HOW THE CSCC HAS BECOME POPULAR
The story of how the classic sports car club has become so popular. by Rob lad brook
There have been more than a few envious glances toward the Classic Sports Car Club from ‘larger’ race organisers in recent seasons. Those occasional glimpses have intensified over the last 10 years, and likely became disbelieving stares back in May when the entry list for its Silverstone meeting was published.
Four-hundred-and-eight entries. Split across 12 races on the International Circuit. That’s an average of 34 cars per grid – a phenomenal level compared to other recent meetings at the Northamptonshire track. Only the incredibly successful Silverstone Classic beats it, surpassing the 1,000mark last summer. The next closest come from both the British Automobile Racing Club and Historic Sports Car Club, which boasted 320 and 341 cars respectively last year, but both of those events ran on the full Grand Prix loop.
In that context, the CSCC will likely have run the second-busiest meeting at Silverstone this year, and only used half of the track.
It’s been a meteoric rise for a club that boasts no registered MSA championships, and has only been in operation as a race organiser for the last 15 years.
The CSCC was founded when AngloAmerican Challenge racers with the Aston Martin Owners’ Club, Richard Wos and Richard Culverhouse, decided there was an opportunity to better cater for the club racing community. They founded the CSCC in 2001, and built the club’s foundations into a fully-fledged race organiser by 2003.
The club now runs 10 different classes, which between them cater for almost any age, or type, of racing machine. It all started with the Swinging Sixties series, founded on the principal of 1960s cars, racing on 60-profile tyres for 60 minutes. Since that was founded in 2004, expansion has been swift.
“As a club we’ve always looked for niches in the market, we’ve never watched another club do something and thought ‘we could do a better version of that’, and the Swinging Sixties was our first niche,” says Hugo Holder, who joined the club in 2008 and is now a director.
“The Swinging Sixties gave us the foundation to expand, and that expansion almost became self-funding because, by continually finding niches, we’ve been able to cater for more and more drivers in new ways over the years. When I joined in 2008 we had around 300 members, and we’re now just over 1,000.
“We also have a good range of ages, despite the name ‘Classic’. If you’re a young driver what do you choose to race – the Lotus Elan that you most likely can’t afford, or the modern turbocharged Mini that you can? We deliberately spread the net wide to cater for as many drivers at grassroots level as we can.”
David Smitheram, also a director, believes the ethos and atmosphere of the club’s events help to attract drivers back.
“The big thing about this club is the people, both running it and within it – that’s something that is very difficult for any other club to copy,” he says.
“We have a dedicated and supportive committee, who are either active racers themselves, or have raced at some point. They’ve spent their own money in the sport, so know what racers expect and want from an organiser. We always make decisions on what’s best for the club and its members, rather than what’s best for the bottom line of the bank balance.
“We have driver representatives that run raffles or offer prizes off their own backs at prize-giving, and we have a great atmosphere and camaraderie. The social aspect of motorsport is often overlooked, but we try to keep things simple and straightforward and people then make friends and tend to return to race with us.”
The CSCC has been known to go the extra mile for its customers. A recent example of this was the issue of refunds to drivers involved in last year’s Open Series round at Castle Combe, which had to be abandoned after a lap due to an accident and the impending circuit curfew. The club legally didn’t have to act, but did anyway.
The relaxed nature of the racing is also one of the CSCC’S selling points. The club elects to run series, not championships, to free itself from the restriction and regulation of a pointspaying contest.
“All of our regulations fit on a single side of A4 paper, and they’re all very simple,” says Holder. “We made the choice to run series because we didn’t want the restrictions or the eligibility criteria that come with championships.
“We can scrutineer a car in about 30 seconds, by checking it has the right silhouette for the series, the right engine, induction, safety gear and tyres – that’s it. If you don’t have complex championship regulations, you don’t have to police them in a complex way, such as demanding power tests on rolling roads and such. Our members just want to go racing, they don’t want to have to de-code pages of rules and regulations for their cars.”
The dedication to more relaxed, oneoff races also helps control driving standards, adds Holder: “Nobody is using us as a springboard to British Touring Cars, and we have none of the ‘maximum commitment’ sponsordriven teams. Being a series, nobody can claim they’re the champion at the end of the season and there’s no prize money. It all comes down to people enjoying going racing with friends and family.”
The CSCC employs a team of MSA clerks to handle driving disputes, and encourages its members to report grievances at the circuit to be dealt with. One of the CSCC’S founding mantras was “rubbing is not racing” and, while the club will defer most matters to the MSA for judgment, it does have its own devices to ensure clean driving, such as issuing warnings and it reserves the right to refuse entries or revoke membership at its discretion in extreme cases.
Another unique point to the CSCC is the unified race format. Almost all classes will qualify for 30 minutes and race for 40 with a mandatory pitstop. The format has been designed to allow drivers to share a car, and the cost should they wish, to make meetings as accessible as possible.
Calendar-wise the club constantly mixes it up with trips to most UK venues being rotated, along with chances for its members to race in Europe. Most clubs baulk at the cost of a trip to Spa-francorchamps or Magny Cours – which is new to the schedule this season – but the CSCC believes it gives a value of a different kind.
“As an organiser it’s hard to make a financial case for racing in Europe as the costs are very high in comparison to domestic rounds,” says Smitheram. “But for us it’s about allowing people to live that dream of racing at Spa. Because we’re not championshipbound, drivers can do as many or as few rounds as they like. Many just do one or two and then Spa, and that represents a great season for them. Drivers are free to tailor their campaign to their budget.”
The CSCC also has links with a Belgian club, Roadbook, and acts as the UK promoter for the Spa Three Hours race, which runs at the Summer Classic event. It also runs multi-class grids on the same meeting, opening doors for its members to make the trip to central Europe.
This year the club launched its latest innovation, the Turbo Tin Tops series for modern forced-induction frontwheel-drive cars. It marks the club’s most forward-thinking category yet.
“We’d be lying if we said we weren’t surprised by breaking our meeting entry records like we have,” adds Smitheram. “We’ve seen the numbers grow organically, and we’ve made entry predictions, but to surpass them has been a shock.
“We’re not getting complacent, but we’ve grown accustomed to catering for large grids. We also know that at least one club hold us up as an example to work toward, and that’s incredibly flattering. But we must be careful not to expand too much.
“Right now, we’re at a level where we know the faces and the cars in the paddock and we have a great relationship with our members, so there’s an argument of why bother expanding more?
“But we also can’t stand still because drivers, cars and trends evolve regularly, and it’s up to us to keep monitoring them and adapting.” ■