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And it won't happen in 2009 without our support. They may not be racing on the track we all want them to race on but if we all lose interest, they'll never get back from the wilderness & large oval racing in Britain will be dead. Give them a chance on circuits: I was pleasantly surprised by the potential shown at Snetterton.Quote:
Originally Posted by foxystoat
Firm info about dates please - 28th Jan 08, 14:51
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Dear All,
Ok, most of the fans have wandered away from this forum because it now seems to be somehwere for the teams to banter. You seem to be finding it a pretty good wheeze to dangling your hook and bait for those few of us that are left with your little snippets of 'There's something really good to come' and similar from Gasman and racing59 to name a couple, with Duane assuring us there is going to be a busy couple of months. 'We know lots of things but we can't tell you'. All very reminiscent of the new cars we kept hearing about that never quite made it to the grid, but still we hung on in there, happy to part with our cash to support you racers and try and help the series grow. Unfortunately I start to get the feeling that actually most of the folk on the forum now aren't much interested in the fans - it's a bit of a team club these days.
Situation now is that I'm still prepared to support what I can (both SCSA and Pickups), I was planning to go to the Powernights, but now it seems they're gone. So, it's back to the weekend calendar.
The problem now is that the willing fans need information so that we can try and be free to support you, but Church rota's are being planned and I can't say when I'm not available so I won't have any choice about which sundays are free, holidays need booking, visits to relatives etc etc - On behalf of the remaining fans who look at the forum - any idea when we might get some concrete information please? Pretty please?
Thank you.
So, Julian, that's how I felt back in January. Nothing has changed other than the oval series I fell in love with is now confirmed as no longer an oval series.
For us, partly because Rockingham was so local, it was one affordable series to support especially when it was the first Sunday of the month - it was logged, I wasn't available to preach, deacon or whatever - I was BUSY!!!
Only missed when we were away on holiday. This carried on up until the end of the 2007 series, even if maybe occasionally we couldn't get there until mid dayish. Rain or shine, we were there supporting SCSA and gradually the pickups just as much. A great combination. The drivers were happy to talk to the fans - in fact there was a specific time for autograph hunting when they had to be available. Towards the end of last year things had noticeably changed - with the exception of one or two drivers the SCSA teams had become more introverted, and to be honest the 'cliquey' feel of the forum deterred us from trying to talk to the newer drivers too much. Fans comments in threads were largely ignored in favour of team chat - I don't know about other fans, but we just didn't seem to count any more when it came to bantering around either on the forum or at the track. Almost the old 'talk to the hand..' - fans didn't seem to be valued in quite the same way as before.
We miss the razamatazz, we miss the professional outfits, we miss the rapport between drivers and fans. For us moving to road circuits means it is no longer a series we can identify with in the same way. We can't commit to travelling around the country to follow a particular driver/team. Guess it's back to the Historic/VSCC stuff at Silverstone for my local fix of noise and muscle cars - the old Le Mans cars can be pretty exciting and there are more than two of them even in the mixed grid races.
I sincerely wish the SCSA teams all the very best - I hope you can get it all back together and get back to the Rock where this type of machine really belongs. Back to the days when it really felt like a sporting community - crumbs, our auction on here raised a substantial contribution to sending Pitkid and other local scouts to the World Scout Jamboree, something we are extremely grateful for. Somehow, sad to say, I don't think a fun fundraiser like that would work now because the Forum doesn't have the same feel to it. There certainly aren't the same numbers logging in - 70 looks to each post - it used to be over 150!
Now we are reduced to the old chicken/egg debates. Support it and it might come back to the Rock where it belongs; we did support it but the plug was pulled; but you didn't bring enough friends; it was over subsidised; we did/didn't like the bands and fair.
Tell you one thing - the pure petrol heads might not have liked the fair, the bands, the kids, the hooters (sorry Jeffmr2 - not a personal dig, and do you still have the Grumpy Old Man t shirt? tee hee) (you see, I never met this guy but we had a laugh around here), but it did bring people who wouldn't have come otherwise - someone took away the bits they liked and they didn't come anymore.
If we want American style racing here it seems we have at least proved we have to do it the American way - with the old razzamatazz!!!!!
I'll still be dropping in here from time to time (if I'm still welcome after this post) and popping to the Rock for the pick ups when possible. I'm afraid catching a couple on the odd corner at a circuit it takes most of the day to get to isn't going to get me buying tickets, but get the V8s back to the Rock where they belong in enough numbers for me to feel the thunder I'll be there everytime - keep me a seat!
Sorry for the length of post, didn't mean to rant on but Jovial Jooles did ask..
Good luck all and hope to see you again someday.
Gillian
Like Gillian said, the crowds came for the whole package. Less than one percent of fans ever came on the forum, but those that did, did so because they were converted to watching ASCAR. How many of the thousands of people at Rockingham were there because of NASCAR and Oval Racing? I'd say it was more to do with busted or the free tickets. This is no dig, and I know it upset the real race fans that most of these guys in the stand were there for the crashes, but the fans got into it, and would come back time and time again. Just when we were going places, funding was pulled because Rockingham had no choice. They were almost bust.
Ever since the other bits were pulled, more and more cuts have been made. Photo cards, proper paint jobs, fan sessions... Rockingham Radio. All little tiny things, but to the crowd, it gave it the look of a proper series. Without the money, we can't have the luxuries... and with the luxuries we can't have the fans... and without the fans we can't have the money.
