Small grid sizes for Radical racing - What is going on?
Discussion
I don’t why they are so small these days, but I went to Oulton for the the British GT weekend and there were only 9 cars on the grid for the SR1s and in the two races the cars were so spread out out it was ridiculous. Then for the first round of the European Masters I noticed it was much the same with just 10cars mostly going round on their own.
Anyway I raised the point on their twitter feed that this is unfair on paying spectators and all they did was block me. Twice!
Hardly a way to interact with motorsport fans. I’m very disappointed. I used to enjoy watching Radicals but now they see to treat us with contempt. And why are they doing so badly with their grids when Caterhams, Ginettas, Minis etc are doing so well? Something must be going on there. They really shouldn’t be on the higher ticket entry price weekends until they reach a minimum number of cars surely?
Anyway I raised the point on their twitter feed that this is unfair on paying spectators and all they did was block me. Twice!
Hardly a way to interact with motorsport fans. I’m very disappointed. I used to enjoy watching Radicals but now they see to treat us with contempt. And why are they doing so badly with their grids when Caterhams, Ginettas, Minis etc are doing so well? Something must be going on there. They really shouldn’t be on the higher ticket entry price weekends until they reach a minimum number of cars surely?
t PR department won’t help... Haven't watched it for a while but I wonder if it's suffering from the same issue a lot of others series have in that teams come in with big budgets and the grass roots people get fed up and go elsewhere leaving those teams and a handful of hard core people behind.
Always amazes me how many series there are which used to be man and a van which are now full of 100k motorhomes, transporters and six mechanic teams.
Always amazes me how many series there are which used to be man and a van which are now full of 100k motorhomes, transporters and six mechanic teams.
Cost and far too many race series out there. I wouldn't be surprised if is cost 6 figures to run a radical and requires a team too run it, also there are so many prototype machines out there which cost far less and will be equally as quick.
Motorsport in the UK needs too have a massive shake up far too many championship with very low grids. For example the UK Renault junior series has 6/7 cars there is no need for it while ginetta juniors has a big following. ALso on a lower budget you got 2 further junior catagry with equally low grids. Also msa doesn't help by increasing cost of competing pretty much every year.
I'm starting my first year with the 750mc in the sports special 3 separate classes with fields of 25-30 cars and even across their other championship all have 15 or more entries with most being above 20. From what I've seen the barc run series seems too be the worst offenders for low grid numbers.
Motorsport in the UK needs too have a massive shake up far too many championship with very low grids. For example the UK Renault junior series has 6/7 cars there is no need for it while ginetta juniors has a big following. ALso on a lower budget you got 2 further junior catagry with equally low grids. Also msa doesn't help by increasing cost of competing pretty much every year.
I'm starting my first year with the 750mc in the sports special 3 separate classes with fields of 25-30 cars and even across their other championship all have 15 or more entries with most being above 20. From what I've seen the barc run series seems too be the worst offenders for low grid numbers.
ArnageWRC said:
Absolutely!! But who is going to sort it?
Whilst there is room on the schedules for the races it's going to be in the interests of the organising clubs (BARC, BRSSC etc) to have even low entry races running as they get revenue from it and the series are administered by volunteers so little cost savings to be made in dropping them.I believe the MSA's view is that it is not their place to decide which series are commercially viable.
As a spectator my view is that it is always worth having one 'dud' race on the schedule of a meeting as that gives you time to wander the paddock and look at the more interesting vehicles.
Truckosaurus said:
Whilst there is room on the schedules for the races it's going to be in the interests of the organising clubs (BARC, BRSSC etc) to have even low entry races running as they get revenue from it and the series are administered by volunteers so little cost savings to be made in dropping them.
Track time costs money, so, whilst small grids will be making a contribution, races with small numbers of participants are costing other grids money as they are subsidising them.It costs roughly £100k to run a race meeting for a weekend at somewhere like Rockingham and unless you have consistently high grid numbers for every race then the club will be losing money on the meeting. That is unsustainable if it happens too much.
CSCC, which I most familiar with, will usually not run a series of it gets fewer than about 16 cars on the grid after the first few attempts. It will amalgamate the grid with others or can it, and try something else.
I used to work as a mechanic for one of the teams, the cost of spares for from Radical was eye watering and of course you have to use official parts.. I seem to remember everything about the series cost an arm and a leg.
It's a shame when you consider the original clubsport was a brilliant little car that was accessible (just about) to normal club racers. The grids were huge and they were great meetings.
I moved on about 10 years ago and even then I wondered if it could sustain grids with such huge costs. I remember SR8 gearboxes routinely lunching themselves after a handful of laps, and replacements costing thousands of pounds.
It's a shame when you consider the original clubsport was a brilliant little car that was accessible (just about) to normal club racers. The grids were huge and they were great meetings.
I moved on about 10 years ago and even then I wondered if it could sustain grids with such huge costs. I remember SR8 gearboxes routinely lunching themselves after a handful of laps, and replacements costing thousands of pounds.
andy97 said:
Track time costs money, so, whilst small grids will be making a contribution, races with small numbers of participants are costing other grids money as they are subsidising them.
It costs roughly £100k to run a race meeting for a weekend at somewhere like Rockingham and unless you have consistently high grid numbers for every race then the club will be losing money on the meeting. That is unsustainable if it happens too much.
CSCC, which I most familiar with, will usually not run a series of it gets fewer than about 16 cars on the grid after the first few attempts. It will amalgamate the grid with others or can it, and try something else.
Not always the case, a lot of series "buy track time" so the organising club are not that bothered how many cars actually race as they will still get there money. It costs roughly £100k to run a race meeting for a weekend at somewhere like Rockingham and unless you have consistently high grid numbers for every race then the club will be losing money on the meeting. That is unsustainable if it happens too much.
CSCC, which I most familiar with, will usually not run a series of it gets fewer than about 16 cars on the grid after the first few attempts. It will amalgamate the grid with others or can it, and try something else.
I'm surprised more circuits haven't taken the Castle Combe approach of predominantly home series. Numbers have fluctuated over the years as you'd expect but they've weathered some pretty big storms and can pretty much guarantee a worst case scenario of 75+ cars (across 4 races) every race meeting before they've even filled the rest of the timetable with visiting series.
Seems to work with the crowds too, almost exclusively club level racing yet probably troubling average attendance numbers for some much bigger circuits over a racing season.
Seems to work with the crowds too, almost exclusively club level racing yet probably troubling average attendance numbers for some much bigger circuits over a racing season.
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff