Brands Saloon Festival?....

[snowen250]

Hello all
Now this is just an idea I had, something I thought I would seek clarification/ideas/support/general info on.

Brands currently hosts two very successful festivals, one for Formula Ford, the other for Formula Vee, plus numerous historic festivals. But to me the UK club scene is dominated by saloon championships; why not hold a festival for these?
From the BARC (SE) the Dunlop Motorsportnews series could run, plus the Tintops, but also invite other series from other organising clubs, such as;
LMA Eurosaloons
Toyo Tyres Racing Saloons
CSCC Tin Tops
Pre 93/Classic Thunder/Blue Oval
The new VAG series
Plus one make series such as PBMW, MR2's, Various Mini and Alfa/Fiat series, or the Nippon Challenge.
Another option could be to invite series that run predominately at one circuit, combe saloons etc, to Brands for a race further a field.

I also heard of plans to move the fastest mini in the world race to Brands that would fit perfectly with this event. Another idea i had was to have a race for the "fastest saloon in the UK" this would be open to any saloon car and would (hopefully) pit the best of the DMN V LMA V Combe V TTRS etc etc. Now is it just me or the idea of Birely and the Escort with the Skylines going against the Supertourers and Evos etc of the other series sound like a good race? Maybe even some of the highly developed Britcar M3s could be persuaded to enter.

But, as already may be apparent, I have no idea how you would organise such an event. And even would all these different series that run under differing bodies would entertain the idea of a single 'festival' for them all as it were.

But i believe all the competing series would benefit. Hopefully the festival would gain some media coverage and also the cross over between eligible cars and series would be great. If a DMN runner wanted two more races he could enter the LMA, or TTRS, or Combe or whatever was available. Tyres may have to be changed but that would be it. It could also be a good way for series to attract more entrants, not that many of the above series need that, but in these times any way of gaining more interest must be a good thing?

Thanks a lot for reading through all that, any ideas or tips would be welcome. I of course would love to organise such an event, but as is plainly obvious i have never done anything like it and wouldn’t know where to start, if someone could point me in the right direction, would be great

Simon

[Al Weyman]

Tyres may have to be changed but that would be it.

Just like that, I think thats over simplifing the whole thing have you any idea how much agro and expense is contained in your short phrase.

[Robert Morris]

I good idea but it will be a full time Job to sort out also you would need a sponsor to pick up some of the intial cost

This type of event very difficult to get commitment from drivers as it would be a none championship round

[snowen250]

Robert, my idea was that it would be a championship round for each series involved. Except for the fastest mini and saloon race. Simply invite each series to race on the same weekend, thus having the best series in the UK at Brands on one weekend. As for it being a full time job, being a fresh university graduate who is currently unemployed despite working hard for three years i would be happy to do it. Should the support for the event be there.

Al, i do understand how much aggro and expense would be incurred, i was just trying to put across the idea that it could be a cost effective way of sampling another series.

Thanks a lot for your replies, Simon

[Al Weyman]

Simon, did'nt mean to sound quite so abrupt but tyres are so often the major bone of contention whe tryingt o run in anothet championsip/series. I would like a pound or every call I had in the past when we ran on Falkens to the guist of 'Everything on my car conforms but the tyres'. Its why I always thought apart from the very generous sponsorship from Falken at the time we were better off when it was any tyre off List 1a. Also many guys have had to change wheels in order to run a certain manufacturers tyres, for example Mini 10" were always a problem so you see that could be a real stumbling block.

[snowen250]

Ok Al thanks a lot for the information. Perhaps then the idea of lots of cross running between differing series on the day is not such a good idea. But i still believe that by demonstrating how good the racing is in a particular series in front of other drivers with similar cars it may drum up more entires for the series at a later date, perhaps the following season.
Simon

[Robert Morris]

Simon i miss under stood your inital post, but it will be very difficult for so many different championship to agree the same venue and date, for instance last year tin tops, dmn, and mini 7 were at the same venue 3 times and worked quite well for us, this year is more split and the mini 7 have not shared the same venue and date as the dmn.

[snowen250]

it will be very difficult for so many different championship to agree the same venue and date, for instance last year tin tops, dmn, and mini 7 were at the same venue 3 times and worked quite well for us, this year is more split and the mini 7 have not shared the same venue and date as the dmn.

