BSB 2024 Grids

You're wrong there, Silverstone ran F1 at a fairly substantial loss for many years
As an employee of Silverstone, I can qualify that statement fairly well

The problem Silverstone has is that F1 has a very substantial hosting fee payable to the race series for having an event.
This is normal with Racing, and MotoGP also has a Substantial fee, WSBK still a large fee, and BSB a not insignificant amount

Where Silverstone struggles for the international race series' is that in the case of many of the international circuits used for car and bike racing, they receive decent funding from their governments or local councils as they recognise that there's some economic benefit to tourism for the duration, as well as some marketing spin on these countries hosting such international events and being shone in a positive light.
Silverstone doesn't get that.
The Netflix series has done wonders for F1, and attendance figures world wide are massive
The amazon MotoGp series probably did it more harm than good

BSB/MSVR is a business, and as such, needs to make a profit. Navarra now being under the wing of MSV needs to do the same. Having BSB there, in some way, substantiates the facility as somewhere worth visiting
I'd assume their plans for it are over several year's and they're going to try and attract the trackday market, which is of course popular in both bikes and cars, as well as manufacture launches, private testing etc, which make up the bread and butter of most circuits income

Whether it'll be amazing for BSB, who knows. I think it's something different and new, and it adds another dimension to the season rather than freezing for round 1 in the UK.
The cost of it has put a lot of spectators off, and there'll be a fair few support class riders and teams that don't go for the same reason.
I feel for the chap that put the effort in to arrange a coach, but I can see people's concerns, as I'd have no interest in spending 30 hours or whatever it is, sat on a coach. We're flying in, hiring a car and have booked an AirBnB about 15mins away, but we're in a lucky position that the team organise logistics of bikes etc.
Personally, I'm looking forward to it

If there's one thing Palmer is very good at, it's making cash
There'll be a plan in place for the long term of that track, and running a BSB round there might just be the start of it
How he's organising marshals, timing team etc, I have no idea, but in the scheme of things, the logistics of that are quite simple in comparison to many other elements of running a race series abroad

Plenty of series have run abroad despite running a British championship for many years, British GT Formula 3 and even minor stuff like rallycross, but usually at venues used to dealing with Brits like Spa or venues in France like Nogario, Navarra is not one of those venues.

I could even see the point in Asse but MSV were probably paying to hire that and it clearly didn't work, but it was also during Covd so praps why.

I simply do not like the idea of a British series going to a track in Spain, Holland even Belgium or France fair enough but Spain, might aswell go to misano or Mugello!

And sorry to say again but if Silervstone was really losing vast sums from f1 they would have dropped it years ago like Hockenheim and the Nurburgring did, you cant run a venue like that and make huge losses all the time, they were ticking over for a few years aswell as possibly not doing so, plus they had to resurface the track due to woeful workmanship for bikes years ago and they are STILL going so the sob story falls on deaf ears for me sorry.

Quite possibly, yeah
But Anglesey banning EV’s isn’t unexpected, as as much as I really love that track (it’s one of my favourites to ride) it’s in the back end of nowhere and run with quite a backwards mentality. Putting in infrastructure to deal with EV’s is probably very expensive, and not something they could justify doing
But… it’s very possible to do and both MotoE and formula E have shown that electric racing is possible in a safe manner (albeit rather boring) and other tracks still welcome in electric cars for trackdays

I was at Silverstone the day that McMurty were there developing and testing the Sperling electric track car that smashed the record at FOS
Whether I’m a fan of electric cars or not, there’s no doubting that it’s seriously impressive and the lap times were way faster than anything you could buy as a track car - quite a bit faster than even a Radical, and you’d need a current LMP car to get even close
The range is a bit crap at full chat, but you can drive it at any track on any day as there’s no noise issues

What Palmer has planned for Couvron circuit in France, I have no idea, but he’s been pushing on with it since 2015, so it’s not unrealistic to assume that it’s doing ok and planning of whatever they’re doing next is going in some direction - probably, with France being a very eco invested country, he has some financial help from the government too ? Like k said in a previous post, Palmer is a clever businessman, so will have something up his sleeve

I’m still on the fence about Navarra being in the BSB Championship, but I’m excited to see how it pans out, and like a lot of teams and riders, are looking forward to something different
I think it’s a shame the British Fan numbers won’t be like they are at UK circuits, but I’d imagine the TV numbers will be exceptionally high as it’s the first race of the season and a track that people are going to keen to see as it’s different

It’s not long until we find out anyway as it’s creeping up

Thing is if you didn't have every series you'd still have same amount of spectators as they come primarily for the bsb races.

Alternatively combe already has a bike series which hardly anyone pays to watch probably a similar story at the other tracks.

Why would msv put on events the public don't support.

My point exactly graeme, I love Cadwell I grew up watching stuff there but is is perhaps the most unsafe track they race on other than praps the Brands long circuit. Yet we have no issue going there as it is owned by the gaffer.

This almost double standard is what gets me, I know and understand why He owns them all, but the North has nothing other than KNockhill, Croft was perfectly decent, I know there were issues but surely something could be done. They can host BTCC which has lots of classes similar media requirements I dont know about safety but surely it's possible, maybe they dont have enough noise dates after previous problems.

I know it wont, but to have an event in the middle of nowhere over and above several possible UK venues is rather sad, but I guess it is the way modern racing is.

I don’t know how anyone can criticise Mr Palmer or Mr Higgs (and others) who are the key people behind a great series.

In business (which this is) your never going to keep everyone happy in the decisions that are made.

Oh hey I am not criticising MSV or what they do, I am merely suggesting that going to the middle of Spain is not perhaps the best option for a British based series especially for fans and as we know teams who some of are not at all keen on this idea.

The Croft situation was long ago resolved and I am sure they raced BSB there after this, but they are very noise limited as a result, Mallory is no good, but Mondello I thought was a fabulous track, bumpy, tight, surely no less dangerous than Cadwell, and when you think of all the riders that come from Ireland, it was a no brainer but i gather the riders and teams did not "like it" but this was back ion the HM Plant GSE days. their factory tyres probably didn't get on with it lol!

The lack of BSB at Croft is nothing to do with noise or historic court cases. There is plenty of noisy bike racing at Croft every year from the North East Motorcycle club, to No Limits, via the Classic Bikes.