Tour Brittania

[simon drabble]

Good to see 10Tenther John Ruston leading the regularity event and his second car (with another 10tenther Ed McDonough - journo with a great US mag called Vintage Racecar) is coming 2nd or 3rd I think.....

[PaulSands]

John has actually won the regularity event

I took some photo's with a rapidly dying camera at the first stage on Monday at Belvoir Castle http://www.paulsands.org/tourbrit090505/tb.html

Ed's also got a couple of excellent books out about the Ferrari Sharknose & Vanwall and is working on oone about the Rodriguez brothers that I cant wait for .

[verglas]

As I live in the area I decided to pop down and have a look at the procedings on Sunday afternoon...what a huge disappointment! No one seemed to know what was going on, there was nothing about the event to promote it to casual spectators, and there were lots of interested people around, as you would expect in a major tourist town. The competitors who were there did not appear keen to talk to people, and the overall set up semed somewhat shabby for what I thought was supposed to be a major event. After all, would you expect to see very badly handwritten signs pointing to " PARK FERME " I kid you not! Maybe my expectations were a little high! Congratulations to the event winners anyway!

[john ruston]

Thanks boys.

The event really did not get under way until Monday, with people arriving very late on Sunday night due to Donnington Park fixtures etc.

Fred Gallagher and Alec Poole were extremely brave to organise it and for those who competed it has been an absolute success. To see GT40s and Lotus 30s at Cadwell, Shelsey, Loton and Curborough was amazing.

The regularity was poorly supported but of the entrants there were 6 crews who had finished in the top 5 in major regularity rallies throughout Europe.

It is unfortunate that the British regularity competitors did not come out to support the event and the organisers must find the reasons for this.

Ray Bellm and Adrian Newey in the GT40s were the high level stars, but C-type Jaguars and Talbot 105s racing neck and neck with Alpines, Mustangs and 911s made for a very interesting spectacle.

Mr. Verglas should compare early Tour Espanas and Tour Autos with this event, and similarly more information needs to be conveyed to the public but suggest he looks on the Tour Britannia web site to see how good it was from the competitors point of view.

Lets hope Alex and Fred can find the 60 competition cars and 40 regularity cars they need for next year, as it is a lot better than a short 30 minute circuit race.

I understand next years event is due the first week after August bank holiday (as this years).

[COLIN STUBBS]

Cadwell? And nobody told me it was on!! That explains the snooty bugger who kept pipping and giving me a one finger salute in a very expensive and dirty looking motor when i was on my tractor the other day.Bit of publicity and id have gone for a look. Never mind.If your reading this i hope i didnt delay you too much, but if you hadnt been so rude id have pulled over.

[Fred Gallagher]

John Ruston has been a solid supporter of the event and thoroughly deserved the victory along with co-driver Jeremy Haylock. In my 28 years of professional motor sport I can't remember such a happy bunch of competitors at the finish.

Sunday was a bit slow with many arriving late, either from Donington, Channel ferries or delayed by mechanical problems. However the two photographs below from the Tour Britannia website show that there was at least something to see.

http://www.tourbritannia.com/Product...pon%20Avon.JPG

http://www.tourbritannia.com/Product...pon%20Avon.JPG

The officials in charge of Parc Fermé were being funny as I had asked them to modify their original Parc Ferme to include the obligatory accent on the e........

Thanks to all the competitors, marshals and spectators.

Fred

[blackhands]

As I've said on the thread in the marshals area, for me this event was a washout - four days wasted at considerable personal expense. Don't forget the only people available to marshal midweek are normally the idle rich (who don't do it anyway_ and the unemployed/pensioners who look for value for money (enjoyment per £ of personal expense).

[RTH]

How many entries and what was the entry fee ?

[blackhands]

I believe that the entry fee for the racing event was £4,000 and about 1/3 of that for the regularity event. Less than 40 entrants for the racing event and under 10 for the regularity event. Obviously some dropouts on the way to the finish.

[john ruston]

4000 GBP for both same as Tour Auto and Tour Espana competition and regularity.If it runs next year I would expect 100 cars .50 cars finally entered.I question the Sept date which effectively clashes with VSCC,Goodwood,Tour Sardinia etc.Its a start that hopefully will lead to a long term fixture but is it worth it with all the British whinging.The entrants who paid were happy campers

[blackhands]

John
Congratulations on winning - I'm sure that the entrants were happy and that from their perspective it was a great success. Personally as a marshal who not only gave up 4 days of my time but also paid out a considerable amount in petrol money it was a most unexcitingevent with little action, disorganisation at the circuits (we were promised food which never materialised) and to cap it all only 4 drivers giving a wave of thanks at the end of the second Silverstone race - I deliberately went out onto the tyre wall to clap all the drivers most of whom just ignored me - I must say I get much better response from ordinary Club racers.

