Street race

[joey1]

Anyone rember last year a suggestion of a street race for BTCC does anyone know of anymore information of if this is going to happen where etc.I have a good suggestion Shrewsbury i have a good track and pit facilities planned out already.

[gttouring]

street races especially in a touring car set up is fantastic-trans -am in the states does it a bunch as weel as out SpeedTouring cars, great fun and you can get so close- if i wasn't a baldy my hair would be burned off by the flames out of the exhausts at the carousel in LONG BEACH...

[redshoes]

I suspect it wasn't a serious suggestion, just a throwaway comment hyped up by the media and forum members on an otherwise slow news week. There are huge logistical, financial, political, health and safety, and environmental issue to deal with. If existing circuits are having problems getting planning permission what chance is there of closing a major city for the weekend to run a race meeting?

[Sodemo]

Bring back the Birmingham Super Prix!

[Rob29]

Hear Hear!

[joey1]

Talking of planning permission etc, anyone know if their is a picture of the new pits at oulton on the web?

[sceptic]

I'm also trying to find details of Oulton's new buildings - but it isn't easy. Motorsport News had another article today but it doesn't tell us any more than the last one the printed, so presumably they are having as much trouble getting any information out of the circuit management.

[kmchow]

I think street races are the perfect backdrop for touring cars!!! Street looking cars racing around the streets. OTOH, some people think this is what encourages young people to do ILLEGAL street races???

[redshoes]

sceptic, I believe the MN article also mentions that Octagon are holding a press conference to announce details of all the circuit changes/upgrades in a few weeks.

[sceptic]

Most of it will be finished in "a few weeks" though and we'll be able to see for ourselves.

[Stephen Green]

Well if they do sell Oulton they won't get much use

[Dave Brand]

I'll be at Oulton on Feb 8th. If nothing has been announced by then, I'll post a progress report.

Interesting to see that the new circuit layout will be ready for the 'first meeting of the season', the BARC meeeting on April 26th. The first meeting of the season is, in fact, Bemsee on the 19th, but that's bikes, so we can't expect MN to know anything about that, can we?

Anybody see my letter in MN last week?

[Smokey 6 litre]

birmigham might be good except the drivers woll be shot at,

liverpool wouldn't work, the car would stop in the pits and the weels would be stolen.

should be somewhere where there isn't a touring car meeting already near.

[Sodemo]

Hey! I live near Birmingham, while it isn't the Canary Islands, it certainly isn't as bad as everyone makes out, ive been going to Bham town centre for some 8 years on my own and never had any problems.

[Turkington Fan]

Originally posted by Smokey 6 litre
birmigham might be good except the drivers woll be shot at,

liverpool wouldn't work, the car would stop in the pits and the weels would be stolen.

should be somewhere where there isn't a touring car meeting already near.

Weston Super Mare then? Oh no, because the country bumpkins would enter with their combine harvesters...

Give it up with the stereotypes already man.

[Carrie]

I'm sure we can manage a discussion about a possible street venue without resorting to tired old stereotypes.
Now in the meantime I think I'll just go collect me whippet from t'mill and then head off back down t'pit
Very little chance I'm sure of closing off a city centre, it'd be a logistical nightmare. But then again, it happens for things like marathons. Okay, I know, nice idea, but not very realistic in the slightest.

[bella]

loughborough'd be perfect! the one way system'd mean the track could go on for miles.. they'll just have to avoid skidding on the dog poo

[speedy king]

How about a race held in a malty story car park?!?

[Paul Rayner]

Originally posted by redshoes
I suspect it wasn't a serious suggestion, just a throwaway comment hyped up by the media and forum members on an otherwise slow news week. There are huge logistical, financial, political, health and safety, and environmental issue to deal with. If existing circuits are having problems getting planning permission what chance is there of closing a major city for the weekend to run a race meeting?

I believe Richard West said something along the lines of "I'd like to see the BTCC have a street race, as a jewel in the crown event".

It might not be possible, but the benefits of having a street race would be worth at least exploring the possibility. The BTCC needs more media coverage, and large parts of a city being blocked off to have a race would get some. Also, you'd be taking racing to people, so you've got the potential to have the largest crowd of the year.

The chances of a street race happening in this country might be low, but there could be some cities that would like an event like this to improve their profile.

[Chris Y]

Originally posted by Paul Rayner
I believe Richard West said something along the lines of "I'd like to see the BTCC have a street race, as a jewel in the crown event".

That's settled then - he was talking about Manchster. There's a curry house in Rusholme called the Jewel In the Crown (well, there was last time I was there).

Actually, there are street races up and down the Curry Mile all the time. The regs are pretty free, as long as you have a XR2 or a Citroen Saxo with an extra spoiler and a bit of neon tubing.

[Jonny Apex]

Bringing back a street race was not a dream hyped up by the media on a poor news week. Talks with one city did take place but stalled after a while. What many people also seem to forget is that the Birmingham meeting lost a lot of money. Justifying the cost of shutting off a city centre and creating a circuit to expected safety standards and so on would not be viable. We also (and I was going to say this could only be in Britain but there are probably some other equally blinkered places) have certain laws that get in the way of such an event, such as overcoming the one which makes exceeding a 30mph limit legal. Despite the fact that it is a motor racing event! Ye gods, our politicians know how to put on a good sporting event, don't they?

[Stephen Green]

I dare say that covers the whole of Europe if we are talking of idiotic beaurocracy

[Jonny Apex]

Like Pau, in France, or the Norisring, in Germany ... Where has our pride gone?

[Rob29]

The problem of the 30mph limit needs to be dealt with by means of an Act of Parliament. This was done in the case of Birmingham, and Kart racing in Hull.Interesting that at Birmingham the BTCC was a support event.F3000 at Brands Hatch did not attract more than 5000 paying customers. Maybe Touring cars would be a financial success like Norisring?

[ribbo]

would like to see how they set the btcc cars up for the speedbumps and other traffic calming that our lovely councils have been installing at an alarming rate recently..