Rockingham / Ascar, does it have a future ?

[Nissan]

After the much published debate when Rockingham cancelled the BARC meeting I note in Autosport that yet another meeting has had to be cancelled, I do not know the reason but would wonder if Rockingham are needing to leave dates open to allow for cancelled Ascar races to take place ?.

And on the same note I ask the question if there is actually a future for Ascar style racing in the UK due to our wonderfull weather, how long will race teams and sponsors as well as the paying public turn up to race only for it to rain and see races cancelled, could we actually end up in September without any races taking place ?.

Whilst I am not a fan of Rockingham as a business man I cannot see how financially the circuit can survive on the handfull of races that it actually can stage?.

[bella]

i think we've been unfortunate with the weather so far this year. wasn't it like this 2 years ago, and wasn't that what slowed down initial construction of rockingham? weather's the reason there aren't more high speed ovals, but some areas of the states are just as changeable and soggy and they still run oval races.

rockingham's aimed itself at the driver training market too, but i'm not sure how that side of it's taking off. that i imagine could cover at least some of the overheads. they blatently make money from the champcar race, and that's not going to go now. it's an important place for cart to be seen, in terms of being a global series.

rockingham's got a good future, it's a reasonable national club racing circuit. if touring cars went there, it'd be very popular because of the visibility. the only way those will end up there is if the locals let them. which is a shame. local campsites could make a fortune for a weekend a year...

[brickkicker]

I have to be honest that I wouldnt want to go to watch oval racing as I think its boring. I have been to rockingham a few times when the infield was in use and thought that the public are miles from the action, if im there i want to be able to feel part of the action. However it does give great views of everthing. As far as its survival I think it will as i guess like most places most of its money is made during mid week for testing track days and the racing school/experiance.

[bella]

the rockingham 500 (or 225.336 or whatever it was...) was absolutely brilliant, not as dull as i expected.
admittedly i didn't watch the renault winter series from the stand, but the top of the pit garages and tarzan hairpin. the fact you can see the entire track from the grandstands at the champcars certainly made up for being so far away from the far end of the track. when the cars came past the grandstands in front though it was really scary. too close, too fast.

they wouldn't have built it if it wasn't going to survive.

[redshoes]

I was wondering about the July 13/14th meeting as well. Anyone know the story why it's been cancelled?

I know a few people who said the Cart race was great but that's not really the point. Silverstone is a great(ish) F1 circuit but unbelievably dull as a club venue. Having watched both a BRSCC clubbie and ASCAR there I wasn't impressed - reminded me of watching Scalextric cars, everything was so distant to the extent that you couldn't really tell what was happening.

[garry]

Apparently this meeting was organised by Rockingham and they were unable to promote or organise the meeting properly so they cancelled it. If this is true and they carry on like this no one will bother booking the circuit just in case it gets cancelled.

[Chris Y]

Another thing that I heard about the BARC meeting at the start of the year, was that it was going to run into trouble anyway, because of the way the pit garages had been allocated. There was concern that scrutineering would be a problem for the cars in the garages, and the infield paddock's roads would be jammed up again with cars trying to get in and out of the normal scrutineering bay.

The future's not looking good for Rockingham this year..

[Maisie]

I would say they were digging their own grave, but I doubt they could even construct that properly!

[Rob29]

Originally posted by bella


they wouldn't have built it if it wasn't going to survive.

I suppose that's what the people who built The Dome,and a shiny new building housing a rock music museum in Sheffield thought? plus ITV Digital,all bankrupt and dead after only 2 years!

[JohnnyBravo]

Nothing like giving a new venture all this support! What they have done at Rockingham is amazing, that's before you even put any race cars on the circuit.
This is exactly the kind of attitude that causes these ventures to collapse, you only have to look at the Dome. Slated by the media until it closed,only for every rescue package that came along to get an equal slating.
Don't be suprised in a year or 2 to see Rockingham bulldozed for more housing or factory units,if all people do is run it down.
The first few events are always going to be painful, and this is Britain, of course it's going to rain and meetings get cancelled! Get used to it. I strongly suggest that we all support Rockingham and let the organisers of CART and maybe even NASCAR and IRL see how many fans would love to se their cars race there. That way we might even keep it going and motorsport in this country might survive a little longer and we, the fans, might get to see something a lot more exciting than dull F3 and Touring car races!!

[brickkicker]

you say that but for spectators its c**p they are sat miles away and may as well just watch it on the telly. The marshals campsite doesnt exsist (could be why they strugle for a number of events) all they need is some grass. The support racers are outside and dont feel a part of any racing. have to agree with red shoes its like watching Scalextric cars.
As for if we 'slate it' it will close. Does this mean we all have to like everthing?? In this country people are allowed to say what we feel and if that means we dont like it then we say it.

