Well, sometimes on weekends like the last having the option to stay at home and watch the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and a Sunday lunch is a much better proposition!

This event on the 1st was an occasions we had not only worked towards all year but I personally had looked forward to with some pride in presenting - only to be hit a week before by the devasatating news of storms and heavy rain which sort of insets panic, particularly when costs of 20k are taken into account - and almost suicidal depression!

It is also very difficult to engender enthusiasm as a promoter [ let alone fan ] in those vital last few days when you are depressed into believing you will be left with a swamp and deeply out of pocket - Sunday lunch would definately be better !

All you can do is `get on with it' and hope and pray that what we cannot control is not as severe as the BBC suggest! The BBC are bloody here, Charlie and Lakey surely could not have brought and summoned this up as a fitting end to the series as an added drama - surely not ?

Planning started tuesday in getting the track re-instated straight after the succesful Halloween event followed by hours of tyre packing and clearing drains in the hope that the anticipated monsoon will run off and drain.

Your own confidence evaporates 48 hours before as the forecast becomes more certain the closer it gets turning to suicidal depression by Saturday night! - You watch the results from KL and FWJ's demise is almost as big as your own forthcoming tsunami!
Going to bed Saturday with a beautiful moonlight night having a fag on the patio you find it difficult to believe that in a matter of hours a weather armaggedon will arrive.
By 3.am it had! You don't sleep much!
We had several back up plans the last being not opening the turnstiles if the weather was severe, delaying the start and even refunding the 500 plus advance ticket holders - all things that you have to take as they come as the circumstances unfold. But they have to be thought through and planned - people expect a response and a decision.
Fate deals it's hand in a conspiratorial way - Walking around the track at 9.am like someone from the crew of Trawlerman in a Hades setting, you begin to doubt that in just 5 hours time you will be running an important event - The phone continually rings `is it on' and the rain lashes down - although, at this time after two inches plus of rain the track itself is perfect and not even muddy and the drains are going like the clappers. IF the weather gives us a break by noonish there is some comfort of a perfect racing strip - even if there may be few to watch it, but the show must go on as the prime concern, bean counting comes later!
If we have to race in these conditions, it will be short lived, your experience tells you that and what contingency plans can you have as the track quickly degenerates into a swamp - You have to have one - people have paid to be entertained and not to be part of your problems!
The best we could think of to be fair, certainly in relation to the NS was two seperate heats for F1 and an all in Final - therefore equal races, similar for F2 and perhaps 2 races for Bangers before the track floods.
All shale tracks will cope with huge volumes of water UNTIL you race on them after which the drains block and the loose becomes waterlogged and, very quickly you need the RNLI not tractors!
All these things race through your head whilst trying to be proactive but there are no certainties - only eventualities which you can only deal with as the circumstances unfold.
If the rain is not enough feeding conspiracy theories are the messages that the M6 is shut Northbound at Stafford followed by more news of problems on the M601,602 and M1 at Meadowhall together with reports of torrential rain in just about every direction - deep gloom! A hard worked for profit looks set to be a devastating loss and a non event!
The M61 was down to one lane because someone decided to jump off a motorway bridge in the early hours to their doom - a lighter moment shared with a colleague promoter who suggested that I was only envious because they had nicked my place!

In the end, planning does pay - the prayers are answered and the rain abates around 11.30.am which gives way to cyclonic winds followed 15 minutes later by the pyrotechnic people saying they doubt for HS reasons we could set the fireworks off - deep joy, a stadium full of dissappointed Kids!
You send them away telling them that that is a problem 6 hours away and there will be many more to solve before then and begin planning wind direction, can we clear an area of the stadium for safety - which in the end we did and the Fireworks were launched to my relief and hopefully evreyones satisfaction!
The drivers arrive and fans gleefully advising you of their torrid experience in battling Tsunamis to get there - to their credit in actually bothering with neither driver or spectator knowing what to expect or if there would be a race meeting.
For every phone call enquiry there are at least 10 who just write it off - which helps your mood for the day.
You have to accept the inevitable - the weather gods smile a little and give some remorse, the track through careful handling survives, the event gets underway - alternative pit areas are quickly brought in so F1 drivers don't have to float whilst working on cars and the staff are issued with lifebelts whilst working on the centre green!
There is a relief that there is a crowd - and a very good one although you have that deep foreboding at the `missing' ££££'s that will never,ever be replaced and alters your budgets for the following year on what you might have liked to do. Promoting will always be `what if's'......it is what thankfully keeps you going!
In the end by 6.pm after a day that started at 6.am once those rolled up £20 notes are ignited and fizz and bang once airborne - there is a massive sense of relief - the show went on, the drivers and staff performed miracles, fans turned up and the whole wheel turned even if it was a little more slowly.
You get home at 9.pm some 15 hours later, collapse and have missed X factor but more sadness as JEDWARD have bloody survived!

And Monday morning you have to ascertain how it all went financially, dust yourself down and start again for the next one - is it any small wonder that there is no huge queu of wanna be promoters having to read - after all that someone believes it is worth 4/10!

On many occasions I speak to people and have conversations and I am one who never gambles, not even on the Grand National - but I conclude the biggest business gamble in life is our job, it's red or black and mostly controlled by outside forces you cannot control!

That the event went ahead and succesfully is a tribute to everyone - from Tony Swales, track man and his team, our team drivers,mechanics and race fans - and perhaps proves something else - Never give up! Had we cancelled which we were on the verge of then we would have lost a great event in the final analysis!

Bringing closure on the NS series for 2009, in my eyes it has been vindicated as a complete success which imo should be repeated in 2010 with a couple of tweaks and I have already penned my twopenneth work to make it even better!

I seem to have started a debate on another forum regarding fans racng ratings and even I have now lost the plot.
What set me off was when someone can give a meeting like 1/11 a 4/10 based on the sheer effort that had gone into actually getting it to run.
This in turn has led to a debate on what the r/r stands for racing or the event which then becomes very confusing.

The problem with r/rs is what they potentially do to a business when everyone gathers like vultures to pick at a carcass and forensically analyse one meeting far more than an equally comparative event - for example 27 cars at Buxton or 19 at Bristol on a sunny day is greeted far more generously than a Sheffield or BV with a similar amount.
Others input their bit, sometimes patronising to make it a point like the poster who suggested what does a promoter do with 26 cars in the pit area - what is the issue ?

As stated elsewhere, as a promotional team we have learnt to accept these as a subjective evaluation rather than objective and read the ones which we feel and know the history of the poster and will provide an honest assesment and critique and from that respond and learn.

All we want to do is try to get stronger, build an audience upon repeat visits and do that by listening where we can. Forensic destruction and over analysis is worrying and the fastest route to influence casual observers not to attend and losing venues - it often creates a negative environment.
Recent comparisons between Scunthorpe and Sheffield as an example in organisational terms make subject, not objective assesments.
The majority of staff working at the two meetings were the same - car wise I think there were 17,18,17 in the heats, 28 in the Final and whatever in the National - Sheffield had 19 W&Y 24 Heat 1, 18/19 Heat 2, 25 Heat 3. 18 in the Final due to qualification over two days for the BriSCA Supreme and a healthy GN turnout - but both meetings were received differently.
Scunthorpe startd at 5.30.pm and finished around 9.35.pm with F1's and Minis and Sheffield started at 1.30.pm and finished at 6.15.pm - only around 40 minutes later, more gridding up and without the final major delay because of a post problem would have probably been finished around 5.40.pm - ie same timescale - Yet you will understand our bewilderment at the diversity of response - Scunny was brilliant, fast and under lights - equally Sheffield was fast,destructive but in daylight.

I think the point is trying to understand these major variation in verdicts and garner something useable to improve.

All that said I do think the r/rs are a useful tool in moderation and as long as you do not take them to heart!

Hi Steve, I've read yours and others comments about recent meetings with great interest and must say I think the R/R at both Sheffield and Belle Vue were far better than previous meetings especially Sheffield. To me that shows forward steps have been made.
One of the problems stems from things beyond anyones control such as I prefer watching at Scunthorpe to Sheffield because the shape of the track gives sideways side by side racing and viewing is much closer to the track, always makes for a better impression. So I would generally give Scunthorpe a higher R/R, no critism to Sheffield just the way things work out.
I'm affraid on the subject of effort, you may be like FWJ - 100% commitment but no silver roof. Being self employed i know effort dosn't always lead to success, ( just ask Mr Benitez ) it's expected of us, but we know that because that's how we try to make a living. Lifes a b**** sometimes.
The same posters you mention have rated meetings higher this year than last and that in itself should give promoters and drivers a deserved pat on the back,and from your point of view shows you are improving on what you've got to work with.
Finally, those who always give Startrax a low R/R, same as Cov, always seem to turn up at the next meeting, strange that.
So cheer up Steve, remember your a promoter - the enemy, Stox people will never vote you mayor of Machester

Steve, if you recall last Sunday, early evening, as you walked back from giving your speech over the mike I called to you and said "WELL DONE".

That wasn't just for what you had said but for the whole day and the excellent entertainment that we saw, given, as you say, the Armageddon conditions we had witnessed only a few hours before.
Sundays meeting was a fitting finale to the Shoot out series and the season as a whole, I too very nearly didn't bother when I saw the conditions on Sunday morning but believe me, I'm bloody glad I did now.

As you also know, our anual works trip was present on Sunday and the few people I have managed to catch up with since have given me nothing but positive feed back from their experience, our canteen lady who hasn't been racing for many years was in awe of the fact that she could still watch Lund, Wainman, Smith and Harrison racing side by side, all be it (with the exception of Big John) a new generation.
What totally blew her away though was when her hero of yester-year, Stuart senior, stood beside her in the bar - think she's well and truely hooked again lol

Thanks for the feedback Nigel - very much appreciated - sorry to have not responded earlier but have been in bed for 36 hours with man flu!

With all events you have to put them into perspective and feedback is vitally important - and you also have to retain the bigger picture. Our industry is a `risk' venture and heavily weather dependent - if you cannot accept that I guess we should not be doing it.

Sunday 1st is typically one of the seasons biggest at Belle Vue given Fireworks etc and is well advertised. We can speculate that what was a very good crowd would have been swelled by 500 - 1000 if the weather had been as it was the day prior - however, we will never know. You should always take the positives - firstly the crowd was overall good, more importantly the weather improved to ensure the high number of first timers were actually entertained - the double whammy could have been that the awful weather stayed all day, 1000 less than actually attended were there, the track was a quagmire and the percentage of new people in attendance may not come back again.

Life of Brian `Always look on the bright side of life! '

It's interesting to read what people look for in a stock car meeting. I personally look for stock car racing, but then, I'm a dyed-in-the-wool lifelong fan. Delays, bad organisation, incorrect density of gravy on chips, etc, are soon overlooked if the racing is good. I'd rather go to a badly run meeting with cracking racing than a well organised one with dull racing any day.

Tim mentions the view being closer to the track at Scunthorpe. It is, but not much if you stand right at the front at Sheffield. However, if you do that you'll find that you can't see a lot of the opposite straight because of all the stuff on the infield. The higher backstraight terracing allows you to see over the top of much of it, but then, you're further from the track. Could anything be done about this? I suppose it might be possible to remove all that gear, and keep the tractors in the pits. One tractor on the infield wouldn't be an issue, neither would two if you parked them next to each other. Are tractor drivers really so difficult to train? It's worse at BV because the infield is smaller, and there's now those advertising boards on the infield as well.

My comment regarding Scunthorpe was no more than an example of how a r/r will vary according to what people like, some prefer tarmac to shale, some prefer speed to contact, etc etc, so a r/r does not always indicate a well presented meeting or not.
A die hard 391 fan will probably rate a meeting higher if he wins the final, same as 515 fans, so again a r/r can be influenced by so many outside factors and shouldn't be taken as a definative measure of a meeting.
But the biggest thing is, new people to Stock cars or bangers do not vote on any website and they are the people who make the difference to a promoter. The only accurate measure is over a year are more people coming through the turnstyles, r/r is only a tool to do a job and whilst can provide useful pointers, should not be taken as gospel.
Since the early 80's, the general census of opinion for a good meeting has been -
Shale - under lights, 3 hours start to finish
Tarmac - afternnons, 4 hours start to finish
Has anything changed?

It seems everyone looks for different things. Have seen some great meets which get a low score and some awful events which score well.

I enjoyed BV was a decent meeting.

Loved reading the promoters blog, ever thought of writing a book? Would be a great read....

Everybody seems to write books these days, don't see why Steve shouldn't......then he could plug it on all the TV programmes like they do!
More promotion!!!


GED

John,

I have almost completed one although put it on a back burner until I retire as the contents - 'warts and all' are quite explosive.
Vince has seen some time ago excerpts which related to he and Barry for approval - you would definately enjoy it.

But a bit too sensitive to be still around - It is a bit like Salman Rushdie and the Satantic Verse to `some' people who feature in it.

NB The interesting thing in parallel to the surveys and feedback we are achieving, lowest approval ratings 1. come from stock car fans - and 2, about stock cars! - borne out by stoxnet r/r

Highest rated and best received events in terms of crowd size and appreciation are the tuesday nights

Is the answer not to run stock cars? Bizarre

i think the "locals" are happier paying a tenner for some bangers than paying £16-£19 for some stock cars, if you werent a fan you wouldnt pay £16 either, Incarce charge you £44 for a family now to watch a stock car meeting.
Not how anyone can complain about BV its a cracking track and some great meetings there, my only groan this year with F1s are these continual bullsh1t booking lists with often 10-15 drivers not turning up, i know the booking list is only a guide but look at this weekend, about 12 cancellations each day and imagine Steve only having 30 cars and 12 dont turn up would you drive 120 mile to BV to see 18? And how many times has 434 booked in this year not to show up, bet it aint far off 10 you know, its about time bookings were sent to a central source ie BriSCA and a list updated accordingly up to the Friday night before a meeting and penalties imposed for repeat offenders, you have felt the wrath of the public Steve for over exaggerating in the past but now everyones at it or more to the point the drivers are at it.
Im very cautious nowadays of 30 car meetings as they usually mean 20 and not worth my time, i have a business to run and 3 kids to look after and get ready for school on a Monday i aint like some who have nothing else in their lives.
BTW looking forward immensely to Sunday.

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