Small grid sizes for Radical racing - What is going on?

[ribiero]

ukaskew said:

I'm surprised more circuits haven't taken the Castle Combe approach of predominantly home series. Numbers have fluctuated over the years as you'd expect but they've weathered some pretty big storms and can pretty much guarantee a worst case scenario of 75+ cars (across 4 races) every race meeting before they've even filled the rest of the timetable with visiting series.

Seems to work with the crowds too, almost exclusively club level racing yet probably troubling average attendance numbers for some much bigger circuits over a racing season.

i'd have thought some of the smaller more flexible circuits would do that tbh. Hard to find the right people to organise/promote and not use it as an oppertunity to make a quick buck.

[coppice]

In the North we have had the Northern Saloon and Sports Car Championship for many years ; its home circuit is Croft but it races at Oulton, Cadwell and so on . And an excellent template it is too - competing cars typically include a horde of Caterfields, plus Fiestas , ex WTCC cars , TVRs , Marcoses, Aussie V8 supercars and even a Peugeot T16 replica.

There is also the CNC Heads series as well as Classic Sports Car Club etc .

I cannot for the life of me understand why the MSA (I assume ?) sanction so many lame duck series. Porsche GT3 had about 7 cars last time I yawned through a race and don't ask about the thankfully defunct GR8 s. Splinter series are often daft -call me old fashioned but isn't one MX 5 series with big grids better than 2 or 3 with smaller grids?

A diversity of cars is a recipe which works .

[Kraken]

What usually happens to cause multiple series to spring up where there used to be one is that people start falling out with each other thinking that someone is getting away with cheating, preferential treatment or spending way more than the majority can.

[BigerDave]

Gt Open at Silverstone this weekend and Radical are back with their hopeless grids. They have 3 one hour races this weekend and there are 6 cars on track!

For any Motorsport fan who likes to go and watch around the country it’s nonsense. Why do we have to put up with this? Please can we have some entertainment

[Nampahc Niloc]

triplets3racing said:

Gents, Check out the BRSCC Speed OSS Championship If you want very fast, close and clean sports proto racing, that features most models of Radicals as well as Ligier, Juno, Jade, Global lights, etc and has a grid of nearly 50 cars for the next round at Silverstone !!!

I saw this is Castle Combe for the first time a few weeks ago and thought it was great. Didn’t know anything about it before hand, as I had never heard of it, and was a little disappointed with the lack of info on the internet. Interesting array of cars and good racing.

[CoolHands]

Can’t blame the manufacturer I suppose but why on earth would whoever is paying for the team / car want to drive in a tiny grid race? Surely the fun is in mixing it and beating similar people / cars, so for me I would want to be in a large grid for the fun!

[Truckosaurus]

CoolHands said:

... but why on earth would whoever is paying for the team / car want to drive in a tiny grid race? ...

Pot Hunters who want to tell their friends and colleagues they were on the podium yet again?

[37chevy]

CoolHands said:

Can’t blame the manufacturer I suppose but why on earth would whoever is paying for the team / car want to drive in a tiny grid race? Surely the fun is in mixing it and beating similar people / cars, so for me I would want to be in a large grid for the fun!

You say that but I feel one of radical problems is that it’s lost its way over the last several years. When the clubsport came out it was an affordable car that was reliable, fast and fun to drive. That continued on with the pro sport, sr3 and sr4. Bike engines were cheep to rebuild etc But with powertec, the new v8 engine, chassis etc costs are through the roof.

Take a look at the SR1. The old equivalent (sr4) was about 20k new....and can pick them up for about 12k second hand. Now a new one is nearer 35k. Even parts are expensive...it’s circa 2.5k for the rear bodywork and 2k for a sidepod. That kind of money is out of reach for the average joe.

It’s a victim of its own success really and a crying shame

[chunder27]

Greed and over ambition.

Simple really

Plus there are now more competitiors in that market