Club Racing and Fuel
Discussion
There are a number of issues around motorsport in general.
[begin rant]
It's vying for the public's pocket, and unless they do something to encourage people to (a) get involved, and (b) take notice, it IS on a slope downwards.
The 'sport' needs to be kicked into the 21st century where entertainment is the key. And to run the sport as an entertainment, first you have to make it entertaining! 12, 16, 18 cars on the grid, nope, not enough. Full grids required. Reverse them, grid slots out of the hat, bring in the bookies!
And what's more, market the meetings, get people in the gate, fill up the stands, sell them food & drink, sell them memorabilia, do the full merchandising trick.
Pile it high, and sell it (not too) cheap.
Then, you take that pile of cash that you've made, and PAY the people who are actually entertaining the crowd. No entry fee's - have start money, prize money.
Get a fuel supplier to sponsor the meeting (supply the race fuel for free!)
With proper marketing, it's possible.
[end rant]
Fuel on the circuit is only minor compared to the overall cost of running a car these days.
[begin rant]
It's vying for the public's pocket, and unless they do something to encourage people to (a) get involved, and (b) take notice, it IS on a slope downwards.
The 'sport' needs to be kicked into the 21st century where entertainment is the key. And to run the sport as an entertainment, first you have to make it entertaining! 12, 16, 18 cars on the grid, nope, not enough. Full grids required. Reverse them, grid slots out of the hat, bring in the bookies!
And what's more, market the meetings, get people in the gate, fill up the stands, sell them food & drink, sell them memorabilia, do the full merchandising trick.
Pile it high, and sell it (not too) cheap.
Then, you take that pile of cash that you've made, and PAY the people who are actually entertaining the crowd. No entry fee's - have start money, prize money.
Get a fuel supplier to sponsor the meeting (supply the race fuel for free!)
With proper marketing, it's possible.
[end rant]
Fuel on the circuit is only minor compared to the overall cost of running a car these days.
thunderbelmont said:
There are a number of issues around motorsport in general.
[begin rant]
It's vying for the public's pocket, and unless they do something to encourage people to (a) get involved, and (b) take notice, it IS on a slope downwards.
The 'sport' needs to be kicked into the 21st century where entertainment is the key. And to run the sport as an entertainment, first you have to make it entertaining! 12, 16, 18 cars on the grid, nope, not enough. Full grids required. Reverse them, grid slots out of the hat, bring in the bookies!
And what's more, market the meetings, get people in the gate, fill up the stands, sell them food & drink, sell them memorabilia, do the full merchandising trick.
Pile it high, and sell it (not too) cheap.
Then, you take that pile of cash that you've made, and PAY the people who are actually entertaining the crowd. No entry fee's - have start money, prize money.
Get a fuel supplier to sponsor the meeting (supply the race fuel for free!)
With proper marketing, it's possible.
[end rant]
Fuel on the circuit is only minor compared to the overall cost of running a car these days.
I agree with alot of that - but it will never happen - but what they do need to do is keep good championships and BIN crap ones with low grids prgressively raise the cut off average limit each year by 1 for 4 years till you get to 20 over 4 years - then all the s[begin rant]
It's vying for the public's pocket, and unless they do something to encourage people to (a) get involved, and (b) take notice, it IS on a slope downwards.
The 'sport' needs to be kicked into the 21st century where entertainment is the key. And to run the sport as an entertainment, first you have to make it entertaining! 12, 16, 18 cars on the grid, nope, not enough. Full grids required. Reverse them, grid slots out of the hat, bring in the bookies!
And what's more, market the meetings, get people in the gate, fill up the stands, sell them food & drink, sell them memorabilia, do the full merchandising trick.
Pile it high, and sell it (not too) cheap.
Then, you take that pile of cash that you've made, and PAY the people who are actually entertaining the crowd. No entry fee's - have start money, prize money.
Get a fuel supplier to sponsor the meeting (supply the race fuel for free!)
With proper marketing, it's possible.
