Button in BGT

[covboy]

At Silverstone on 7/8th November sharing a McLaren with buddy Chris Buncombe. Just a pity the event has been classified an "elite" event with no spectators. Could have been a huge boost for the profile of the series

[zeb]

That was a shock, thought jenson was doing britains got talent for painful moment then.....!!!

[HTP99]

zeb said:

That was a shock, thought jenson was doing britains got talent for painful moment then.....!!!

LOL, exactly what come to my mind too.

[Kraken]

covboy said:

At Silverstone on 7/8th November sharing a McLaren with buddy Chris Buncombe. Just a pity the event has been classified an "elite" event with no spectators. Could have been a huge boost for the profile of the series

It's not classified as an elite event AFAIK. Only BTCC and F1 as they have had spectators at other BGT rounds. I read elsewhere that it's because Silverstone classify themselves as a stadium so aren't allowed spectators under that rule. Not sure how true that is but it would be odd if they only classed one round of BGT as elite and not the others.

[CAPP0]

zeb said:

That was a shock, thought jenson was doing britains got talent for painful moment then.....!!!

Whereas I thought he was asking a question about the dashboard in an old MG!

[ch37]

Kraken said:

It's not classified as an elite event AFAIK. Only BTCC and F1 as they have had spectators at other BGT rounds. I read elsewhere that it's because Silverstone classify themselves as a stadium so aren't allowed spectators under that rule. Not sure how true that is but it would be odd if they only classed one round of BGT as elite and not the others.

It could be as simple as Silverstone deciding it's not worth the effort until 2021, particularly with all their cash-cows definitely having had to be behind closed doors. They have (and have had) a number of club events, such as the upcoming HSCC weekend, which in theory would be absolutely fine. Do most club events there still work on a track hire basis with a percentage of ticket sales going back to the organising club?

Allowing spectators will bring significant costs that may not be outweighed by ticket sales. MSV pushed ahead early but I imagine they have a central team who were able to do all the COVID-secure work and then apply it to all of their circuits and events. Independent circuits such as Castle Combe opened much later, and even then they've said it's simply not worth opening more than a section of the perimeter to spectators.

I always remember the Britcar 24hr mentioning that it was borderline whether it was worth opening to spectators at all once upon a time, they reduced their H&S/staffing commitments quite a bit by (in theory) banning spectators from moving away from the main straight during the night hours.

Edited by ch37 on Monday 19th October 08:38

[covboy]

ch37 said:

Do most club events there still work on a track hire basis with a percentage of ticket sales going back to the organising club?

Edited by ch37 on Monday 19th October 08:38

Yes most Club events are done on a (VERY expensive) hire basis and as far as I know they recieve no percentage of gate income. Try explaining that to the avarage Club racer who complains about entry fees rising