Have your say about motorsport
Discussion
Finally a chance to say what we think about motorsport!
I saw a press release for a survey which anyone can fill in about motorsport in the UK and what it is like to be involved in it.
I’ve filled it in - took 5 minutes and it doesn’t ask for your name etc so it's confidential and spam-free
It's being run by the MSA (the car lot) and ACU (the bike lot) who are working together to improve motorsport in the UK and make it easier to get involved – which can only be a good thing!
If you’ve got 5 mins I think its worth giving some feedback via the survey – its not very often we get asked our opinion so here’s our chance!
www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=269173104860
I saw a press release for a survey which anyone can fill in about motorsport in the UK and what it is like to be involved in it.
I’ve filled it in - took 5 minutes and it doesn’t ask for your name etc so it's confidential and spam-free
It's being run by the MSA (the car lot) and ACU (the bike lot) who are working together to improve motorsport in the UK and make it easier to get involved – which can only be a good thing!
If you’ve got 5 mins I think its worth giving some feedback via the survey – its not very often we get asked our opinion so here’s our chance!
www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=269173104860
completed it, can only be a good thing and it might help to generate some more response. i thik the MSA do a very good job at the moment and have attended a few of their club seminars. the problems seem to be local councils who take a very negative view of motorsport and see it as wholly agasint their agenda. take the Combe/GT arguments, it ws clear that it did have an effect on the local residents but for one weekend a year, the council should have recognised the importance of that event on ciruit and to fans in the south west.
Planning permission etc is always the emotive issue and it just seems that councilstake a dim view and associate motorsport with chavs in novas thus the result is always against motorsport.
for other events like classic trials, there are people who see the cars use a certain piece of road (usually a white road or a RUPP) and immediately think if the dmage caused without realising that constant liasison with the landowner takes place to ascertaion damage limitation. personally, it is about taking motorsport to the lcoal communities and showing them how it is actually organised in the UK rather than just spending a billion pounds on a new grandstand at Mallory Park or whatever.
if we can generate interest and people learn to understand that the sport is not environmentally unfriendly, that safety is paramount, that the only racing takes place on the track and that they are welcome to join in, will will succeed. after all, the number of people who would get a buzz out of driving fast surely outweighs the number who would not, we all feed on adrenalin after all!.
Planning permission etc is always the emotive issue and it just seems that councilstake a dim view and associate motorsport with chavs in novas thus the result is always against motorsport.
for other events like classic trials, there are people who see the cars use a certain piece of road (usually a white road or a RUPP) and immediately think if the dmage caused without realising that constant liasison with the landowner takes place to ascertaion damage limitation. personally, it is about taking motorsport to the lcoal communities and showing them how it is actually organised in the UK rather than just spending a billion pounds on a new grandstand at Mallory Park or whatever.
if we can generate interest and people learn to understand that the sport is not environmentally unfriendly, that safety is paramount, that the only racing takes place on the track and that they are welcome to join in, will will succeed. after all, the number of people who would get a buzz out of driving fast surely outweighs the number who would not, we all feed on adrenalin after all!.
Just completed it. I think that from my position (i.e. club racer) I can see how the noise and planning issues are restrictive, but as they are at the moment do not have a massive effect on the health of the sport. There also seemed to be plenty of mention in the survey of the quality of venues - I think we are blessed with quite a number of good race tracks, which in the most part are well maintained.
The main problem I see with motorsport is its presentation in the media, or rather lack of it. The only (four wheel) series which now have any meaningful coverage in the mainstream media are F1 and touring cars (ish), and there are many reasons why this is the case. Chief of these are the well-documented problems with F1 (although I do enjoy it to an extent myself). F1 is:
> dull to watch for the general public
> too expensive for competing teams
> and therefore has too few competitive teams and too few teams in general
> full of strange and complicated rules
> races at boring tracks
> is over-promoted in comparison to its feeder series
> sucks money from other areas of the sport
etc. etc.
If there was greater interest in Formula One this would naturally filter down and introduce money to lower areas of the sport. Unfortunately much of the mainstream media is also left-wing and anti-car so there are also obvious problems there.
I think that GP2, Formula Three, WTCC, LMES at least should really have coverage on TTV. I find it extrordinary that, for example, Lewis Hamilton was not shortlisted for BBC Young Sports Personality, or there is not a pull-out Le Mans supplement in my paper.
The main problem I see with motorsport is its presentation in the media, or rather lack of it. The only (four wheel) series which now have any meaningful coverage in the mainstream media are F1 and touring cars (ish), and there are many reasons why this is the case. Chief of these are the well-documented problems with F1 (although I do enjoy it to an extent myself). F1 is:
> dull to watch for the general public
> too expensive for competing teams
> and therefore has too few competitive teams and too few teams in general
> full of strange and complicated rules
> races at boring tracks
> is over-promoted in comparison to its feeder series
> sucks money from other areas of the sport
etc. etc.
If there was greater interest in Formula One this would naturally filter down and introduce money to lower areas of the sport. Unfortunately much of the mainstream media is also left-wing and anti-car so there are also obvious problems there.
I think that GP2, Formula Three, WTCC, LMES at least should really have coverage on TTV. I find it extrordinary that, for example, Lewis Hamilton was not shortlisted for BBC Young Sports Personality, or there is not a pull-out Le Mans supplement in my paper.
Edited by SimonY on Friday 23 February 15:08
Edited by SimonY on Friday 23 February 15:11
There are some well argued views there. Could be better feedback from PHers than the survey 
You're dead right about TV coverage. Ask the average person on the street about motorsport and they'd say F1, Schumacher, etc. If pressed they might come up with Colin McRae. A Brit would have win Le Mans in a British car (or die trying) to make a blip on the radar
BTCC has been designed (contrived?) to be more exciting and uses cars everyone can relate to. Despite admittedly erratic TV coverage that doesn't seem to register. Even though F1 is processional, the majority of the audience seem to prefer to watch people they've heard of, drive irrelevant cars in line and win through impenetrable strategies, than watch wheel to wheel racing.
Perhaps because we all know that we can't be the next Jenson Button (apart from me obviously ; ) there's no move from the armchair to the recaro or from the sofa to the grandstand.
You're dead right about TV coverage. Ask the average person on the street about motorsport and they'd say F1, Schumacher, etc. If pressed they might come up with Colin McRae. A Brit would have win Le Mans in a British car (or die trying) to make a blip on the radar
BTCC has been designed (contrived?) to be more exciting and uses cars everyone can relate to. Despite admittedly erratic TV coverage that doesn't seem to register. Even though F1 is processional, the majority of the audience seem to prefer to watch people they've heard of, drive irrelevant cars in line and win through impenetrable strategies, than watch wheel to wheel racing.
Perhaps because we all know that we can't be the next Jenson Button (apart from me obviously ; ) there's no move from the armchair to the recaro or from the sofa to the grandstand.
nisman said:
BTCC has been designed (contrived?) to be more exciting and uses cars everyone can relate to.
Contrived is right. Weight penalties for success? No thank you. Whatever happened to Audi running 4wd cars that used to vanish into the distance at places like Knockhill? And where did all the RWD cars go?
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff