The Future.........????

[AndyF]

Club racing is not going through a great spell at the moment. Too many championships, not enough drivers, marshals or spectators.....

What do you guys see in the future? Can club racing survive?

[Maisie]

Yes, on the following condition:

Firstly, and vitally, more people need to know it exists.

Club racing needs more coverage in national and local publications, on posters, billboards, TV, radio etc! Only when club racing stops being what seems at times a closely-guarded secret, followed only by those people sucked in by accident or to cheer on friends and family, will it become sustainable. If you can get tens of thousands through the gates of Brands Hatch for the CSMA meeting, which is essentially a clubbie, then why not at every circuit for every meeting?

Once there's some publicity in the sport, sponsors will be more willing to back the drivers and want advertisement at the circuit. Circuits will have more cash coming in, so won't need to charge extortionate hire fees. Drivers won't need to fork out so much to race, so more will join in. More money coming in can be invested in the circuits, to make them more of an acceptable alternative day out rather than a minority sport.

The way I see it, more needs to be done by the leading motorsport publications to back grassroots racing amd give it some column inches instead of just saying "Isn't it a shame our circuits are under threat". More needs to be done by the circuits and the organising clubs too to let the world out there know what exists!

[AndyF]

I think you have it spot on there Maisie. Some of my freinds will be coming racing with me for the first time this year. They didn't know club racing existed until I told them. I think promotion is the key. If they can do it for the CSMA, why not anything else!?

[woodyracing]

Its like a lot of sports, you have to get out and spectate or try before you know much about it.

Racing especially though, has a reputation of being very expensive, which it is, but you dont need to be rich to participate in club racing.

Trackdays seem to be growing in popularity, every Joe Bloggs is talking about it, but most just think racing is out the question.

[ss_collins]

Here I come to the (attempted) rescue!!

[chezza]

I have to say that I didn't really know what club racing exisited before I started going to meeting that my dad was marshalling at. Now i know what I was missing out on, exciting racing where anything can happen.

Promotion is the key. There is going to be thousands of people at the BTCC meeting this weekend but I can bet that there will be no mention of meetings going on round the country in the weekends to come!

[woodyracing]

the first "low cost" racing that i stumbled across was a website for the Fiat Fulda Championship. I had no idea there were so many low cost championships until i found the club websites (750mc, brscc, barc etc) maybe they should try to get more publicity.

[Stephen Green]

A tricky subject this!

As I understand it the circuit is responsible for promoting the meeting as they take 100% of the gate money. The organising club is just that, the organiser of the event.

The CSMA manage to get good crowds through advertising to their members etc. In the 'good old days' at Brands Hatch and the Brands Hatch Racing Club (John Webbs days), they used to host such meetings as the Radio 1 Day Out, the Sun Free Race Day and a host of other meetings, all done in a similar vein to the CSMA Day.

I have written to Brands Hatch on numerous occasions suggesting they resurrect these types of Race Days as they attract fresh spectators to motor racing, sadly nothing ever seems to be done.

Let me go and bang my head against a wall one more time

[PTs Bro]

It doesnt matter how well you publicise the meetings, if the grids are poor to average, as they are at the moment the racing will most probably be processional and dull and your newcomer to the sport will not want to bother going again.

There are just too many classes / champs for the limited no. of competitors in club & national racing, which is leading to sparse grids, too many meetings every weekend and a general lack of interest by the public, including die hard club racing fans who are "ticked off" at the poor quality of the product on offer.

Publicity is one thing, but only after some market research has been carried out.

The 750mc have got it right, they have tailored their champs to provide low cost, competitive racing, where both the classes and the meetings are designed to benefit the clubs competitor members and not the administators, executive officers and other hangers on.

Their principal is simple, the more competitors who enter the cheaper the entry fee, when coupled with classes which are inherently cost effective (thanks to the market research) it produces the enormous entries that the club gets for its race meetings.

In turn the huge entries lead to close and exciting racing, with, lets face it, quite a bit of incident which all contributes to the enjoyment of the spectator..... This is why crowds for the club's meetings are steadily increasing.

The BARC have also to be congratulated for taking a good look at what they offer in the way of club racing.... They have retracted from trying to run such a wide variety of champs and have specialised in a smaller no. i.e Classics, BMW's etc, which has led to their partial resurgence.

The BRSCC are the main culprits.... As the mainstay of national club racing they have introduced more and more classes and become too widespread without focussing on what the limited no. of competitors wanted or indeed could afford (Apparent lack of market research). At the same time they have increased their entry fees to a level which now outstrips any other clubs and their only solution is to try and cherry pick their best champs for the "superclub" initiative, where for their exhorbitant entry fee the competitors get the privilege of more track time but have to commit to the expense of accommodation etc as a result of decamping for an entire weekend....... As a draw for spectators this idea is not working if Silverstone 1st June is anything to go by, there were more spectators at the racing school than were at the race meeting.

[PTs Bro]

Looks like I might of killed that one off.........Sorry Folks !!!

[Snapper Baz]

Has anybody noticed that a certain monthly has shown less and less national motorsport as originally planned-in fact out of 29 meetings in April only 7 have been covered I have been told.

[Woolley]

Can't be bothered to type it all again, but this seemed to be rather popular at the time: http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...c&pagenumber=2

[Richy_Rich]

Sounds like heaven Woolley...

[chezza]

It does rather...has anybody thought about sending a copy to the clubs in question???!

[Stephen Green]

It seems to me that the clubs need to start asking their members what they want? When you read most of the suggestions from drivers and marshals alike, they are really common sense ideas, nothing radical.

[PTs Bro]

Thats the point I was trying to make albeit in a rather laboured way, however the overall choice for the drivers have got to be restricted, otherwise you will always get a small number of them still wanting to persevere with cars that are neither popular or prolific and the BRSCC will create a championship for them "Due To Driver Demand!!" and then only 5 or 6 will turn up to the meetings throughout the year.

Competitors and potential competitors need to be given a reasonable, but nevertheless limited range of choice of cost effective championships.

[woodyracing]

there are a lot of championships but sometimes there is a real demand for something new. Like 750mc's new Sport1000 as a "cheap" way to race sportscars. Im sure it will take off, might take a year or two though.

It also seems like the cheapest championships are the most popular - stockhatch, Formula Vee, Mighty Minis etc.

[Dave Brand]

Originally posted by Stephen Green
nothing radical.

No Radicals? I'll vote for that!

[AndyF]

Originally posted by Dave Brand
No Radicals? I'll vote for that!

And I'll second it!

[woodyracing]

I'll have a drive in one anyday.

[Maisie]

Just don't make us watch!

[Cynic]

I think the biggest problem is the apparent reluctance of circuits and/or organisers to put any effort into publicity combined with public apathy towards anything that isn't F1 or Touring cars. Some of the best racing I've seen has been at club level, but once you remove drivers and marshals friends and family from the crowd, you're invariably left with a paying crowd of about a dozen people. Promotion is easy to sort out, but I don't really know how to solve the problem the attitude of people towards grass roots racing. MAybe the two are actually linked.

[Dave Brand]

Tomorrow at Oulton Park BBC GMR is holding a 'Family Fun Day', with all the usual stuff, bouncy castles, face painting, etc. Radio Stoke does a similar thing. It's been pretty well publicised - even one of Kaybee's womens magazines listed it in the 'places to take the family this weekend' listings.

Days like this will help bring in the non-enthusiasts; if they see a good day's racing, they may well come back for more. Whether this was the best choice of meeting remains to be seen.......

[ss_collins]

cynic - promotion ain't easy to sort out - without the support of the venue or the people who work there

[Stephen Green]

I agree with you whole heartedly Dave. It needs family days out to bring in the spectators, when they arrive there HAS to be entertainment for ALL the family, not just those interested in motor racing. If it requires bouncy castles, face painting, fun fairs et-al, then I back it 100%.