You can read plenty about club racing grid sizes in 2023 in our annual deep dive here. Looking at these numbers is a very blunt method for assessing the health of a series – after all, it doesn’t take into account the unique set of circumstances that surround each particular category’s fortunes, but it does still give a useful point of comparison and a snapshot of how they are performing. And grid sizes really do matter.
Speak to any club boss and the subject of rising prices is very likely to crop up. Whether that’s circuit hire, cost of hotels or the amount paid to medics on duty at race meetings, expenditure has increased in so many areas and that means entry numbers are even more important.
Put simply, clubs cannot afford to have small grids. They need to ensure every single category they run is justifying its place and pulling in the entry fees needed to offset those increasing costs. It is a tricky tightrope to walk and some have even decided they can no longer justify navigating it.
Take the example of the MG Car Club ending its decades of organising circuit racing events. Yes, its entry numbers had been dwindling for a while. And, yes, it’s an unusual example because motorsport was just one element of its activities. But it is very real proof of the difficulties clubs face right now.
“Like several other one-make clubs, the MGCC has been unable to stem the tide of rising circuit and car preparation costs and diminishing entries, all leading to the inescapable reality that circuit racing is no longer viable for the club,” read a statement.
While the MGCC will continue to operate events for grassroots disciplines such as autosolos, there is the very real threat that other clubs could also disappear from the circuit racing scene should they fail to successfully tackle the grid numbers versus costs conundrum.
Source: Autosport