Well, we have tried as much as we can for this event - There are various advertsincluding tomorrows Daily Mirror - The F1 entry is shaping up well, as of yesterday morning certainly looking enough for 2/3rds format and we are optimistic of one or two more.

Heritage entries both classes looking good - wil be good to see Mike Shirley in the #3 car and the 6 wheeler side by side!

Plus of course 26 Ministox which never fail to impress.

The early booking list as of Wednesday is below but will be finalised Friday

Early Booking list for SHEFFIELD 26th July as of Wednesday AM

2 Paul Harrison
13 Andy Ford
16 Matt Newson
21 Mark Gilbank
34 Mal Brown
35 Neil Shenton p
53 John Lund
84 Tom Harris
91 Tony Smith
101 Dave Waterhouse
107 Lee Robinsonp
118 Steve Harrison
136 Steve Jacklin
142 Rob Whittaker
212 Daniel Wainman
220 Mike Andrews
225 Mark Clayton
238 Richard Bryan
249 Jof Gibson
259 Paul Hines
260 Dave Berresfordp
265 Rob Bradsell
337 Dave Willis
338 Chris Brocksopp
398 Mark Tittcomb
446 Joe Booth
502 Richard Wilson
515 Frankie Wainman

28 Cars and still a few to confirm

Hi Steve - 100% behind you in trying to get lots of F1's to Sheffield but lets be fair - why do you bother with all the stick you get you would be better off running F2's and various forms of bangers. As for car damage due to the fence - what about those at Northampton last weekend I heard no complaints there but loads of damage!!!! What will the 'FANS' say 'WHEN' and not if Sheffield shuts its doors to F1's let alone the drivers who will have 1 or maybe 2 less shale tracks to race on. I would have shut Sheffield to F1's a while since. Those who moan you are making a fortune should try and run a meeting and see how much 'MONEY' they could make.
I have followed F1's from when they were called seniors and get depressed at how the sport is heading.

I wish we were making even a small fortune from Sheffield - Simple fact is that Banger Racing subsidises stock cars at Owlerton to a degree and, yes we have to address that.

In fairness, the biggest issue with Sheffield and attraction for both drivers and fans is pretty basic and common sense.

1. Race day - Sunday will never be as popular as Saturday
2. Fixture allocation date - almost impossible to find a good date given the congestion in the list and we have had to compromise for the good of the sport to allow Scunthorpe which hopefully will help rather than detract - but commercially very fragile.
3. Fence - rope and post combined with the speed attained at Sheffield isn't everyones cup of tea!

That said, other than May all 2008 had good car counts even Monday night - recession is biting this year and of course Semi next week.
Currently 29 cars are booked with one or two to confirm so quite reasonable - our prices are as low as they can be - hopefully race fans will support it - Sunday offers a good attraction with a bonus good atendance of `Seniors' in the Heritage - perhaps we should put them together with the F1's

How about having F1 and bangers on at the same meeting? Surely there's plenty of room in the pits now?

Go on Steve, you know it makes sense.

It may be food for thought - but we have always attempted to keep Sheffield as stock car purists want it - Stock Cars and the mixes should be perfect, F1/F2 F1/Ministox F1/V8 etc.....

At the moment we shall focus on Sunday, now on 29 cars - and what should be a good meeting.

It is a superb venue, events are reasonably well run and provide generally excellent entertainment, it suffers unfortunately and intringuingly by being a venue everyone seems to love having an opinion on - and talking it down, much as they did Stoke - no longer with us!

What would the reaction be now if Stoke returned I wonder!

S.O.S Support our Sheffield!

Venues of this calibre are irreplaceable!

I am unsure Banger Racing with F1 is the answer to be honest particulalry wehen there is a field track several minutes down the road that runs virtually every week and charges considerably less to get in based on costs, the key to improving turnouts at Sheffield lies in fixture planning and the May and July dates are both graveyard slots. Yesterday's audience was half what was at Scunthorpe the night before although to be fair unsure that would make any difference after 3 speedweekends in July, the only thing likely to pull in a crowd would possibly be a Semi.

Making a loss is certainly not desireable - and to be honest, it could have been quite an easy decision given the timing of this event being similar to May's to simply cancel but that sends out the wrong messages entirely.
If you look at this years fixture list in some detail and then pick for yourself `suitable' Sunday dates you will begin to realise the problem.

A week before a Semi - yes some made the effort to do the opening meeting on Saturday hoping for little or no damage but as was said to us, at least they would have Sunday to repair in time for next Saturday.

By enlarge the sport has become mainly a Saturday night preference for drivers and many fans.

Our staff worked hard yesterday and turned around avery efficient meeting with 15 races in just over 3.5 hours - particularly as many of them had also assisted the night before at Scunthorpe.

Whilst a straight race format, the numbers in each race were enough for the contours of Sheffield to provide good racing.

We are not going to continually work hard at Sheffield and get negative response and lose money and, if the October event does not improve then I can see 2010 having only one, perhaps two F1 events if suitable dates are available and an increase in Banger fixtures.

We are in a major downturn which will continue in the medium term and fans have to pick carefully the events they wish to attend - and drivers - there will not be any upturn in that, particularly given the South Yorkshire economy. The reality of life may however confirm that the evolution in F1 cars over 25 years into more of a `racing' formula deems Sheffield extinct
as the track isn't going to change although there have been many improvements to the fence acknowledged by many drivers who I spoke with yesterday.

Again, thanks to the drivers and race teams for their support and turning cars around at least just completing before the torrential rain set in!

We very much hope the Vets enjoyed their day with us.

Constant comment on car numbers is disingenuous to the drivers who support the venue and continual negative publicity inevitably results in a self fulfilling prophecy - ending positively the September Unlimited Banger session is likely to be a near sell out affair and we do expect a great finale in October with 3 big events on offer when, perhaps a more balanced persepctive can be obtianed rather than after two badly timed fixtures - has everyone forgotten just how good the May opener was - good crowd Fast - furious - Action and reasonable car count ?

As I had the most expensive seat in the house I am qualified to expres an opinion - Sincerest thanks to FWJ and Mike Shirley for supporting and getting the first FCD of the ground, hopefully to get bigger and better - Thank you the staff for their hard work after also diligently working at Scunthorpe also - A massive hanks to F1 drivers - who delivered superb racing [ and those who did actually bother to cancel - TWO] to Ike who turned up on spec and Dan Johnson who was still replacing gearbox after Saturday during race 1 - to the Ministox who have had a back breaking week of fixtures - last but not least the Heritage drivers.
Last but not least it was sufficiently well organised and smooth to spend a lot of time talking to people - vetes club members, thanks Bootsie for organising trphy presentations and some great people in the crowd who are the back bone of the sport. When their - and my enthusiasm drops then it will be time to call it a day !

Firstly, with regards to the banger/stox comments, Steve, Belle Vue has two tracks close by (Bucky and Warton) but never seems to suffer in terms of banger numbers. As for the original idea of running all meetings using the same mix as BV, may be not necessary but pick those dates that potentially could look 'weak' and would benefit from the mix, whilst retaining the stand alone big banger dates and, like the May F1 opener highlighted above, those stox dates that look 'strong'.

The problem isn't as simple as car numbers. In fact if anything was proved yesterday, it was that Owerlton doesn't need 40+ cars. The all-in format worked well with, in my opinion, as much action as the night before.

I agree with Steve's comment, maybe after the October F1 date has passed can a true assessment only really be made.

Positives - the car numbers didn't detract from great racing. The meeting was turned around very quickly, the PA on the back straight was nice and loud, no £1 to get in the pits, the rain didn't ruin the racing, the Heritage racing was the best I've seen and I really enjoyed Steve 'Stuart Hall' Abbott's commentary.

I really enjoyed Sundays racing. The concept of the past (heritage cars), present (F1’s) and future (Minstox) makes for an interesting package, particularly I would have thought for newcomers. I personally think that the Ministox should be a more regular support for the F1’s; good racing and surely it makes sense for the F1 / Ministox teams to race at the same venue more often in these days when all are looking for economy in racing.

The Derby was fun and got the meeting off to a good start. The youngsters seemed to take notice of the novelty and a few sweets thrown into the crowd always goes down well !

The programme was readable as always. No problems with dust as the track was watered when it became dry and when it rained we were undercover, dry and comfortable. Viewing is excellent at Sheffield from the terraces. The meeting was well run and well presented. Racing was good from all formulas and no noticeable fence problems. Parking is on a proper car park and the ongoing developments are evident.

I would imagine that anyone who came along for the first time would particularly be impressed with the overall package and entertainment.

Me and the better half came to Sheffied on sunday and had a great time! I loved seeing the heritage cars on track (the six wheel stock car was something else!! ) The crowd numbers were a bit of a surprise as the entertainment came thick and fast (including a roll over from one of the heritage contingent!)

Keep up the excellent work Steve

Long live Sheffied!