The Classic Sports Car Club director’s take on a large Thruxton entry
The Classic Sports Car Club director didn’t know what entry levels would be like after the COVID-19 lockdown, but has been delighted by the interest and the governing body’s approach
“Within 24 hours of entries opening we had 250 signed up. Now there’s a total of 418 entries”
To be totally honest, at the Classic Sports Car Club we had no idea how many entries we would get for our first race meeting back. Were we going to get 10 or 200 cars? But we had to make a decision whether to go ahead with the 25-26 July event at Thruxton. Luckily, it took off spectacularly!
Within 24 hours of entries opening we had 250 signed up. Now there’s a total of 418 entries (over 500 if you include second drivers), and six of the 11 races are completely full on a 42-car grid – however that does include reserves. There will unfortunately be people who wish to race, but won’t be able to. Thruxton are not sure what the entry record is, but they’re pretty sure this is right up there.
To say all the interest is just because of the long pause in motorsport is probably to do ourselves at the CSCC a disservice.
Before lockdown, we had two race meetings organised, which were full, and then refunded our competitors when all was put on hold. We look after our customers, and I think that’s something people respect and appreciate.
We also have a strong following of drivers who have been with us from when we first started. We now cover pretty well every type of car circuit racing in the country, apart from single-seaters and sports-racers. Our regulations are always very free so it allows anyone after very few, if any, car modifications to race with us. Also, they like the two-driver races so they can compete with friends.
It’s also down to our staff – my co-director David Smitheram and our committee. We all – either in the past or still do – compete ourselves and we’re all passionate about giving our members the best possible racing at the best possible venues.
We’ve also started our new Slick Series, which, because of COVID-19, is going to be the first time out for it at Thruxton.
At the moment we’ve got 17 entries and it would have been more, but a few have had to withdraw for various reasons.
In terms of wider national motorsport, and not just CSCC matters, in my role as the chair of the Association of British
Motor Racing Clubs, clubs have reported a huge amount of pent-up demand that has come with the return of racing.
Together with Motorsport UK, we’ve worked out changes for competitors and there are some I hope will last. Not least of all signing on, which is now done in advance digitally and scrutineering is by digital self-declaration.
If it’s proven this can work and is safe, I see no reason why we should go back to the old days of getting up at silly o’clock in the morning to sign on and scrutineer. We should get to a place where we can turn up straight into the assembly area, be ticked off the list and away you go. It would be a happy state of affairs for everybody.
Other things like not being able to have briefings straight in front of people, maybe that’s not so good. But if this thing does pass, at least we’ve got the option of changing it.
Obviously, a huge amount of thought has gone in to how it all works. I have to say that Motorsport UK have been extremely supportive. They’ve listened to what we said, and they put a great deal of things into action, which we discussed long and hard.
We are all trying to make motorsport come back as quickly as possible. However, people do forget that these first race meetings are being run on a worst-case scenario. As things progress out of COVID-19, hopefully we’ll be able to take away the layers of restrictions and make it gradually freer for everybody. We only want to leave in place the things that make it easier for people.
Although people have been furloughed and many have suffered much worse, things aren’t as bad as they could be in club racing. We’ve all been locked up and many can’t wait to get back out on track again. However, what happens next year remains to be seen. We really don’t know, and many will have to budget for smaller grids.
One last thing – I’ve been talking to colleagues at clubs that have already run meetings. They said some are rather rusty on their driving skills, so there were unnecessary stoppages. We will also be reminding people to make sure they don’t overfill fluids and plugs are fully tightened. Let’s have things run smoothly on the day! ■