Quote:
Originally Posted by fourWheelDrift
Sport in school is largely about getting kids to take exercise together (with a nod to encouraging them to appreciate competition), the other sports you mention do this at a reasonable cost and I don't think there is any kind of Motorsport that is remotely comparable.
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If it's cost that's the issue then maybe the motorsport authorities need to invest more in it. Do Go Motorsport do anything in schools? I just think those in the privileged positions need to be a bit more proactive at the moment, because I think the motorsport fanbase is taken for granted right now. I should think the average membership age of a place like 10 Tenths is quite high, compared to, say, a football forum - numbers will start declining (if they haven't done so already) in things like club racing when the older generations pass on
Case in point - I'm a bit of a train buff, but there seems to be little enthusiasm from younger generations, and the older generations will undoubtedly be quite protective of their position in the railway preservation movement, so I think in a decade or 2, they're going to be in trouble, because they won't have the numbers anymore. Club racing is much the same - I haven't had much first hand experience of it, living in the back and beyond in Wales, but the impression I get is that it's an older generational sport with little drive to encourage younger people to get involved and keep the sport alive
I don't think a bit of preaching (for motorsport, not trains - you can't really do much about the latter) would be so bad. Loads of other organisations come to schools to do that - local businesses, churches etc. It wouldn't exactly take much - as Ralf's Girl points out, football teams do it, as do rugby teams and other sporting teams. I doubt a driver's schedule is that packed during the winter months before testing starts, and it's not exactly going to be the most stressful of activities to stand up and answer questions for some kids for guys who normally get grilled by the world's media in front of millions of viewers back home. I can see Jenson or Lewis quite enjoying that sort of thing, actually. And it doesn't even have to be an F1 thing - why not GP2 or F3 drivers/teams?
There's got to be a way of doing it somehow. It doesn't take much. In fact, it goes beyond schools. We need more fan interaction in general. F1 is so protective of the drivers today. You can't get close to them anymore