'FreeRace' Event

[quick nick]

Hi Guys,

I am going to this event (hopefully if I get picked!) in Jan and wondered if anyone else is going?

Its called the Freerace and it is a free racing event open to the public, I signed on using Fbook (www.facebook.com/UKFreerace) and they just announced it is somewhere in the Midlands. Anyone else heard about this? They are apparently using these Nissan 370Z's with mods:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVH55r7OrEc

It is being chatted about on a load of other forums so pretty confident that its legit. Just wondered if any fellow PHers have entered?

[thunderbelmont]

Spotted that. In the Midlands eh? Wonder if it's being organised by that cock Gillett, and running at Donington Park?? In which case... No.

I wonder what the chances are of it being a bit of a scam??

[quick nick]

Yeah, I have been wondering, there is lots of talk on different forums and people are reserving judgement on this event. I think because it is being publicised in a very strange way, all 'Fight Club'-esque..

Seems to be legit though as you can see the cars and there is loads of activity on that facebook page. All will hopefully be revealed on the 5th Jan when they release the format of the racing, and who has been selected to race!

[lewis1]

looks to me like its going to be btcc. Loads of crashing and crap passes, look at the size of the crash bars they are putting on the cars, no rules? who is this dreamer.

[quick nick]

So youre not even tempted to sign up then?! I have no idea what to expect, but I know I would love to get picked, those are some serious bumper car impact protectors! I always wondered what it would be like to play bumper cars with proper cars!

Maybe dont expect the world in terms of becoming a racing driver, but a good day out at lease will be had by those people who get picked, I'm sure.

[Piglet]

Hmmm - outside of the MSA's structure presumably as they say open to anyone without reference to needing race licences?

[Piglet]

How strange Quick Nick, you are also plugging this on 10/10's - maybe you want to be a little more upfront about your involvement? I smell someone plugging their own event without wanting to admit it...

[quick nick]

Ha! I wish I was subject to the glitz and glamour of motorsport! Perhaps I will if this thing works out... I am loving this whole idea and getting everyone's thoughts on it..seems to be getting a very mixed reception, butI suppose all will be revealed in the next week or so either way.

[stin]

Found some more pic's:

http://my350z.com/forum/media-share/468847-uk-free...

[Oakey]

quick nick said:

Ha! I wish I was subject to the glitz and glamour of motorsport! Perhaps I will if this thing works out... I am loving this whole idea and getting everyone's thoughts on it..seems to be getting a very mixed reception, butI suppose all will be revealed in the next week or so either way.

I see he's talking st again;

From his profile: "can be seen hanging out at Ace Cafe, Santa Pod, and tracks such as Silverstone, Brands Hatch and Bedford Autodrome"

His website: http://www.therealgranturismo.com/

[fastfreddy]

Oakey said:

quick nick said:

Ha! I wish I was subject to the glitz and glamour of motorsport! Perhaps I will if this thing works out... I am loving this whole idea and getting everyone's thoughts on it..seems to be getting a very mixed reception, butI suppose all will be revealed in the next week or so either way.

I see he's talking st again;

From his profile: "can be seen hanging out at Ace Cafe, Santa Pod, and tracks such as Silverstone, Brands Hatch and Bedford Autodrome"

His website: http://www.therealgranturismo.com/

Very odd that the OP should make these comments as he made the teaser video they are using to publicise the event!

And apparently, he's the new Stig (or maybe that's his dad's name and he's using it at weekends)

Edited by fastfreddy on Saturday 9th January 11:21

[mattikake]

Scam.

I wonder if these people having anything to do with those that were caught holding an illegal night race on the old Hockenheim circuit?

[stin]

mattikake said:

Scam.

I wonder if these people having anything to do with those that were caught holding an illegal night race on the old Hockenheim circuit?

Well they have announced that the mystery backer is Nissan GB. I have some contacts at Nissan GB and will be asking just to see if it's real. I did enter and have been put forward in to the Friday heat but will only go depending on what i find out from Nissan on Monday.

[team underdog]

stin said:

mattikake said:

Scam.

I wonder if these people having anything to do with those that were caught holding an illegal night race on the old Hockenheim circuit?

Well they have announced that the mystery backer is Nissan GB. I have some contacts at Nissan GB and will be asking just to see if it's real. I did enter and have been put forward in to the Friday heat but will only go depending on what i find out from Nissan on Monday.

Post your findings Stin - I've been invited myself but am dubious to say the least. Why would they want everything to be a mystery? What benefit would Nissan get from financing such an event and the winners prize when there is no mainstream media coverage? It all appears quite amateur and suspect to me.

I see from te invite that you won't find out if you've made it to the next round - which takes place the floowing day - until 8.00pm Friday evening. So I'd have to travel all that way and arrange accomodation, then hang around til the evening to find out if I qualified. If I then find out it's all a pointless crock of sh!t, I've taken a day off work and wasted at least £200...

[fastfreddy]

team underdog said:

stin said:

mattikake said:

Scam.

I wonder if these people having anything to do with those that were caught holding an illegal night race on the old Hockenheim circuit?

Well they have announced that the mystery backer is Nissan GB. I have some contacts at Nissan GB and will be asking just to see if it's real. I did enter and have been put forward in to the Friday heat but will only go depending on what i find out from Nissan on Monday.

Post your findings Stin - I've been invited myself but am dubious to say the least. Why would they want everything to be a mystery? What benefit would Nissan get from financing such an event and the winners prize when there is no mainstream media coverage? It all appears quite amateur and suspect to me.

I see from te invite that you won't find out if you've made it to the next round - which takes place the floowing day - until 8.00pm Friday evening. So I'd have to travel all that way and arrange accomodation, then hang around til the evening to find out if I qualified. If I then find out it's all a pointless crock of sh!t, I've taken a day off work and wasted at least £200...

The exploitation will come after the event (if it all works the way they intend it to). It will be filmed and a few D-list celebrities will be involved and that's when they'll want to make something out of it in the hope of selling more cars. Whether it ever attracts any real attention remains to be seen.

If you didn't have a big marketing budget (and not many car manufacturers do these days) then it might be the sort of thing worth a punt. Try and create a buzz by releasing very little information and not advertising it widely and hope that viral methods do the job.

They've only had about 600 people register for the event in the UK, so that's either a miserable result or they didn't want the publicity and loads of entrants up-front. More likely, they already had a few drivers lined up for 'glory' and they just needed to make the numbers up with a few no-hopers so it looks a bit more interesting for the intended audience when they get round to the final events, at which time they will spend some proper money on publicity.

If they really wanted to find some good, unknown, novice drivers with potential and give them a break they would have made a lot more effort in the selection process.

So far, it's not cost Nissan a huge amount of money (a few cars off the production line and a bit of money lobbed to Silverstone and RJN to get the event underway). As it's not on a circuit, there's no MSA crap for them to worry about so it's all pretty low risk and if it all falls flat then they won't lose too much sleep or money over it.

I'm being quite cynical, I know, but on a positive note the idea of putting on a free event for novice drivers who don't need an MSA licence is one I would support wholeheartedly if it was organised well and not fixed.

My concern at the moment is that this will fall short in one or both of those areas, but let's wait and see.

[team underdog]

fastfreddy said:

team underdog said:

stin said:

mattikake said:

Scam.

I wonder if these people having anything to do with those that were caught holding an illegal night race on the old Hockenheim circuit?

Well they have announced that the mystery backer is Nissan GB. I have some contacts at Nissan GB and will be asking just to see if it's real. I did enter and have been put forward in to the Friday heat but will only go depending on what i find out from Nissan on Monday.

Post your findings Stin - I've been invited myself but am dubious to say the least. Why would they want everything to be a mystery? What benefit would Nissan get from financing such an event and the winners prize when there is no mainstream media coverage? It all appears quite amateur and suspect to me.

I see from te invite that you won't find out if you've made it to the next round - which takes place the floowing day - until 8.00pm Friday evening. So I'd have to travel all that way and arrange accomodation, then hang around til the evening to find out if I qualified. If I then find out it's all a pointless crock of sh!t, I've taken a day off work and wasted at least £200...

The exploitation will come after the event (if it all works the way they intend it to). It will be filmed and a few D-list celebrities will be involved and that's when they'll want to make something out of it in the hope of selling more cars. Whether it ever attracts any real attention remains to be seen.

If you didn't have a big marketing budget (and not many car manufacturers do these days) then it might be the sort of thing worth a punt. Try and create a buzz by releasing very little information and not advertising it widely and hope that viral methods do the job.

They've only had about 600 people register for the event in the UK, so that's either a miserable result or they didn't want the publicity and loads of entrants up-front. More likely, they already had a few drivers lined up for 'glory' and they just needed to make the numbers up with a few no-hopers so it looks a bit more interesting for the intended audience when they get round to the final events, at which time they will spend some proper money on publicity.

If they really wanted to find some good, unknown, novice drivers with potential and give them a break they would have made a lot more effort in the selection process.

So far, it's not cost Nissan a huge amount of money (a few cars off the production line and a bit of money lobbed to Silverstone and RJN to get the event underway). As it's not on a circuit, there's no MSA crap for them to worry about so it's all pretty low risk and if it all falls flat then they won't lose too much sleep or money over it.

I'm being quite cynical, I know, but on a positive note the idea of putting on a free event for novice drivers who don't need an MSA licence is one I would support wholeheartedly if it was organised well and not fixed.

