state of club racing

[soper]

I have been a BRSCC club member & driver for 15 years and was the coordinator of the AutoItalia championship for 6 of those

Interesting threads on this forum, here are some of my thoughts on the state of club racing for you to muse :

Costs - Look around the paddock, where are the younger generation - unless there is family money someone in their twenties cannot afford to race. Housing costs are so high, even if you have an above average salary you cannot afford to race and support a mortgage as a first time buyer, let alone a family. Even racing your road car is difficult because road insurance is crippling, and modern houses have precious little room for race cars and trailers. So the people that go racing tend to be financially sorted mid to late thirties upwards who pay others to have their cars prepared. Given this its no wonder the driver pool is shrinking, and how many of those who are racing can manage to do a full championship?

When I coordinated the AutoItalia championship I used to reckon it good going to get a third of my registered drivers out at any time, in the best years of 98 & 99 I had over 75 registrations. Perhaps 15 of those 75 intended to do a full season and contend the championship, and about a half of the 15 would break their car and give up on the championship half way through. Of those that stopped racing it is mostly because of cost, whilst those who are better off inevitably want more for their money hence the popularity of Radicals and Britcar which offer longer races. I did see a bit of criticism of the BRSCC EuroSaloon race championship in one of the threads but what we are trying to provide is somewhere to race practically whatever car you have on a national basis (so long as it is not a Radical, Caterham or special GT silhouette etc)

The real problem facing us is the very structure of club racing, as well as too many championships there are too many organising clubs - BRSCC, BARC, BRDC, 750MC, CSCC, HSCC, DDMC, JCC, SEMSEC, Top Hat, and too many vested interests of the people proposing championships. All these clubs are duplicating cost infrastructure (race entries, timetabling, coordination etc) and are obsessed with mounting championships rather than races - A case in point, I actually have two race cars in the garage, they can fit in all sorts of championships and I would quite like to race perhaps every third weekend in the summer in many of the races organised by the clubs just mentioned, (such as Formula saloons, Alfa Romeo, Centurion, Eurosaloons, BARC saloons Britcar, super coupes, Britsports, Special GT etc), but really just at my favorite circuits. What I am not going to do is join yet another organising club as a racing member, stump up a championship registration fee, buy special or control tyres, buy special fuel (unless it is Shell Optimax) or go to some dusty & dangerous little circuit in Kent or Wales (unless the entry fee is low!) - you get the picture, all I want is a bit of fun without a lot of hassle and additional expense. Also, unless you do join all of these clubs it is very difficult to get an overview of what is racing where, you have to trawl through lots of different websites, download endless .pdf files of regulations etc. We need a central source to see what races are on and to get entry forms from. If its too much hassle I will just find some other leisure activity.

There is demand - the BRSCC held several open races 2002 & 2003 with entry fees at realistic prices to fill up space allocated to failed championships and they were sell outs, probably generated more income than the championship rounds at the same meetings.

The days when championships can be so fussy about what you can and cannot have or race are gone, we should be providing races that fit the cars that are out there rather than demanding specific cars. There are exceptions and such championships should be properly promoted by interested parties or manufacturers, but for club racing this should be the case. If you are worried about equality specify minimum weights and intake restrictors - these do not cost too much. Smaller organising clubs are beginning to realise this but the bigger clubs are too set in their ways with their rigidly single make championships.

Track time : who has been to a race meeting at a circuit licensed for 30 cars and most of the championships field just 10 or 15 - all that spare track time is lost, and we are paying for that because the entry fees go up to compensate for fewer people racing. We should demand better value. Perhaps we could combine qualifying sessions & races, or have an open pit lane in the morning for you to go out and qualify or test as you please, hold meetings that do not mix single seaters and saloons so that there is potential for more crossover between championships (benefits of two drivers sharing costs and cars in different races) and offer the drivers already at the meeting an additional race in another championship at a discounted entry fee. This is often done by small clubs on an emergency basis but why not make it part of the day, even put on a race of winners as the last race, so that the top five in each of the preceding races go into a final shoot out race. Good for spectators.

Discuss.