[end rant]
Fuel on the circuit is only minor compared to the overall cost of running a car these days.
tter championships that blight club racing will be gone.I am open to being paid - I think I give good value for money!!
As others have said, is fuel really that relevant? If you factor in asolutely everything that I spend money on throughout a season, I spend about £1000 per race, and I probably spend the least of anyone that I race with. Fuel for 200 miles towing at 30mpg and 80 miles on track at 20mpg comes to just £55. Even if I was racing or rallying the absolute cheapest car you could possible imagine, £55 would still be an insignificant fraction of the total cost of motorsport for an individual. If fuel doubled in price to £2.40 a litre, it would only represent a 5% increase in my costs.
jellison said:
I agree with alot of that - but it will never happen - but what they do need to do is keep good championships and BIN crap ones with low grids prgressively raise the cut off average limit each year by 1 for 4 years till you get to 20 over 4 years - then all the stter championships that blight club racing will be gone.
I am open to being paid - I think I give good value for money!!
Does a small grid mean a stter championships that blight club racing will be gone.I am open to being paid - I think I give good value for money!!
t championship?If 16 cars are dicing for position all race long, is that not better than 30 cars in procession? I know which I'd rather race in...
Raz
stockhatcher said:
GBRM said:
I agree the cost of fuel is high but when you sit down and look at the cost of motor racing the expense of travelling has only gone up minimally and it's the cost of actual racing that I look at as I could be going to a football match or away for a dirty weekend instead of racing but I choose racing (mad!!) and I think that membership fees, entry fees and track times do really need looking at.
I know we all pay high fees but it does get to you when you have to pay £120+ to register for a championship, £120+ for membership a club and then £200+ quid per race for 15 minutes, so the £50 fuel over £30 fuel from last year isn't too bad in my eyes and that's what I tell my bank manager!!
you need to be in a 750mc championship, usually registration fees are £60..I know we all pay high fees but it does get to you when you have to pay £120+ to register for a championship, £120+ for membership a club and then £200+ quid per race for 15 minutes, so the £50 fuel over £30 fuel from last year isn't too bad in my eyes and that's what I tell my bank manager!!
however you are right about value for money, the tracks fees take the piss, but part of that is the poxy nimbyism legislation they have to manage, noisey tracks see their rates go up too much.
however what i'd like to see is some leftfield thinking from the organising clubs and tracks so that
a) we hold race meetings mid week, for considerably less charge, with perhaps the morning for testing and the afternoon/evening for practice and racing, i know powernights does this and its not been that successful, but that's because it is organising standalone events, i'd like to see the dear old 750mc try one of its meetings during the week.
b) more specifically i'd like farmer palmer to allow the more entrpreneurial clubs the opportunity to take the gate reciepts from a race meeting, even if that meant an initial higher fee for hiring the circuit. my thinking is that if brands cost £20k to hire for the weekend, then said club could promote the weekends racing, maybe get 1000 paying people through the gates at £10 a time and thus have an income of £10,000 to offset the higher fees ( say brands raised the cost by 10% or something). ok the club has to pay for promotion but there are any number of pr agencies out there that can do the job, eg, adverts in local papers, radio features, local tv that kind of thing, but i still think the club could make some useful money out of said opportunity. the extra revenue could even be used as prize money, or pay for more scrutineers, or just lower entry fees. however brands et al won't consider it, even though they do didly squat in terms of promoting it, and that most of the people watching the race are drivers wives etc who got free tickets.
c) the only other option is to not provide more than one free pass to the circuit with your race entry and lower the cost by the price of the three other tickets you no longer have. even if you have to pay for hangers on to go to the some of the races, i reckon you'd be better off over a season.
or am i being too simplistic here?
On another front let's put fuel into perspective for my Ginetta G50.
Race Weekend Costs:
Tyres:£861
Insurance:£560
Entry: £900 ish (Think we paid 1k registration + £7500 + vat at beginning of season)
Race Fuel: £223
Total: £2544
I think the fuel costs for transport to from the track for the season have been circa £500
I'm out of sponsor money now so it looks like that's it for me in G50's for this year.
custardtart said:
I just spent £700 in fuel to get to Anglesey and back from the South East coast, including test day and 3 races!!!! 
