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It doesnt matter how well you publicise the meetings, if the grids are poor to average, as they are at the moment the racing will most probably be processional and dull and your newcomer to the sport will not want to bother going again.
There are just too many classes / champs for the limited no. of competitors in club & national racing, which is leading to sparse grids, too many meetings every weekend and a general lack of interest by the public, including die hard club racing fans who are "ticked off" at the poor quality of the product on offer.
Publicity is one thing, but only after some market research has been carried out.
The 750mc have got it right, they have tailored their champs to provide low cost, competitive racing, where both the classes and the meetings are designed to benefit the clubs competitor members and not the administators, executive officers and other hangers on.
Their principal is simple, the more competitors who enter the cheaper the entry fee, when coupled with classes which are inherently cost effective (thanks to the market research) it produces the enormous entries that the club gets for its race meetings.
In turn the huge entries lead to close and exciting racing, with, lets face it, quite a bit of incident which all contributes to the enjoyment of the spectator..... This is why crowds for the club's meetings are steadily increasing.
The BARC have also to be congratulated for taking a good look at what they offer in the way of club racing.... They have retracted from trying to run such a wide variety of champs and have specialised in a smaller no. i.e Classics, BMW's etc, which has led to their partial resurgence.
The BRSCC are the main culprits.... As the mainstay of national club racing they have introduced more and more classes and become too widespread without focussing on what the limited no. of competitors wanted or indeed could afford (Apparent lack of market research). At the same time they have increased their entry fees to a level which now outstrips any other clubs and their only solution is to try and cherry pick their best champs for the "superclub" initiative, where for their exhorbitant entry fee the competitors get the privilege of more track time but have to commit to the expense of accommodation etc as a result of decamping for an entire weekend....... As a draw for spectators this idea is not working if Silverstone 1st June is anything to go by, there were more spectators at the racing school than were at the race meeting.
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