Car Club Reps Meeting
If you missed the Club Rep’s Meeting, or maybe if you attended and were too lazy to take notes, then here is a very short summary of some of the key points:
The entrance to Wicksteed Park is being changed so no gate to worry about on the way in, but you will need an exit permit to leave, something that will be provided to you by the JAE Security Team for free when you depart, whether it’s to leave or just to pop to the shops.
For those that visited you will have seen a lot of development work and even more is planned or not yet started. All of which means the access road to Suzuka is unlikely to be finished so we will have to rely on Ebisu, Motegi, Okayama and Tsukuba for 2014 with Fuji for quiet/family camping and for wedding visitors! Day parking will remain at the top end of Fuji following the experiment last year.
With all the development work there will be new planting and some road improvements. As a result we will have to re-plan all the fields but, until the planting is complete, we won’t be able to issue the new plans. For now we will use the 2013 plans and then move the clubs onto the 2014 layout keeping you as close as we possibly can to your location as selected.
Traffic calming will remain. This is a much used public place and we visit for only four days out of 365. Even when we are at WP there are a lot of children around and safety, particularly with children where cars are concerned is paramount. For low riding cars the humps may cause you to be extra cautious but there is nothing we can do about this. As an alternative follow the grass around adjacent to the road. Taken slowly this offers less in the way of traffic calming but of course is also not perfectly flat. For exit the route out via Paradise Lane will be open on Sunday and this has no traffic calming.
Once on site you will notice some minor changes to the layout as already said and a move back to around the Hexagon for trade. The road running past the Hexagon will be closed for traffic and only for pedestrian use, except for the Show n Shine winners display.
Show n Shine will take place on the top hard standing. IKO will run on the lower field next to the 5-a-side football, where it has been for most of the years we have been at WP. Dragon Boat racing will take place on Friday on the lake and the Go karts at the track in the funfair. The lake is currently drained and a new beech is being built – the perfect place to watch the Dragon Boat racing from.
The IKO will be the same as last year but teams that no-show will get a minus 3 point deduction towards the IKO Team Competition. Each club can enter maximum of two teams per competition. For clubs that struggle to raise a team you can combine with another club to enter a joint team. For the first time day visitors will be allowed into the team, but not individual, IKO competitions.
New for 2014 will be Best Overseas Club and Best Overseas Car.
The event tent will have live music on Saturday and discos going very late into the night on Friday and Saturday – subject to permitted extension. As a result we want clubs to use the event tent as the go-to place for your night time entertainment, dancing and music fun. For the smaller clubs it makes a great place to meet up and for the bigger clubs it means you have less big kit to bring. Over time we hope this will build up into a great all night party place for all the clubs. There is no restriction on what you bring to the event tent so turn up with your chairs and bring your own beer!
We are looking at adding more showers and toilets and will look at other improvements as discussed.
There will be more JAE food vendors this year and there will be a theme night each night with one of the caterers providing a curry night, a fish n chips night or a Chinese night etc. Details to be confirmed but hopefully a good addition. Another food deal is being worked on and may also be another IKO competition, but we have yet to agree that and will announce details soon.
Gates will open at midday on Thursday, following the experiment last year. That means not only opening Thursday but also now even earlier! Those arriving on Thursday will be £5 more than those arriving and staying/camping on the Friday or Saturday. We hope this difference makes it fair on those able to spend more time at JAE and those not able to be there Thursday. If you’re not sure and want to buy an advanced ticket, buy the Friday/Saturday arrival and pay the extra fiver if you roll up on Thursday.
A refresh of the new website is almost finished and will be out soon. As well as making it simpler to navigate we will also have an online shop for tickets as well as club bookings and trade stand bookings. This new site will also be mobile enabled so no need for the JAE App from last year.
All the JAE Team want to thank the Reps that attended and for your input. The list of bookings already has been published and we hope to have plans available very soon once WP tell us they have finished work on site