Over £400 the weekend before getting to Pembrey,
thank god it's Brands next week 
I looked at your profile expecting you to have a race car and an artic lorry! you need to tame your right foot a bit in that mitsubishi Matt!!!!!Over £400 the weekend before getting to Pembrey,
thank god it's Brands next week I rented a transit van to tow my G50 (which weighs nearly twice that of your westy) from huntingdon to knockhill and back (via leeds both ways). It cost £200 to fuel it to do that.
I do think that fuel costs are an issue, but they are just one of many issues that contribute to the massive costs to take part in the sport we love. I do think that one possible answer is far more regional racing, or even single circuit chapionships a la Castle Combe.
For most of us, Club racing is just the quivalent of playing golf at out local club or sunday league football, very very few of us on the motorsport ladder so why can't we just take part in local series. Such a thing might even allow a greater interest from the local media or even a local sponsor but when a series (or a racer) only visits one circuit once a year, why bother?
For most of us, Club racing is just the quivalent of playing golf at out local club or sunday league football, very very few of us on the motorsport ladder so why can't we just take part in local series. Such a thing might even allow a greater interest from the local media or even a local sponsor but when a series (or a racer) only visits one circuit once a year, why bother?
Running the Pontiac will consume typically 100L of fuel for a weekend.
With the rise in the price of u/l petrol being around 20p since last season, that's £20 more for a weekend.
Luckily my tyre costs have gone down this season, so it more than offsets the cost of race-day fuel.
Going to circuit, well, yes, the price of fuel has affected it.
My motorhome sips gently at 12mpg, so I'm looking at a circa 20% increase in cost/mile, so where I put 25 gallons in it for Brands & back, that's costing me another £22.
The LPG for the central heating & cooking has gone up from 49p/litre to 60p/litre - which uses about 10-15L for a Friday/Saturday/Sunday weekend.
So add £1, to £1.70 extra for that.
Compared to the overall running costs of the car over the weekend, it's added only a small amount.
With the rise in the price of u/l petrol being around 20p since last season, that's £20 more for a weekend.
Luckily my tyre costs have gone down this season, so it more than offsets the cost of race-day fuel.
Going to circuit, well, yes, the price of fuel has affected it.
My motorhome sips gently at 12mpg, so I'm looking at a circa 20% increase in cost/mile, so where I put 25 gallons in it for Brands & back, that's costing me another £22.
The LPG for the central heating & cooking has gone up from 49p/litre to 60p/litre - which uses about 10-15L for a Friday/Saturday/Sunday weekend.
So add £1, to £1.70 extra for that.
Compared to the overall running costs of the car over the weekend, it's added only a small amount.
BenElliottRacing said:
I think the fuel costs for transport to from the track for the season have been circa £500
For the whole season?Let's be super optimistic and say your diesel car could tow and average 30mpg.
£500 at diesel price of £1.20 a litre works out at just over 90 gallons.
Are you really only going to do 2700 miles of towing throughout the whole season? How many meets does your series go to? Do you live really central in the country?
When we did the BTRDA rally series a few ago, we'd budget for at least a tank and a half (usually closer to 2 tanks) in the van to hawl us and our kit around the country. It now costs well over a ton to fill up the sprinter from dry. 10 rounds that year, plus a couple extra BRC rounds too.
BenElliottRacing said:
custardtart said:
I just spent £700 in fuel to get to Anglesey and back from the South East coast, including test day and 3 races!!!!
Over £400 the weekend before getting to Pembrey, thank god it's Brands next week
I looked at your profile expecting you to have a race car and an artic lorry! you need to tame your right foot a bit in that mitsubishi Matt!!!!!Over £400 the weekend before getting to Pembrey,
thank god it's Brands next week I rented a transit van to tow my G50 (which weighs nearly twice that of your westy) from huntingdon to knockhill and back (via leeds both ways). It cost £200 to fuel it to do that.
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