[john ruston]

Agree its out of order and I am sure Fred can address the other points, it needs sorting.Before anyone asks we were not in the last race but waved throughout the test as we had plenty of time

[Fred Gallagher]

All comments from competitors, marshals and spectators will be discussed at the debrief once I get Rally GB out of the way this weekend. Happy to say that John is in the majority and we have had a flood of complimentary e-mails. The event is definitely on for 2006. Full details as soon as we have them.

Thanks to everyone.

Fred

[RTH]

Originally Posted by blackhands

I believe that the entry fee for the racing event was £4,000 ........... Less than 40 entrants for the racing event

The original estimate of numbers was 180

There is your trouble , all too gold plated for the other 140.

[PaulSands]

A bit of feedback I got from the Gold Cup prior to the Tour was that the price was prohibitive

[simon drabble]

if you compare it to Tour Auto or Classic Le Mans or even Spa 6 Hour its not too bad. My problem would be taking the time off work
...

[Fred Gallagher]

180 was the maximum permitted - luckily we didn't get that!

We will of course re-look at the pricing and possibly offer packages that do not include the accommodation, lunches, dinners, wine, free bar at Silverstone etc.

There is a very nice piece by Paul Lawrence in MN today with some excellent photographs.

[whatapalaver]

I took a days leave and went to marshal at Rockingham. First time to the track for me. I got what I expected - great cars doing the job they were made to do. Sure more would be nice, but for a first time I was happy. Short day, good company, sunny and dry! Is there more to life!!

The 'tours' web site made the number of cars entered quite clear. If you saw them at the start of the week you knew the maximum numbers - they will never increase once the event has started! If that did not do it for you on day one, then maybe it would have been better to appologise and do something else for the rest of the week rather than complain.

Some crews waved to thank us, some didn't. That's life. One or two very nearly stopped in their efforts to pass on thanks. (I am prepared to except that busy crews have other things on their minds). Equally the sunlight reflecting off the glass prevents you from seeing into a car, and therefore not spotting the cheery wave - no doubt you become the grumpy marshal who failed to wave back...

I am sure that next time things will improve. I hope to be there to find out.

[PaulSands]

I think it was a great first step and has the potential to become a wonderful hopefully permanent fixture on the annual racing calendar

[andy97]

Radical thought, how about running from a thursday and through to sunday rather than mid week so that the finishing races were part of the Silverstone Historic meeting (BRDC Historics? nee Coys???) or the Donington "See Red" meeting?

Potentially less time off work for competitors, officials and marshals and maybe a little more kudos for the event until it builds its own identity and can stand alone.

[john ruston]

I suggested the week before Goodwood to allow the overseas entrants to do both.Problem is Sept is a heavily congested period with a similar event in Sardina .What about mid July,after Classic Le Mans and Ralle des Alps.The cost is the cost and I am sure Fred and Alex dug deep in their own pockets to allow us to play this year.3 races,2 historic hillclimbs,8 stages,food,hotel,etc come on how much should it cost? One hundred cars is what is needed

[john ruston]

Notice the commkents about costs of Tour.Just received my Tour auto entry pack.Cost 4000 Pounds ,same as Tour Espana

[RTH]

If there had been the hoped for 180 entries

180 x £4000 = £720,000

Where would that money have gone to ?

[john ruston]

It was 3900 Gbp and needs 100 entries to make it viable.45 payed this year and possibily 100 next.not the greatest venture.The Tour Auto has 250 entries and I am aware that it has run at cost the past two years.The answer is that you chose if you want to enter or not.The VAT alone represents 126000 Gbp based on your figure ! The cost seems reasonable to me based on any standard buisness practise and remember it has to be viable or what is the point in doing it.

[Fred Gallagher]

John is absolutely right. We lost a fair amount of money this year but I believe we have created an event that can grow into something very special.

180 entries was never a target; that is the UK legal limit for road events. I now know that two race grids (about 60 cars) and 30 in regularity is about right. At that level the event will never do better than break even on entry fees. Any surplus will come from the elusive sponsors or invaluable trade support such as we had this year from Road Map who did all the wonderful competitor and official clothing.

I'm not going to get rich out of Tour Britannia but I have to say that the feeling of satisfaction I had on September 8th was greater than any I have had in 27 years of professional co-driving and organistaion.

Tour Britannia will be held again next year and will have learnt a lot from the 2005 event. If all the competitors next time are as enthusiastic and appreciative as this years then the event is here to stay.

Fred