Kingpin

Was it 2/3 format? Mylaps say 25 cars raced, heat splits were 13,17,20 so not very evenly done...

Dave G unfortunately that's not the case, many f1 fans will not turn up, too many pick and choose their meetings now, for various reasons. Each meeting needs some sort of enticement to go for the drivers and the fans, every meeting competes with all the other things we could be doing in our lives, and it's not a moan if someone points out that this Hednesford meeting has little incentive, but I will say the meeting as a whole could be a very good one with 42 saloons all-in.

Did you go to Northampton Doug? You will see from the ratings on here it was one of the best meetings of the year. The number of British drivers doesn't relate to how good a meeting can be.

Thanks, the Spedeworth site has been changed now. It will be interesting to see if this meeting is supported by drivers, hard to imagine it will be after a hectic world weekend and the shootout round the corner.

The Spedeworth website says this is a National Series round but the F1 fixture list says it isn't. Anyone know for sure if it is?

http://www.spedeworth.co.uk/bookedin.php?id=1747 60 Dutch F1's booked in...

Yes I think it's to do with encouraging socialising in the bar for the evening. But I'm sure there are a lot more people who would rather the later start. Those who go to the bar after racing for a few hours will still have been drinking while watching the racing if it started later so a bad decision all round in my opinion. It was done at Mildenhall weekend this year and the crowd looked down on the saturday to me. I went to Skegness saturday and struggled to get there until about 5pm, but I enjoyed it and had some drinks through the evening. If it had started at 3 I wouldn't have gone.

The reason a lot of people camp is so you can have a drink. You can't do that if you have to drive to your digs so the price is not necessarily the main consideration.

StockCarSteve I think the way it's priced is understandable and what you would expect. If you rent a piece of land for the night you pay according to how much you rent, so a pitch of a similar size should cost the same amount, regardless of whether you put a camper with 10 people on it or a tent with one person. Yes it could vary a little because there are less people using the toilets for example, but as premier says if it was per person it would be too difficult to control.

Thanks RoyB the pit news is interesting

I wish people would stop bringing the c-word up in nearly every post! Coventry has gone, it's been nearly 3 years, please move on. The stuck-in-the-past people who use it as a reason to promote the negativity bandwagon at any little opportunity are having such a negative effect on the formula at a time when they should be trying to do the opposite. If you look at any fixture list there will always be a few meetings each year that look like they might suffer with a lower than average turnout, usually either because of too many fixtures taking it's toll on the drivers, or because some meetings don't have much at stake, points or championship wise, so the drivers are more likely to give those ones a miss. Personally I think there are too many meetings in general. Less is more I would always say. But so what if there aren't as many cars racing this Saturday as there would have been at Coventry, the racing will still be enjoyable and there is no reason why it won't be as good as it would have been at Coventry. Those fans who get their old programme stats out and compare today's turn-outs to how they were back in the day and use it as a reason not to attend meetings are just putting another nail in the coffin of the whole sport. As has been said by many people before, forget jumping on the keyboard to hit the negativity button as a knee-jerk reaction, just go and enjoy the sport while you still can.

Many thanks for doing this Ricky much appreciated

What are the points available on Sunday for each of the races? I'm trying to find details of the normal points structure for F1's but can't find it anywhere...

I think you could make both work by having saloons heats on the friday (say each driver races 3 out of 5) and the final and allcomers on the saturday. That way you only have 2 saloon races but they are big ones. Plenty of time for as many f1's that want to race sat as well. If saloons are on the crowd will definitely be bigger I would say

Yet again some people have their blinkers on and can't look at the wider picture, they are just stuck in the past and are only interested in their own situation and can't accept that the whole outlook for the sport has changed and promoting has to be more viable otherwise there will be no sport to watch at all. Does it really matter that, if you insist on only eating you own food, you have to eat it before you go into the meeting, or come out during the meeting to have some of it, or wait till after the meeting to eat the rest? Is that really a problem for the majority of people? Change happens for the long term benefit of everyone so just go with it or stay at home and look at your old photos of all the tracks that have closed because the promoters can't make it pay.

Regarding Craig Finnikin I thought he stopped racing last year because they said his seat was illegal without a window net and he wouldn't change the seat or race with a net, and not because of the rev limiter? So if that's the case he must have agreed to change it?

Yes the odds change. As Betfred take bets they adjust the prices on offer according to what their liabilities will be. For instance the prices for 197 and 318 have been reduced now, so they must have been the most popular bets at those early prices.

Latest running order and preview on Startrax website

I would think they will just add an extra heat in? If you look at the race times they have allowed about an hour to run the semi, which seems longer than it needs to be, so the times could be tightened up a bit if they have a curfew?

I wasn't referring to how long to get out of the Coventry car park Broadsword, I was meaning how late the meeting usually finished compared to the time Ipswich will be finished.

Just pay the £2 and park in the massive car park, no walk involved, easy to go back to your car to get your coat, and safer than walking back to your car in the dark risking getting run over. And if it takes a while to get out the car park you will still be on the road an hour earlier than a typical Coventry meeting.

Is the u25 championship open to new drivers having a one-off appearance then?

Jeremy I have to just pick up on some of your last comments. We are all entitled to an opinion and of course everyone will agree on some things and disagree on others, but for a promoter who puts so much time and money into bringing our sport to a new audience, to say what you just have is rather surprising to say the least! "they have all finished at 11pm ish as they have done for decades" - You seem to be saying you think that's a good thing? "30% plus leave after the final and November will be no different" - You seem to be saying you think that's acceptable? You don't think it would be better to finish the meeting earlier so one third of the crowd could see all the races they have paid to see? If the month doesn't make any difference it surely enforces the notion that families cant stay that late whatever the weather. I don't agree with your last point but I'll still come whatever. You can still have lots of cars and one support formula and fit it all in to 3.5 ish hours. Other tracks do it. Like I said before I give you credit for what you do to try to promote our sport to a new audience but just feel the way you format your meetings makes some of that effort a little wasted.

Stav - meetings don't have to take nearly 6 hours just so there is enough time for cars to be fixed, there is plenty of time at a 3.5 hour meeting with one support formula! Dave Wayne - I don't have a problem with ministox, in fact I would rather watch them than the other formula that's on. I'm sure there are other promoters who would have dropped the original support formula if they had wanted to help the minis out, knowing that finishing times are important, but this promoter has often bent over backwards to not upset individual support formulas which is often at the expense of the new fans that he is trying to attract. That's the whole point of my post, I think Jeremy is undermining a lot of the effort he puts in to attract a new audience when he puts on such a lengthy meeting as this one will be. Tony Wayne - I certainly won't go home early and will stay to the end whatever time it finishes, but my post is about trying to appeal more to the new family audiences rather than the regular die-hard fans like you and me.

Jeremy I appreciate what you're saying about value for money but that's not the point, we would have already had value for money with the extra F1 races and fireworks and one support formula, without the need to cram another support formula in to an already packed programme. An extra 4 ish mini races will turn an already long cold night into a very long cold night and I don't think that has any appeal whatsoever to new families coming to watch our sport for the first time. Which I think goes against your efforts via Motofest etc to get them to come in the first place. I'm not a typical moaner, I'll go and enjoy it and have my cheap pint etc just as most, but surely adding another formula into an already long night doesn't make any sense whatsoever, even if the gate price doesn't go up! My tip for a successful 2017 is to only have one support formula at each meeting and gear it to finish by10pm. 3-3.5 hour meetings will appeal to more people than 5+ hour marathons, regardless of how much of a bargain the admission price might be.