Hi Graeme
May have been me, as I was talking to the good doctor as mentioned in the "Another good ideas thread".
I show below, part of a mail I received from him. It probably explains his thinking and puts in context the fees he receives for circuit hire.
Quote:
.......It does concern me though that circuit hire fees seem to receive the brunt of criticism for the costs of going racing. The reality is the element of cost that goes to the circuit for a fundamental racing facility is a small proportion of the costs competitors incur going racing. You might like to do the exercise of working out how much this is. Our race event circuit hire rates are about:
Brands Indy £18,000 Cadwell £7,000 Oulton £14,000
Snetterton £9,000
This rate is for about 8 hours of circuit time. If you assume that a minimum of 24 cars should be racing and that a typical club race involves say a 30 minute slot (allowing a generous 10 minutes between one finishing and the next starting) of (a) qualifying and (b) racing, this leaves the circuit hire cost per race entry being:
Brands Indy £94
Cadwell £36
Oulton £73
Snetterton £47
Do you really think this is excessive? How does this compare to the costs of fuel to get to the circuit, tyres, engines, accidents, car preparation, hotels etc?
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To the above we have to add MSA insurance(about £30 per driver per event I believe), plus whatever your organising club needs to add to remain solvent.
JP pointed out that the rates alone for Brands were circa £700,000, so I guess its easy to see why Octagon were loss making.
How many 8 race meetings did I go to last season when there were 24 cars on the grid for each race? Not many, if any.
The shortfall means that we have to pay higher entry fees, in order to rent the circuits.
In my case the entry fees came to about 32% of the season budget, so maybe I'm spending more money on fuel, towing and a helper than you?
Whatever, the only piece of my budget which I can see a way of reducing is the entry fee. Hence trying to get us all a share of the gate, and therefore needing to get some paying spectators in.
MSV are in the business to make profit, not to sponsor club racing. If they can promote meetings themselves and take the profit, we will still be paying increasing entry fees. (Or maybe not, by stopping racing as it gets out of reach.)
If we club racers can ensure full grids, better entertainment, and that we try to get some gate share, it may just reduce our entries. If we do nothing, it certainly will not.