"Wha apnin' BRSCC"

[flagwaver]

I must confess to getting a little bored by all the nocking of the BRSCC. As has been stated earlier, at the very least why do not some of you attend the AGM's?
Despite all the noises made in this forum about what the BRSCC are doing wrong, nobody apart from committee members attended the Northern Centre AGM.
Most of the people who attended the AGM were centre committee members.
In the whole of the BRSCC there are only a few drivers on the committees.
Like everything else it is easy to moan, doing somthing about it requires a certain amount of effort.
This thread has also critised BRN, but by some of the statements raised some of you do not read it anyway or you would have known about the Cruises the club is organising.
Yes I am a committe member & I do not agree with everything that the club does(if you attended our committeee meetings you would know what I mean)but at least I am trying to make a differance.

[AndyF]

Originally posted by stroller
The (BRSCC) Centre Comittees have been banging on about this for years. They need feedback from everyone.

People have their chance at both regional level and national level to air their grievances, but the turnouts for AGM's shows a considerable amount of apathy towards the subject

Well the good news is that as part of my university dissertation I am conducting a survey of club motorsport in the UK, thanks to the help of numerous organising clubs. The survey should provide an unique insight into the problems of club racing in the UK, and should highlight what needs to be done! Watch this space!!

[KennyG]

Originally posted by JohnMiller
Surprising the BRSCC's (doubtlessly paid) editor critices the club in it's own magazine?

If the BRSCC want to save money, the first thing they should do is drastically downscale BRN to make it smaller, less glosser and much cheaper. If people want a professional publication buy Autosport, BRN should be a club newsletter IMO.

There was a big outcry when BRN went from using colour to being all B&W, so I don't think turning it into a cheap and cheerful newsletter would prove very popular either. I think there are other areas the BRSCC should consider to save money. This is the wrong place to discuss them.

Unfortunately magazines like BRN are short of good input and we the club members should accept some of the blame. As a photographer I struggle to get drivers or teams to spare some time to do off-track photo sessions and back them up with some words. I won't name and shame, but it makes you wonder if they want publicity for themselves and their sponsors or just want to get to the pub as soon as possible.

At club level Autosport isn't really a substitute for the likes of BRN and Startline. I read both, but for different reasons. Race reports in Autosport as they are pretty much hot off the press and club news in the other two. Autosport will never carry what they do and the reverse applies.

[Walshy]

I do attend the AGM's and are quite vocal at them. The problem is that we don't get enough people attending. I'm gonna throw this back to the drivers again. The number of times in the North West Centre we have asked drivers to attend the AGM to air points of views. We even had a drivers meeting after the last NW centre AGM and there were 6 of us. I am startingto beleive APATHY is a disease! You have to vote with your feet and make some noise. So I can speak from experience on certain matters such as Cruises etc. As I said previously, I have attended one of these events (non-BRSCC)and as I said before, most of the assembled crowd are not interested in the slightest with racing. A cruise is all about image. A couple of replies to this post stated that these could be possible future racers, marshals or even members. Don't count on it. If the club want to attract a youth audience, then they need to freshen up, but this is not the way. It's a racing club.

Why don't we see anything for junior membership? A mascot, I don't know, a cartoon tortoise called "speedy" or something and a kids section in the BRN. I have a 4 year old daughter who loves "going to watch daddy", but there is nothing for her to do at the circuits. If the BRSCC are paying to hire a circuit, then they should be given free will to host what they want on that day. Bouncy castles, buggies etc with all revenue to them. If the circuit say they can't do that, then put up a fight for pity's sake.

Fact: The only reason corporate days are so popular at race circuits is because the attendees have at some point witnessed racing either on TV or at a circuit. If they hadn't seen racing, then they would not have considered a track day.
Without racing, corporate days WOULD dwindle and it would be lost revenue for the circuits. So, the circuits do need racing contrary to popular belief that they could survive on just corporate days and race school activities. If the clubs voted with their feet and said we are not going to use your circuit, then the circuits would have to change the way they operate.

Jonathan Palmer was quoted in Autosport several weeks ago as saying:
"If we can't get people through the gates, the racers will have to foot the bills". I didn't here any response from the BRSCC or any other club for that matter. It's just accepted. With that in mind, when the next Oulton Park meeting came along, there was no mention of it on the radio, in the papers or even by posters. How are they going to get people in if they don't tell people it's happening. I work at a large company in Manchester with over 4000 staff in one building. I have created a Motorsport section on the internal website for staff. This is accessed by all staff across the country, around 12000 I beleive. Over 80% of those people didn't know their was a professional race circuit 30 miles down the motorway from Manchester and certainly didn't know that it held races nearly every week. Quite a number of people have since attended meetings and from their feedback, will be attending again. I spent a couple of nights throwing together some documents for this site and it attracted people, yet the might of JP's new empire couldn't promote one meeting at Oulton!!!!!!!