My concern at the moment is that this will fall short in one or both of those areas, but let's wait and see.

It would make sense to keep the numbers low to reduce costs. I've just been reading on their facebbok page that 200 entrants will be whittled down to just 9, who will enter a qualification round the next day with 3 celebs. The rumour I hear is that this will be held at the Autosport live show - hence why they say the dates can't be changed, only the venue.

When Nissan are already supporting the GT5 competition, it doesn't make much sense for them throw money at this. The only thing I can think to compare it to is Total Wipeout with cars!

[fastfreddy]

team underdog said:

fastfreddy said:

team underdog said:

stin said:

mattikake said:

Scam.

I wonder if these people having anything to do with those that were caught holding an illegal night race on the old Hockenheim circuit?

Well they have announced that the mystery backer is Nissan GB. I have some contacts at Nissan GB and will be asking just to see if it's real. I did enter and have been put forward in to the Friday heat but will only go depending on what i find out from Nissan on Monday.

Post your findings Stin - I've been invited myself but am dubious to say the least. Why would they want everything to be a mystery? What benefit would Nissan get from financing such an event and the winners prize when there is no mainstream media coverage? It all appears quite amateur and suspect to me.

I see from te invite that you won't find out if you've made it to the next round - which takes place the floowing day - until 8.00pm Friday evening. So I'd have to travel all that way and arrange accomodation, then hang around til the evening to find out if I qualified. If I then find out it's all a pointless crock of sh!t, I've taken a day off work and wasted at least £200...

The exploitation will come after the event (if it all works the way they intend it to). It will be filmed and a few D-list celebrities will be involved and that's when they'll want to make something out of it in the hope of selling more cars. Whether it ever attracts any real attention remains to be seen.

If you didn't have a big marketing budget (and not many car manufacturers do these days) then it might be the sort of thing worth a punt. Try and create a buzz by releasing very little information and not advertising it widely and hope that viral methods do the job.

They've only had about 600 people register for the event in the UK, so that's either a miserable result or they didn't want the publicity and loads of entrants up-front. More likely, they already had a few drivers lined up for 'glory' and they just needed to make the numbers up with a few no-hopers so it looks a bit more interesting for the intended audience when they get round to the final events, at which time they will spend some proper money on publicity.

If they really wanted to find some good, unknown, novice drivers with potential and give them a break they would have made a lot more effort in the selection process.

So far, it's not cost Nissan a huge amount of money (a few cars off the production line and a bit of money lobbed to Silverstone and RJN to get the event underway). As it's not on a circuit, there's no MSA crap for them to worry about so it's all pretty low risk and if it all falls flat then they won't lose too much sleep or money over it.

I'm being quite cynical, I know, but on a positive note the idea of putting on a free event for novice drivers who don't need an MSA licence is one I would support wholeheartedly if it was organised well and not fixed.

My concern at the moment is that this will fall short in one or both of those areas, but let's wait and see.

It would make sense to keep the numbers low to reduce costs. I've just been reading on their facebbok page that 200 entrants will be whittled down to just 9, who will enter a qualification round the next day with 3 celebs. The rumour I hear is that this will be held at the Autosport live show - hence why they say the dates can't be changed, only the venue.

When Nissan are already supporting the GT5 competition, it doesn't make much sense for them throw money at this. The only thing I can think to compare it to is Total Wipeout with cars!

Sounds about right. From what I've heard, the events on Friday and Saturday will be at Santa Pod or Long Marston and there's not much room at either of those venues to lay out a big track, so if the 'main event' was going to take place at the indoor arena during Autosport, it will be a fairly low speed tight and twisty course. Maybe two cars playing 'cat and mouse' against each other?

They'd have to make it free to enter otherwise all the non-qualifiers would be pretty fed up with the value for money they wouldn't get!

That sort of thing could be a lot of fun but I have to agree with you that for people travelling a long way and even staying overnight in the hope of getting through to the main event, you'd have to be pretty desperate to want to take part.

[drakart]

i've been chosen. Depending on the weather i should be there. Seems a bit silly to drive 3 hrs for 5 mins driving though!

[poo at Paul's]

It's arranged via Farcebok, so it is bound to be utter st.

Oh and the OP is full of crap too as clearly he is somehow involved in this "event"!

Edited by poo at Paul's on Sunday 10th January 19:16

[stin]

I have spoken to my contact at Nissan who has made a couple of initial enquiries and as yet he has found out nothing about it. He is based at Nissan GB and is going to make more thorough checks tomorrow so i should know more then! Bit worrying tho that he spoke to someone in the Motorsport division who knew nothing.....watch this space.

Edited by stin on Monday 11th January 18:49