1 reply to this topic

[mariner]

I just found my copy of the BRSCC 1965 Racing Car show guide.It makes for interesting reading on UK racing activity back then.

 

For 1965 the BRSCC were organising 46 races on ten diferent circuits from Croft and Rufforth to Brands. That is basically a race meeting every weekend from March to December. On some weekends they had four race meetings on at once.

 

The club had 6,000 members , up six fold in ten years.

 

The statistic that realy grabbed me was that the Racing Car show in 1964 had over 100,000 visitors!

 

I someties feel I am just a grumpy old man when I think the Uk racing scene is less active than back then but these numbers suggest that it  may not be just grumpiness.

 

I can certainly  remember the famous Radio Caroline meeting where 50,000 spectators were claimed.

 

Does anybody know if current statistics are  published please?

[pete53]

I believe you may be thinking of the Radio London meetings at Brands Hatch in 1996 and 1967, not Radio Caroline. They were certainly well attended, although a sizeable proportion of the audience were there to see the pop stars rather than the racing.However, I don't think the crowd was any where near 50,000 on either of these occasions - I was at the 1967 event.

 

Some club meetings did attract numbers that would be unimaginable these days. For example, the BRSCC and Brands Hatch claimed a crowd of over 30,000 for a January clubbie in 1965 - this was the running of the postponed 1964 Boxing Day meeting. However, it always seemed that when spectator attendance was mentioned the word "estimate" always preceded it, unlike football where very exact attendance figures were, and still are, provided.

 

That is not to say that all national/clubbie meetings in the 1960s had mammoth attendances, however, I don't think there is any argument that they were far better supported then than today.