Whether the BRSCC gets the gate receipt or not I feel is irrelevant. If they promoted the meeting, they would benefit in the long run. Maybe a bit simplistic, but, with a better gate receipt, circuit hire fees can come down. The reductions can be passed onto the competitors (ie. customers) and more people can afford to race week in week out. With bigger grids, comes better racing, which in turn, makes people want to come and watch. But someone has to make the first move and get away from this stalemate that is currently choking British motorsport.

Look at this, I was only coming on for a quick look and I've wrote an essay at nearly 2 in the morning, but I hope it goes to show how passionate I am about this issue. I don't want to see the sport I love die away due to APATHY. I just wish a few more of the drivers would speak out. they all stand around moaning and putting the world to rights, but never do anything. I'm not trying to rub people up the wrong way here, I promise, but I am trying to tell it as it is.

You tell me where else you can get a full days entertainment for a tenner?

In the words of the Toploader song:
"let the people know, show them the way"

See I'm rambling now. getting tired.

But one last thing. I am not being prejudice, honest, but Cruises are not the way to go. With the very nature of these events, the BRSCC could find that they have bitten off more than they can chew. These things do get out of hand by their very nature. And if I've said it once. They have nothing to do with racing. They are not about racing. The BRSCC is about racing.

Focus people ;o)

[kartingdad]

The BRSCC say they need feedback!

From who?

They don't seem to be interested in what the competitors have to say. in most cases they act like your favourite local council!

They would be better off admitting that they need commonsense rather than feed back.

[Stephen Green]

I agree with Walshy here. If you want changes then you have to make your voice known and that means attending meetings or writing letters or e-mails and then following them up...sorry.

[kartingdad]

I'm still waiting for Bernard Cotterill to reply to a couple of emails I sent him regarding the zetec winter series at Brands Hatch regarding the infamous 8 minute qualifying session.......

[Stephen Green]

So write and remind him?

[kartingdad]

I have already reminded him. Why should 'the customer' have to chase a 'supplier of services?

It's a bit old history by now anyway, but nevertheless demonstrates my point.

You just resign yourself to the fact that the BRSCC are not very clued up i'm afraid. (Diz excluded of course)

[greenamex2]

Without wishing to state the obvious, if you don't like what the BRSCC are doing you (meaning all not any individual) could always come and play with the BARC.

I am sure that the BRSCC will soon get the message and have to decide where their future lies.

As for this being seen as a means of getting more people into racing, I very much doubt it. Why would people want to when they can spend tens of thousand of pounds on their cars making them both worthless and ineligible for any race serious, tear around the streets etc until they get their under age girlfriend pregnant and have to torch it for the insurance money or sell it at a massive loss(the car not the girlfriend!). And before anybody complains about the previous statements apart from being to ugly/boring to have an under age girlfriend that is what me and most of my friends did when we were younger so I do know what I am talking about.

Of course if they are really brave they could do a track day when they will get at least four times the track time for their money AND be treated like a real customer rather than an unappreciated nuisance.

Unlike sixteen years ago when I started racing now has real competition and is dealing with it really badly. It needs to either start competing with track days or realise it's market has shrunk and reorganise appropriately.

[kartingdad]

Trouble is the BRSCC has got series such as Zetecs and Renaults. Stuart is looking forward to the Walter Hayes though.

Very good point about competing with trackdays though.

The trouble is these days I think everyone wants to make money out of the competitor rather than the spectators.

If organisers spent a bit more effort promoting their racedays, then they would make money from punters rather than bleeding the racers dry.

More speccys means more exposure means easier to sell sponsorship means more racers in better cars means better racing means more speccys means.....

More expensive costs to racers means fewer racers means less speccys means harder to sell sponsorship....

It's not rocket science is it?

Look at the national Zetec Series for instance.

Championship registration fees for Scholarship go up. In return Scholarship contenders get -

No press releases (that I have seen anyway)
Miniscule hospitality (A small awning with a powerless (!) water cooler.
No media training - as happened last year.
No fitness advice - ditto
No class awards presentation on podium - ditto
Now - NO TV COVERAGE.

And they wonder why there are only 17 entries. Can't be the racing as top 12 within 1 second in qualifying.

The answer I think is that competitors have nothing visible to sell to sponsors.

However when you look at some of the other championships on TV you wonder what is going on really.

[JohnMiller]

Originally posted by kartingdad
Trouble is the BRSCC has got series such as Zetecs and Renaults.

Small point, Renault is BARC innit?

[kartingdad]

er.. yes. Sorry. But the brscc has got F3 instead.