But arent championship and round dates organised over the winter, if this event was set up and booked in the next few months could the timetabling not then fit in around it at a later date?
Thanks again for your replies
Simon

[Robert Morris]

Simon i think you idea is good but its got draw backs and iam sure Rod Birley will reply to this thread very soon and explain how difficult it is to organise, better than i.

[snowen250]

Thanks Robert, im sure this would be a nightmare to organise and i appreciate all the advice anyone can give. Im sure Rod or Chezza will be along shortly to say just how hard/impossible it would be.
I just thought the idea sounded cool and thought i would see if it was possible
Simon

[Rod Birley]

Quite a task to get all the groups to agree to the same date, but I will make enquiries.

[chezza]

And like a couple of bad pennies here we come!!

I think its a great idea and would love to be involved...I'll leave Rod to his enquiries and see what we can do!

[andypipe]

if its next year i will be up for it

[Stuart H]

Does sound tempting though

[chezza]

its highly unlikely to be this year Andy...all the championship rounds are set.

[snowen250]

My idea was to have it next year. I'm glad people are agreeing it is at least a good idea Hopefully we can get the ball rolling so to speak and get this thing to happen.
Simon

[Thorney]

I like the idea of it. CSL Cup would fit nicely I guess, small grids in its first year but next year we should be a lot larger.

www.cslcup.com

[Stacy]

25 car plus required I'd say, so a leap from single digits quite a jump. More bunting at the village hall with Chipsticks and Skol than a Brazilian Festival at the minute. ;-) Good luck with it.

I like the idea. Long been an advocate of saloonatic race days.. Easily promotable too.

S.

[Rod Birley]

Agree, 25 cars minimum.

[snowen250]

Thorney, i liked the CSL cup when i saw it but it does need more cars, somthing im sure it will get in the future, as there is plently of E46 M3s about. Of course all the cars would be eligable for the fastest saloon race or a one off appearence in any of the other series racing.

25 cars minmum? Sounds good to me and i think all of the series i mentioned earlier can achieve that, but lets not get ahead of ourselves, first we have to get the series to agree to race altogether.

Stacey, if this does go ahead hopefully the TTRS we will be on the bill, which i believe is your series......so hopefully we would see you there.

Rod and Chezza thanks for anything and everything you are doing
All the best
Simon

[Stacy]

Simon,

Who is "Stacey"?

The RX7 is indeed built for TTRS so yes I'd be there if they are, always open to supplements though so if they are not then others can accomodate I'm sure. Hopefully by next season I'll have the others running too though (Lotus Cortina - Pre-66 &U2TC, MK1 Golf, IPRA spec wide arched RX7).

TTRS organizers do frequent so I'm sure the idea is being duly considered, and they are talking about calendars right now..

All the best,

Stacy

[rallycrosscraig]

had a similar idea along the lines of saloon festival, but was only thinking of the 750 mc saloons (stock hatch, golfs, mr2) and have suggested it to the other stock hatch drivers and quite a few people are up for the idea

see thread here on the stock hatch forum

http://www.phil-law.co.uk/pl/cgi-bin...=ST;f=1;t=2270

[snowen250]

Ah damn! Sorry Stacy, i promise to only make that mistake once. Was in a rush as was going out.

Thanks for the info RXCraig, il have a look over there and point them in this direction, Stockhatch would of course be perfect for the bill. And the cars would i presume also be legal in tintops and other series on the day.

All the best and aplogies once again Stacy
Simon

[Thorney]

CSL Cup is getting there, we have 10 out for Castle Combe and we know of 4 more cars in build for end season and 3x that for next year. First year is always a tough one (especially this year) but races are very close (5 winners from 6 rounds, less that a second cover 1-4 at Brands Hatch) and they are quick running on slicks - top 5 cars all in 51's round BH Indy.

They also look and sound stunning....but I am biased

[Stacy]

Most of the cars seem to be yours though..

In all seriousness there does seem to be a yawning gap between club racing and the BTCC/Carrera Cup and associated budgets currently, and while there are a couple trying to fill it I'm not sure there's a winner declared just yet.

Not sure where you're pitching CSL Cup but it looks like Kumho's on steroids, and remembering Geoff Steel's view as ISTR he's involved, I'm guessing it's an attempt to step up.

We shall all keep a watching brief on the league tables Sir!

S.