Following on from Steve Landers post. I have started a new thread as I was afraid Facebook might collapse under the weight of the original post by Steve. So much to cover so sorry in advance Firstly Steve’s original post, I think it went a bit off thread following Steve initial comments regarding lack of support at the AGM from the drivers, but it did open up a debate, some of it good in my opinion some of it not so good, so for what its worth here is my five penny worth as the outgoing chairman. The one thing that unites all the comments and the people writing on Steve’s thread is we all have a passion for our sport; I certainly have not lost the love I have for watching and contributing to this great sport, so why do we look so divided. My comments now are my own personal feelings, not necessarily that of the BRCA or the current section committee. I feel the problem is there are too many people with different agendas trying to appease everyone; this is causing divisions among clubs, sections and drivers. On the face of it there seems to be some bad feeling towards the BRCA, and then there are the keyboard warriors who just like to try and make themselves look good on Facebook and don’t really appreciate the effect some ill-informed comments have on the masses. Let’s start with EWS, yes it’s a great championship, its well supported and well run, it follows a tried a trusted format that has seen the ETS grow in popularity over the years, fact. EWS has the flexibility to run its series with minimum amount of rules which the drivers seem to like, fact. From my perspective to have a top line series running through the winter months should be a great thing for touring cars and I truly appreciate the effort that go in the this series. So why is it that certain drivers seem to think that the best way to promote a series like EWS is to bad mouth the BRCA nationals, and I am not talking the organisers here, drivers make a choice to race there and they like it, that should be enough, if you ask me what the meal was like in the restaurant last night I would say great, I wouldn’t say its great, and so much better than the restaurant down the road, there is no need, EWS and the BRCA nats the two are not the same, both serve an import role to the racer, so why the “this is better and bigger than yours” mind set shown on this forum not only in this thread but in other threads, I really don’t understand that, surely the merits of EWS stand on their own. So apologies to my friends at EWS, if I have any down there after this, but you do a great job, no need for drivers to build the reputation of your series by putting down the efforts of others organisations doing similar things, but importantly in a different and sometimes more restrictive environments I am sorry if the next bit upsets my ex fellow committee members but drivers want a more simple set of rules, the rule book has become a bone of contention at national races and AGM’s for a long time now, the current committee are in a situation where they are forced to administrate rules ( voted in by drivers, not themselves) and then are crucified by the “wing is 00.2 mm too big brigade for implementing them, surely that is not a good situation for anyone. Back to Steve’s original comments about the AGM lack of attendance and not having a committee going forward. Believe me without a committee and without all the drivers, BRCA and championship organisers working together touring cars will disappear in the UK faster than a crack heads giro, with no obvious structure to the racing manufactures and distributors will look to other classes and race formats, touring cars in the UK will be a thing of the past, and believe that is not scare mongering that is a fact, and then it won’t matter if you are the BRCA touring car section EWS or little Johnny racing at his local club once a month, the effect will be felt and all the good that people have done over the years to build up the best class of racing ever in RC will be a thing of the past. In my opinion the problems are pretty obvious and to a degree simple, just too many people with different agendas tramping through the world of touring cars not giving a toss for the big picture, I am not one to just point out the obvious I would like to think I can offer a solution, this may be pie in the sky but let’s throw it out there and see if anyone really gives a toss about the sport we love He goes, we organise a meeting, some where a little south of Birmingham, we invite representatives of clubs who run championships, representatives from the major manufactures and distributors and finally a selection of thirty or so drivers, made up of team drivers, club drivers and possibly a few people who are new to the sport, we sit them down in one room and try and resolve this once and for all, pie in the sky maybe, but what would be the sticking point, in my opinion it would be the lack of compromise, we all have things we want to see happen, directions we want to go but surely if we love this sport as much as I feel you all do sometimes we have cut each other some slack. If I lived in small two bit European country who had a 100 racers I give my vital body parts to have an organisation like the BRCA, events like EWS and other similar championship, on the face of it to the outsider we have everything, so why can’t you guys make it work, come to the meeting, leave your personal agendas at the door and look at the bigger picture, and I include the BRCA in this, maybe they need to look to the future and possibly except that things need to change. Well that’s it from me, feel free to jump on this and tell me I am wrong and don’t understand the importance of this and that, that possibly may be true but I am someone that cares about our sport and wants to see it flourish and continue to grow, but the way it stands today its at a crossroads, the direction we take from now on will decide if we are still racing touring cars five years down the road Finally, thank you for all the kind words and messages sent to me on my retirement from the post as chairman, I don’t wish to go in to my reasons at this time, but believe me it wasn’t because I didn’t care anymore, this year I think we did a good job with the national series, some comments criticising it feel were based historical incidents, we did administer the rules differently this year but when you get people who raced in the series a few years ago assuming things are still the same the good work you have done is once again undermined, I feel anyone who had a problem with the way the nationals were run this year, where for one actually there in person, and secondly came to race control and discussed their issues with us and we were more than happy to listen, mouthing off about loosing time for stupid things and criticising the organisation when you were not there is unfair in anyone’s book I feel Thanks for listening to the ramblings of an old fool, I hope we are not reflecting on this thread in a few years down the road at buggy meeting recalling how good touring cars used to be, rather than post on Facebook do something positive about the sport you love, rather than attack people with different views to your own look at the big picture while it is still there to see
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 17:04:57 +0000
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