[MartinSmith]

Afternoon All (or if you have just come home from work...or indeed...live somewhere other than the UK...Good Morning, Good Evening and Good Night!!!)

Anyway, Happy new year...hope you are all well....There are 111 days left to the third running of the 360. 111 days!!! wow

Now as you are all aware I'm sure, we are very delighted with how the meeting is turning out, we have great support races form the HRDC bringing a great line up. But we also have exciting things going on that will become apparent later on in the coming weeks.

We have 5 Porsches now entered, 3 M3's, 1 528, 1 VW Golf (which may change into a 325....long story) and another M3 that is an ex Wilhire winner, 1 Fiat, 2 Aston Martins, 1 MACH1 and 1 Shelby Mustang,(being shipped from NY as we speak) 1 Jag, 1 Starrion all so far entered the 360 and a possible entry from a very famous car....still waiting to hear from that.

We have the Breakfast sprint on the saturday which is filling up fast but then again it would, its the 300 circuit....its 45mins plus qualifying and its £250 ...not being funny but its cheaper than an Essex Girls wine list ("when ya gonna take me shopping?" is my favorite whine) Bolt to this the HRDC races, The Crossle challenges, Radio LeMans broadcasting the event live and its got the makings of a fantastic weekend hasn't it.

However, the simple fact is that this is the third year of the initial investment that 360 (John and I) made in 2010. I will not beat around the bush but the original thread was for an Alternative Six Hour, I believe we can look everyone in the eye and say "We delivered it" ...we did, the team that brought you it worked non stop on it, they did everything that they could to promote and encourage it and many late nights, early mornings etc etc were sacrificed for the good of the "cause" and to both John and I a personal cost that was well into five figures each was also put up.
We were and still are committed to this event, we believe it has the makings of a great event that we hope will continue to grace the UK Motorsport Calandar for many years to come, but, we will tell you ten tenths before anyone else, it has to continue the upward spiral this year, because if it doesn't we will not subsidise it again.

360 is well on the way to being a financial as well as visual success in 2012 and indeed only today I have been approached with regards to the 2013 event taking another massive leap forward, it appears that people are beginning to like the event....that is good, but the six hour needs MORE CARS, its THAT SIMPLE. When this idea first came about, many many people claimed that they were going to do it, , we can understand that at first people took a "wait and see " approach, understandable. We were not known, it was a big unknown and at a time when the economic climate was and still is...a dangerous place.

That said, the field doubled in 2011 and we saw the concept of this great race take off. As I have stated, we have proved we can deliver, there are no more uncertainties with regards to that so now the ONUS IS ON YOU.

If you gave us 38 entries....the entry fee for this race could fall below £1000 per position on the grid, now I know (before you start telling me about the rest of the costs) that there is other expense, but that has GOT to be tempting hasnt it? You now have a choice. You can still not enter, still not do it, still have a wait and see attitude about this event, ...and run the risk of it falling to the weighside or someone else taking its concept and suddenly it being more like 2k to enter,or, you can think "sod it...Im gonna have a bash at it"

It is that simple. Dont get me wrong, the event this year, as a whole I have no worries about it at all, it will without doubt be a success in that respect and what we will be communicating later in the week will confirm that, but, 18 cars for a six hour is not enough to make the world look at this event AND I FOR ONE WANT THEM TO!.

Go tell your friends with eligible cars, go get the people, if you said you would do it then do it, Im not Bob Geldolf so Im not gonna swear etc but just go get the cars...make the six hour the endurance race.....as it should be




PS, there are at least two drivers (one fairly famous) who want to do this race but need a car if anyone is interested let me know

Ta
Claire