[Lorna]

Hang on. I've got Radicals down to appear at Rockingham that weekend. So are they definitely cancelled now? Rockingham hasn't mentioned this in their press releases

I suggest that if anyone has any gripes about Rockingham, they tell them, in a diplomatic and constructive manner of course.

marketing@rockingham.co.uk

[brickkicker]

We shouldnt have to tell them they should be able to see for themselfs. If I remember when CART came they didnt sell many tickets untill they droped the price and still didnt fill it then. People vote with there feet when I went to the BRSCC the stands looked empty probably only racers and family in there.

[OVERSTEER]

Well having to be at the CART event last year,I think the place has got real potential and was a great race, it just needs to be given a bit of time to establish.
I heard that the Rockingham locals are trying to get Rockingham shut, miserable sods anything a bit different and a bit new and they don't want to know.

[brickkicker]

I have also heard that the health and saftey are causing a few problems at rockingham has any one else heard anything about it???

[JohnnyBravo]

I wasn't implying that you have to like everything, but trust me Rockingham is no different to Fontana, ok the weather maybe!! But you can't expect things like that to grow without support and constructive criticism should be directed at the people that can do something about it rather than on here. This is a world wide forum and doubtless will be read by people thinking of coming over to watch racing, if I didn't know better I wouldn't bother after reading some of the stuff posted on here.
You say you don't get close enought to the track but doubtless would be near the front of the queue to complain if anyone was hurt by flying debris. And again if the cicuit gets the support it deserves whose to say that more grandstands won't be built????
I for one don't want to have to travel to the states everytime I want to see CART, it could become a permanent fixture on the calander and might even get a summer date!

[Rod Birley]

The radicals are going to Cadwell a week later. Also the weekend of July 13/14 has meetings at Brands Hatch,Goodwood,Snetterton and Lydden where do they expect to get marshals from, especially just a week after the GP. Cadwell are suffering from this problem.

[Chris Y]

Thing is - we're not just slating Rockingham for the fun of it.. I raced there last year, when it really had 'just opened', and I actually really enjoyed it - and it was pretty well organised. This year however, they don't seem to be able to get anything organised properly, which is pretty poor, considering they've already had a year's practice, and the track was supposed to be 'fixed' last year. This is what's going to get the track bulldozed - mismanagement - not the opinions of people on this forum..

[Dave Brand]

Originally posted by Rod Birley
Also the weekend of July 13/14 has meetings at Brands Hatch,Goodwood,Snetterton and Lydden where do they expect to get marshals from, especially just a week after the GP. Cadwell are suffering from this problem.

There's also BRSCC at Oulton on the Saturday & Jaguars at Anglesey on the Sunday - which is why we didn't even think of doing Cadwell that weekend.

The Anglesey Jaguar meeting was shown on their original availability form as a two-day event, then it was changed to one day. I suspect that one reason for this may have been marshal availability, as most of the people who marshal at Anglesey are Oulton regulars.

[JR Ewing]

ASCAR is like a concentrated Eurocar, ie. some types of people will lose a massive amount of money, albeit over a shorter period than Eurocar.
The same old people will make cash no matter what......

[brickkicker]

Yes this is a world wide forum. So why dosent rockingham come on here and take a look at what we are saying maybee this would help them???? Or they could even put some posts up here and ask us, its not hard is it..

[Rod Birley]

Guess what, another meeting at Rockingham has been cancelled. The AMOC event scheduled for 17/18th August is now off. No explanation except for "circumstances beyond our control"!!!

[Chris Y]

Goodbye Rockingham. I won't be visiting you again. Care to burn anymore bridges?

[Peter Mallett]

Are they holding the International Historic Festival there again this year?

[Adam43]

From a competitors point of view I like Rockingham. I have raced on the sportscar circuit. At, it seems, one of the few meetings that hasn't been cancelled - The MGCC meet earlier this year!

The infield is very twisty and is a great contrast to the banked turn 4 and the wide straight.

It would be a shame if this circuit ran into difficulties.

From a spectator point of view. It is quite good. Not so good for the road course stuff. I went to last years historic festival and also watched some of the other races at the MGCC meeting. I sat down near the track at Turn 4 for the pre '72 sportscar race. Scary! The Lolas blasting past just feet away was fantastic. I can only wonder what a CART Champ car will be like there. The view from the grandstand for the oval is excellent.

However for the road circuit it was a shame that there was no way of getting closer to the slower stuff (where the cars spend most of the time). Having said that it offers better viewing than some places (say Copse at Silverstone)! Watching at turn 1 and the chicane is OK.

I've not really answered any of the problems/questions here, but I thought I'd just ramble on! Overall I like it.

As for the Historic Festival, I doubt it is on. I haven't seen anything. Also I don't think last year was a success. It didn't help that most of it wasn't built then and it was held on a building site! I also heard an organiser apologising to a stall holder for the high price they had charged for the stall and also for the small attendance.

What with this event gone and the Silverstone Historic festival moving to Oulton I fear for this type of event. (Don't get me wrong, I prefer Oulton to Silverstone as a circuit, but I think that it needs a big arena).