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Editorial section

29 Jun 2002
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The BPCC handicap system

One suggestion received at the last BFPCR committee meeting was that the BPCC should feature '... a handicap system, to make [racing] fairer for everyone.'

This suggestion directly implies that the fastest teams, those who do well in races and the championship as a whole, do so through some sort of pre-determined and unfair advantage. As a driver in one of the faster teams in the sport, I found this blood-boilingly outrageous. I have absolutely no idea who made the suggestion; it was one of many received by one committee member who then passed them all, anonymously, to the committee as a whole. However, if it was your suggestion, I have some excellent news for you:

The British Pedal Car Championship already uses a handicap system, it always has done and it always will do.

Not only that, but it is the fairest handicap system imaginable, based upon very similar systems used globally by cycle racing and many, many other sports at both professional and amateur levels. It requires no rules to administer, at all; therefore there are no rules to break, thus no need to have anyone spend time enforcing them and no chance of any team cheating the system. Better still, every team and all the individuals within them are entirely free to choose their own level of handicap, collectively and individually, and if they're not entirely happy with their choice at one race, they can change it for next time. It is the perfect example of self-regulation.

So what is this wonderful system, that regulates itself so marvellously well and is entirely, perfectly and utterly fair to all of the dozens of teams and hundreds of drivers in the sport?

Put simply, it's a combination of training, practice, preparation and maintenance, collectively known as 'work'.

If you do more training, you'll find that for some entirely inexplicable reason, your car becomes easier to pedal, goes faster and needs a new driver less frequently.

If you do more practice, you'll learn better cornering techniques which will save you time each and every lap you do in every race you enter. You'll learn the limits of your car and thus be able to enter corners faster and put the power down earlier on the exits. With a better feel for how your car behaves underneath you, you'll be able to spend less time concentrating on physically driving and thus spend more time watching your opponents and planning what to do next.

If you do more preparation in the form of improving your car or designing and building a better one, you'll find your chances of having a trouble free race are much improved. If you do more preparation in the form of arriving at races with more spare parts, you'll discover that what was previously a terminal problem is suddenly a minor repair.

If you do more maintenance between races, you'll find that mechanical problems reduce in both number and severity.

Remember, while pedal car racing is a fun sport, 'It isn't supposed to be easy'! (Coincidentally, the harder you work at it, the more fun it becomes).

Conversely, if you do no work before and between races, your car will be harder to pedal, slower and break down more often. Which means you wont have as much fun, either.

Welcome to your handicap.

The teams at the top of each class, very simply, are those who do more work, both on and off the track. Great Central, Killay (all of them!), Yello Velo, BSE, Lone Rangerz, Swebbelli, et al are not leading their assorted classes through any unfair advantage; they are where they are, just as every team is where it is, on merit as measured by the amount of effort they put in before, during and between the races they attend. No team is leading their class or winning races through any bizarre system of predetermined privileges, they are doing so because they work damn hard at it. They fight for it, every time they get into their cars. If you want to join them 'at the top', you have to fight for it too. No-one, least of all the BFPCR, is going to gift you a free ride - or even a cheap one - to success. That really would be unfair.

Ultimately, how well you do is your own choice. If you're happy to drag your car from the shed on the morning of a race, give it a quick squirt of oil, turn up, pedal it for six hours (or less, if you're all knackered or the car falls apart underneath you before this), take it home, then hide it behind the lawnmower again until next time (possibly beside the bike that you haven't ridden for two years), that's fine by me, but don't be under any illusion - you wont be winning anything. Ever.

So, if you're at all unhappy about the level of your handicap, the power to change it is entirely and uniquely in your own hands. Don't whinge about it; get to work.

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