Although the decision was not made by the series, we are not racing there. This was done because certain people think the series should regroup and come back stronger. Duane has done a great job holding things together, and we have one shot to impress people enough to give us our dates back. That is why that when we do go back, it needs to be done properly. We need around twenty cars out there. We need the bands, the trade stands, the fun fair, the fly past and we need those bloody garages! We need the drivers to spend an hour signing autographs, we need the little giveaways. Most of all, we need the fans.
Would NASCAR keep going week in and week out without the fans? Tracks have lost dates because of poor attendances, and it will continue in the future. It is the nature of the beast, and although some people say Rockingham don't care if we run or not, that's strictly not true. If we can't pull a crowd, why should they care whether we are there or not. If we are pulling crowds of 40,000 and running our own meetings and making them money... you think they would turn us away then? A series that can pull in big crowds can pay more than a few club series teaming up to hire a nice track. That is the only trump card e have. Saying that, the flip side is that if somebody else gets 40,000 to come and watch something at Rockingham before we do, they would have more weight when it comes to getting dates.
As much of a fan I am, and as much as I understand that ultimately we want to go out and race, we need to consider the bigger picture. Rockingham is a business and is there to make money. If we step up to the plate, and can make them that money... would they really turn us away?
Getting back on thread.
Having just read through the Pickups Testing at Rockingham thread, I think the way that thread developed & the reason for closing it proves a lot of fans points they have made thus far in this thread (including mine!).
Cliquey
We as Ascar teams are having to change to survive and as much as we all agree with the sentiment on this thread we cannot change sentiments towards us that have placed us in this 2008 situation of road courses and no oval.
Blaming team personell for being on here as the reason no fans are on here is a bit wide of the mark, these guys are why we are still going, they do it for free and want us to survive and you want to stab them in the back, carry on doing that and it will be finished.
These guy's from all teams are fans as well and enjoy the banter with everyone, would you rather they not come on and along with myself you never get any news or insight into how the teams and series are getting on ???
They need your support as well as drivers because without them the Drivers will not be out there........even though its on road course !!!!!
I loved racing on the oval but enjoyed Snetterton enough to make me see there is another opption, an opption that most petrolheads will go to more readily that the oval maybe, which makes me wonder how many tickets they will give away this year for this weekend to get a crowd !!!!
Duane
There seems to be two points being made in this thread:
Why people are not interested in SCSA now it has left the Oval.
Why people are no longer posting on the forum.
My interest in SCSA slipped over the last couple of season. The lack of real close racing being the main reason - still attended most events to see the pickups.
I am more than willing to support the series on the road courses but cannot travel to all events.
The problem with the forum having so many supposedly informed team members posting is a double edge sword. It is great to get information when we have it but the downside is any discussion about the direction the series is taking risks upsetting those who work so hard on the series.
There still seems to be people reading this forum but little discussion happening. Perhaps all the topics have been done to death already?
I've left the forum simply because of the negativity from all sides, I've found somewhere else to talk, (will not post a link here for obvious reasons,) where talk is focused purely on what is happening, rather than what will be happening or what happened last year or before that.
This year the series is on road courses, next year, who knows? Once a concrete arguement is put forward to return to Rockingham, we will, until then it's time to simply forget about all that and concentrate on the current picture. Forget how many cars are on track, there's hundreads of reasons for lack of cars, the focus should be on the closeness of the racing from the cars that are on track.
I only continue to come on here once a week or whatever to check my pm's, give it a couple of months and i'll cease to do that anymore. In general there's nothing to talk about here any more for me, some of the other forums are really elitist though and I'd never step in them, in comparison this forum is quite good.
I just wanted to add... I was a fan long before I was a team member (I remember getting £25 Champ Car tickets in 2001 due to a link on the ASCAR website) and in fact I probably wouldn't *be* a team member without having been a forum regular first.Quote:
Originally Posted by Duane
I was also a fan before i got involved in the racing. When i got made redundant from my first job i went to work with Duane and still do. He gave me a couple of tickets and said come and have look. i drove up to Rockingham and gave it a look and was instantly hooked. I try and show people whats going on in our workshop by taking pictures and writing a little comment on them on our facebook page to keep people interested and will keep on doing it all season, I've also learned there aint no point in flying wild at people on this forum as it aint gonna get us back to Rockingham by doing it. It has been mainly people from teams that go on here talking to each other and fans being left out, that is why most of us have backed off from chatting that much on here. right i'm off to lurk in the distance and take more pictures for the facebook. As soon as i learn how to use photobucket i'll start putting some on there.
Tractor.
Having marshalled at numerous circuits over more years than I care to remember, in one capacity or another, I was delighted when an Oval eventually re-appeared (even I don't remember Brooklands in its hayday) on the scene. As well as continuing to marshal at road-circuits, I then marshalled at Rockingham from the very first 'behind closed doors' up-to the end of last year. And the best racing was always as the circuit was designed - an Oval.
BTCC & GT's are all well and good, but the inner circuits are a bit too mickey-mouse for my liking - anyway, if I want a road circuit I can always nip down the road to Silverstone.
Every yearend there was talk whether the ASCAR/SCSA series would be back next year, each year it stuggled to return but it did, so back to Rockingham I went. As did many other fans of Oval racing, who also posted here on the Forum.
But, now it has gone to 'the dark-side' so to speak, the interest in SCSA and the forum has also gone. I appear occasionally, and post very occasionally - and when I do most of my comments do not seem to meet with much approval - so what's the point?
ASCAR/SCSA/V8 Oval racing 2008 is dead (for whatever reason), and as that is the type of racing that the majority of fans want, so is the forum.
PUT's are ok, but they have only ever been part-time Oval racers, the true UK Oval series is hopefully only having a relapse and will be back in 2009 - then the fans will return to the forum.