Bsb - Are They Taking The Piss Out Of Riders?

Its a shit format , id wager 50% of the people who go to watch it live couldnt give a shit about stock 1000's or sidecars. Needs completely revamping.

 

Oh and the calendars too long as well. Who wants to pay £50 to freeze their tits off at brands in April/October?
Cold tracks pissing rain etc..should run it from June to august.

 

Erm, we do Been doing the last round at Brands for years, it's a great weekend despite or in spite of the weather. Andy

 

Lol ive been known to venture to them myself (and even the early tests when ive been having serious withdrawal symptoms) but its for the hardcore really isnt it (sams as the handul of folk who stay to watch the sidecars etc), not exactly a lovely family day out, factor 45 and a barbie in the boot/back of your bike. If you want to fill Brands "so you cant see any green" and dare i say fill it with the younger generation who will be the ones to keep the sport going, it needs to be in the summer doesnt it ala how it used to be with Foggy, Hodgson (and Tossland to a lesser extent) when the wsb went there.
That and raise the talent bar (with all due respect to anyone and everyone who races). No one (again apart from the hardcore fans) wants to watch some fat forty year old knacker running a lap behind at Brands indy on a 5 year old bike.

 

Fully agree about sidecars, they should die.

But Stocks 1000 is fun, at least for trackdayers who ride similar type of bikes.

 

You're prob correct but personally, I think the stock thou's racing is brilliant, really look forward to that as well as the main BSB show if I'm at trackside or watching it on the TV.

 

That's the biggest problem with the UK, the weather.

 

Not limited to the weather though

 

Really? I thought 6 million people waiting for a routine operation or millions living on donations to food banks might have edged that but I could be wrong!

 

Bsb is the biggest circus to hit msv tracks.. I would imagine followed by touring cars (expensive banger racing). But the crowds for that are piss poor these days.


I’d be very surprised if track hire in one guise or another isn’t the biggest earner for msv (trackdays).

 

It would be nice to see the series attract some young(er) riders who’ve left the GP paddock and stop getting so hung up on watching British has beens too.
I appreciate budgets are restrictive in that respect though.

 

Thats called Superstock

 

I worked in Supersport and Superstock for a few years and it's flipping hard work. Those big awnings with plastic flooring, workbenches and tool stations take a lot of time and effort to set up and then take down again 3 days later. You leave Thursday morning to get to the circuit and set up ready for free practice and qualifying on Friday, more of the same Saturday then race on Sunday. If your rider is a crasher you are flat out between sessions getting the bike patched up and scrutineered again. After your last race its pack it all away again and drive home getting in late Sunday night early hours of Monday. I remember the teams trying to get start money and prize money like in the good old days instead of paying entry fees but JP claimed that there wasn't enough money in it even though it was on terrestrial TV at the time, in fact he said he paid the TV to cover BSB to help teams get sponsors. It's good fun for a while but the shine soon wears off.

 

But you get paid for a job. Less than 5% of the paddock get paid for their efforts, the rest do it for nowt. Its not just the riders having the piss taken.

 

I almost volunteered a few years ago. Few other tales like yours put me off, I quickly decided I would start to hate my hobby!

 

I’d hate it as a career, no life at all. I’ve known a few mechanics who/have spanner(ed) and they’re not exactly rewarded that well for the hours they work.

 

Motorsport is not a career I’d ever recommend to anyone (unless you’ve got bottomless family money). The sport across the board is in decline and doesn’t have a good future projection.

I say this as someone who has been involved in the sport my whole life.

if you want to go racing, focus on business and pay for it as a hobby. It’s a totally different dynamic. My old man always said to me “when you’re struggling to afford it you’ll do anything you can to make it happen, then one day you’ll be able to sort of afford it and you won’t give a shit about it anymore”.

he was right