National Motorsports Week

As I'm sure you are all aware August 12-20 is National Motorsports Week. What do you mean you've never heard of it? According to the PR bumph "The idea behind the week is for the sport to help itself by opening its doors to new drivers, marshals, spectators, etc, as -- for it to flourish and thereby create more work for Britain's motorsport industry -- it must attract new blood."

Aside from a article in Autosport this week (preaching to the converted) I've seen nothing in press to promote this.

The website (www.nationalmotorsportweek.co.uk) lists a number of events but all bar a couple are previously scheduled race events. There's no indication of what the newcomer can expect at any of these meetings, or even an details of where the venues are - most don't even tell you what county they are in.

I don't disagree with the sentiment - motorsport does need to appeal to a wider audience - but this seems like a half-baked effort. Any thoughts?

It is half-baked, and as Autosport pointed out (there is a feature in MN as well) it is because it was only planned a couple of months ago, rather than the best part of a year which is the lead time you really need for things like that. With such short notice it just isn't possible to do anything 'different' at the race meetings, or put on different ones.

Hopefully with more planning it will be a much bigger and better feature in 2007.

It is half-baked. According to MN the flagship event is a golf match. A golf match for pity's sake? It's motorsport week, not golf week.....

So poorly publicised. I'm in the motorsport indiustry and I didn't know about it until MN last week - completely missed the web site until reading this thread.

This is just a junket. If the MIA truly wants to get people involved in motorsport, it'd be sponsoring kids sessions at indoor kart centres, getting major teams into shopping centres............DON'T GET ME STARTED!

I thought I followed motorsport quite closesly, and I didn't know about this till Autosport yesterday. To be honest it just looked like there's a few high profile and not so high profile races going on the same weekend...

Well although I knew it was coming up in August, I didn't know when it was until seeing it on here...(having not yet opened MN / Autosport this week!).

Open season for cynics, this thread!!:stirrer: :p

Not at all. If I was being cynical I'd say that the whole idea was a waste of time, but that's not the case, I actually think it's a very good idea.

For many people the idea of motorsport starts and ends with the British GP. This is, or at least should have been, an opportunity to introduce the public at large to the bigger picture. Instead we get a pro-am golf match. Do you really think someone who is prepared to spend £200+ on a round of golf is a likely candidate for recruitment as a marshal?

No I don't, but this is at least a start in the right direction, and has already been said, it is short notice and perhaps too late for this season, so lets hope the powers that be learn the lesson and strat earlier in 2007

This has been so well publicised most of the motorclubs didn't know about it either.

The event I am helping to run at Goodwood is in the events list, which is clever as Goodwood Sprints are run as closed events.

No exactly. Though this one hasn't been too well done, next year with a years planning or so should be better and much better publicised.

next year with a years planning or so should be better and much better publicised.

:cool: Are you willing to put your money on it?:p

I'm fairly confident it'll be the shambles it is now.

I think it needs something fairly radical to get this initiative off the ground and making an impact for next year. 2 suggestions (which need to be well publicised - and not in the motorsport press!):
1. Get circuits to open up some meetings for free or a nominal £1. They're giving nothing away as the target audience wouldn't be coming anyway....... but they might well enjoy it enough to come again ...and pay!
2. Organise some 'behind the scenes' tours hosted by marshals and officials - charge a nominal £1 or so to keep the numbers managable (proceeds to the BMRMC?) We all take it for granted but people are fascinated by visits to race control, timekeepers, scrutineers, marshals posts etc and maybe a drive round the circuit in one of the course cars....and then, maybe, they'll want to join up?
Any other ideas?

I've noticed that at events such as "Drifting" and even Track Days there are more spectators through the gate than at traditional race meetings, so why not try and "convert" these into race spectators by giving them a ticket for free admission to a race event with their "DriftFest" admission? Or why not stick a couple of races on at the end of such an event?


For circuits that have CCTV, why not see if it's possible to send the feeds to a split screen "Giant" screen opposite a grandstand? Lets people see what's going on around the circuit.

Publicity, Publicity, Publicity.... How many times has someone said "Oh, was BTCC here this weekend?" So get publicity going.

Less formula, bigger grids. An old chestnut this... I'd rather see full grids of Vees than single figure grids of something "more exotic".

Anyways, just a few things to throw into the pot.

:cool: Are you willing to put your money on it?:p

I'm fairly confident it'll be the shambles it is now.

I actually think it may be better, but money? Nope! :p

:cool: I actually hope it'll be better.

On the subject of free tickets, i'm sure it was Brands who used to give away tickets. (It was a few years ago).:old:

If you went to meeting A you'd get freebies to meeting B and so on.

A mate of mine hardly missed a meeting and it cost him peanuts.

Has anyone heard of any feedback (Positive or otherwise) from the national motorsport week?

The MIA's post-event press release is here (http://www.easieradvertising.co.uk/view/News/Motoring/article-66773.html). Interesting it doesn't appear on either the MIA or Motorsports Week websites.

Highlights of the week seem to have been:
- old F1 drivers playing golf
- female singer gets ride in 2-seater race car
- club events in Cardiff and Oxford (also the only 2 mentioned on the NMW website prior to the week)

Have to say, this event really could have done with more promotion. I didn't know anything of it untill accidently stumbling over it on a motor club's website.

Hopefully with more planning it will be a much bigger and better feature in 2007.

Well NMW for 2008 is pretty much over - it was the 9th to 17th August. So two years on from this thread has anything much changed? Did people actually know about it this year? Clearly I, amongst others, was wrong in the past hoping it would get better in the future!!

The website is still there [http://www.nationalmotorsportweek.co.uk/] and does list some events though the news section seems pretty out of date. I haven't read any of the motorsport press this week so not sure if that covered anything but it doesn't seem to have improved at all. I thought that the MSA's new campaign "Go Motorsport" might have "replaced" it but bar a brief mention on their website [see here] (http://www.gomotorsport.net/en-GB/news/Go%20Motorsport%20in%20Motor%20Sport%20Week.html) I couldn't see much more.

Did'nt even know it was on.

Was it on? I didn't notice!

Was what on?

I had no idea this was on...nice too see things have changed.