the Dinner and you will get a special rate.

With January well and truly behind us, I wonder how many New Year Resolutions you have managed to keep? One of mine was to get along to more SW Centre events in 2008. Why not make a belated resolution to do so yourself? There are loads to choose from: road runs, autotests and gymkhanas, trials, speed events - and monthly natters of course. Speed events are competitive, requiring safety equipment and modifications to your MG. The rest, however, require nothing more than an MG (any sort will do - old or new, scruffy or pristine) and a few hours to spare. The social side is very important, and you needn't worry about being a 'newbie' - there are plenty of old-hands to show you the ropes.

Although it seems ages away (especially as I write these Notes in the first week of January), the SW Centre Annual General Meeting will soon be upon us too. The AGM is held at the Ring O' Bells in Compton Martin on Monday 3rd March. The formal business is kept quite short, leaving plenty of time for you to provide your input into how the club should be run and to show your appreciation to the committee and/or event organisers. My input at committee is pretty minimal (I'm only there for my youth and rakish good looks!), but on the whole these guys do a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes to ensure that the club runs smoothly. The amount of effort to organise an event should not be underestimated either. Along with the marshals, these guys keep our club going – please support them! Usually, and I hope this year will be no exception, the evening ends with a classic motorsport film show. Why not come along and keep that resolution intact?

I'll leave you with a picture from the Pegasus Sprint in 2006. I was queuing for my first timed run when the heavens opened. In fact, it was so wet that the Clerk of the Course stopped the event so that he could check the track for standing water. As I sat there with the engine off, helmet and windscreen slowly misting up, I consoled myself that I was not getting wet like the poor chap in the Morgan immediately ahead of me in the pit lane. That is, until he reached behind the seat and put up his umbrella... Now that's something you don't see in Formula One!

Neil Lock