Track Hire Price Rises...

[Stephen Green]

I agree with you about crowds in general. There are very few meetings that seem to have large crowds outside of TOCA and some GT and F3 meetings. All very sad but there is a saviour on hand in the shape of Dr P...well I hope so at least

[Ian Sowman]

Originally posted by ss_collins
SEMSEC vs DDMC vs The Welsh

All sports n Saloons

Don't forget the BARC NW - different regs but I'm sure they'd be welcome in such a contest!

Originally posted bt MikeM
No King of Kents at Oulton though

There's not one at Mallory either though! IMO the King of Kents races should have been at neutral tracks like Croft, Cadwell and Thruxton! But that's another thread...

[Richy_Rich]

Good suggestions. How come, though, Stock Cars etc. seem to pull much bigger crowds? There certainly aren't any amazing facilities at Arena Essex (although I suppose it's close enough to drop the family off at Lakeside) but meetings, on the whole, are pretty well attended.

[redshoes]

Re the MSA’s control of badly supported series, I’ve got 2 problems with that.

As I understand it they are revoking, or at least threatening to revoke, championship status from any series which can’t average a grid of 15(?) cars. Of course there’s nothing to stop a club continuing to organise a series to the same regulations providing they call it a ‘challenge’, ‘cup’, ‘series’ or anything else except a ‘championship’. Given that we are talking about clubbie level events does the lack of the word “championship” in the title really make that much difference? At the end of the day it’s largely academic. Have any of the series which were under threat actually been cancelled this year?

The second problem is that the MSA shouldn’t have to be in a position to make that judgement. A bit of common sense by the clubs and their member would see these series culled or merged long before the MSA get involved.

The thing to remember here is, roughly speaking, the cost of entering a race is not dependent on the number of cars on your grid but the total number of entries for that meeting. Even if you are lucky enough to be racing in a series with 30 cars on the grid if the races before and after you at a meeting can only manage 10-15 cars then effectively you are paying for those empty spaces.

Denis’s comments about the number of new series are very true. Last year we had for example the Focus Cup, a series that no one actually asked for, and given that 12 months later there’s less than half a dozen cars built to the regs clearly no one wanted. This year at least it’s being merged into the Ford Saloon series, which is where should have been in the first place. This year for example an MX-5 series. Is there really a demand for that?

At National level I agree that the MSA need to look at what they are doing and how often they are taking the corporate shilling just to start a new series – FBMW and Zip for example as already mentioned.

I’m no great fan of Fford but I do think what the various organisers are attempting to do this year is worthy of praise. Rather than compete against each other they have tried to work together. Agreeing a common set of regs, not running rounds of different championship at nearby circuits on the same weekend, etc.

[Ron Doe]

Ok, ok, so we have got a fresh new era from the clubs and the MSA regarding poorly-supported championships. Or so it says here...

Would anybody care to guess how many less championships and/or series there will be running on UK tracks this season compared to last season?

I'll start the stopwatch now....

[Rod Birley]

Note for richy-rich: This year is the 50th anniversary of short circuit racing in the UK, get along to one of the celebratory meetings such as Ipswich on October 16th which has BriSCA F.1 and National Hot Rods, you will see what promotion is all about then. Or try Coventry on Sept. 4th if you can get a ticket!

[Gnomex]

I have to agree with Rod - it's all about how you promote yourselves. Look at Rallycross at Brands at the end of last year. Brands hadn't seen Rallycross for years but the crowd there was simply fantastic.

[goforit500]

Ramblings.....

What we have here is a vicious circle that will take a brave and pragmatic move by someone to break out of. We have clubs unable to promote events and circuits who don't because of the lack of return.

I have said this before elsewhere on this medium. The circuits need to attract speccies and give then real value for money and they just might come again. Presenting the casual visitor with high admission costs, crappy grids, frezzin toilets with no loo roll or soap, terrible facilities for kids and prison food at Ritz prices it isn't surprising that no-one bothers.

Except, and this is hearsay, that when local radio stations do a "Whatever FM" race day with stuff on to attract families they would seem to be successful.....My missus no longer comes to races with me since we had kids for the reasons stated above. And she is an enthusiast !!

As for small grids, there is no point raking over the whys & wherefores, I think everyone knows that the proliferation of championships is one of the root causes and we only have one direction to look as to why.
But...And this is a big but.....If someone was brave (and rich) enough to call a halt to the general decline of motorsport in the eye of the public by making it attractive, the return could be worth the risk....Look at Castle Combe. They promote and attract great crowds there, event after event....

Nuff said.

[Gnomex]

Originally posted by goforit500
Ramblings.....

If someone was brave (and rich) enough to call a halt to the general decline of motorsport in the eye of the public by making it attractive, the return could be worth the risk....Look at Castle Combe. They promote and attract great crowds there, event after event....

Nuff said.

There's an old saying "You've got to speculate to accumulate".....