Private hire of a drag (or air) strip for club drag racing?

[SRWDD]

Anyone know of anywhere that may be agreeable to renting out an air or drag strip to a club for a days drag racing? I was assuming that IF I could find somewhere to do it that it would likely be an airstrip or similar, I imagine the costs of one of the bigger strips may be prohibitive for the intended use.

Any ideas? Also what/if any regaulations are there re: emergency equipme3nt for something like this? We're not talking top fuellers here, road cars running at quickest low 12 second et's.

Thanks for any help you can give guys
Jamie

[SRWDD]

Oh, and I was hoping for somewhere Midlands or slightly further south.

Cheers

[Tet]

There's this place near Podington you might be interested in... Have you tried asking them? I don't know how much they charge, but the track's available for private hire.

Edited by Tet on Monday 8th September 12:20

[CRR]

Tet said:

I don't know how much they charge, but the track's available for private hire.

Several thousand pounds per day.

[SRWDD]

Looking for something a little more... erm... 'budget'.

[Time Machine]

SRWDD said:

Looking for something a little more... erm... 'budget'.

You could try North Weald - http://www.northwealdmotorsport.co.uk/

[CRR]

SRWDD said:

Looking for something a little more... erm... 'budget'.

I'm afraid that the days of slipping a friendly farmer a few quid to run up and down his old runway are long gone. Even if you could find such a person, there are so many other things to consider such as insurance of all kinds, paramedics etc. Without spending the necessary money on such things, you would be leaving yourselves wideopen to all sorts of litigation.

[CRR]

Time Machine said:

You could try North Weald - http://www.northwealdmotorsport.co.uk/

Also very expensive.

[SRWDD]

What aout if it was run at somewhere that hosts track days?

I agree CCR, lots of other things to think about... I know of clubs on the continent that have done something similar (Belgium) but not sure what the litigation side of things is.

Re: insurance, I thought you waivered your insurance rights as part of the signing on process at a drag strip, accepting that Motorport is dangerous etc. Agree that some forms of emergency services would be required, I would assume fire & ambulance, but I may be wrong. I understand most track days have St. Johns on hand, but not sure what there is in the way of fire fighting equipment available.

Any ideas or input on any of the above would be welcomed, even if its - forget it!

[CRR]

SRWDD said:

Re: insurance, I thought you waivered your insurance rights as part of the signing on process at a drag strip, accepting that Motorport is dangerous etc.

I very much doubt if that is true. However, I wasn't really thinking about competitors, rather I was thinking about casual spectators who would be bound to turn up. I think you would need some form of cover for that.

[dbv8]

Ive also been thinking of organising a TVR day too.
It seems the easiest way is to just turn up at a RWYB and have a word.
Im sure they would organise a seperate group within the RWYB queue so that you could all run at the same times and with each other.
York have seperate classes within RWYB and im sure thay cater for clubs too.
Im going to ask on the 21st and see about gathering a few TVRs for a meet in the new year.

[NitroWars]

CRR said:

SRWDD said:

Re: insurance, I thought you waivered your insurance rights as part of the signing on process at a drag strip, accepting that Motorport is dangerous etc.

I very much doubt if that is true. However, I wasn't really thinking about competitors, rather I was thinking about casual spectators who would be bound to turn up. I think you would need some form of cover for that.

... and for officials and emergency staff (First aiders/fire crew etc).

[CRR]

SRWDD said:

I understand most track days have St. Johns on hand, but not sure what there is in the way of fire fighting equipment available.

I think that you will find that it's pretty much impossible to get the St Johns Ambulance Brigade to attend any event you put on as they simply do not have the members nowadays. As far as fire fighting goes, you would need at least 10 or so fire extinguishers.

[SRWDD]

Its a very good point guys - thanks for your comments.

Thinking about it the best way might be to look into hiring a venue that caters for motorsport already and has the infrastructure etc. in place already - the only question then is cost, and how many people would be needed to attend to recoup the cost.

Any further ideas, or indeed as many negative comments (not saying you guys have been negative - you've rightly highlighted the pitfalls) as possible would be welcomed!

Thanks

[CRR]

dbv8 said:

Ive also been thinking of organising a TVR day too.
It seems the easiest way is to just turn up at a RWYB and have a word.
Im sure they would organise a seperate group within the RWYB queue so that you could all run at the same times and with each other.
York have seperate classes within RWYB and im sure thay cater for clubs too.
Im going to ask on the 21st and see about gathering a few TVRs for a meet in the new year.

That seems the most sensible idea. Minimum amount of hassle and expense.

[veryoldfart]

ask curborough sprint, theres a straight...and i could walk over to watch...

might just be 1/8th mile...

http://www.curborough.co.uk/

[liner33]

Hiring Santa pod can be reasonable if you can get enough people on board. Trackday Addict did this last year and i was very impressed with the organisation and efficiency of the pod staff , granted it was a small number of us there and no doubt it cost John a small fortune but the potential testing available for racers and non racers is always expensive.

I know i wouldve jumped at the chance when i was racing so the chance to get a few drag racers on board would be an option , i think the SSB and 200mph.org guys arrange their own test days in this way as well.

[dbv8]

CRR said:

dbv8 said:

Ive also been thinking of organising a TVR day too.
It seems the easiest way is to just turn up at a RWYB and have a word.
Im sure they would organise a seperate group within the RWYB queue so that you could all run at the same times and with each other.
York have seperate classes within RWYB and im sure thay cater for clubs too.
Im going to ask on the 21st and see about gathering a few TVRs for a meet in the new year.

That seems the most sensible idea. Minimum amount of hassle and expense.

Ive been to the last 2 weekends at York. 1st time i entered as RWYB and the second time in T class (1800cc+ with nitrous)
In a day where there were a lot of cars running i managed to get 12 runs in with time to make alterations etc to my car.
These days arent too busy and there is the bonus of spectating other classes, bikes, nutters, and even a jetcar the day i was there.

£30 to sign up, take a helmet, get in the queue and have some fun.
Simple.

[SRWDD]

good thinking DBV....

We'll see how things turn out.

[CRR]

liner33 said:

i think the SSB and 200mph.org guys arrange their own test days in this way as well.

Yes, but they hire SPR midweek which is obviously cheaper.