Allison back at Snetterton.... kinda

Previous reports indicated Matt would be back at Robertshaw for his home race. However, it appears he's switching to Clios for the remainder of the season instead. Meanwhile the team claims there's "serious interest" in the vacant drive, and hope to put a young driver in for three of the last four meetings (presumably not Knockhill then).

Clyde Valley/Carbon Zero Racing 3rd car?

The team have yet to pick up their actual racecars, but there's already talk of a third machine for the Scottish squad:

The team plans to run two Seat Leon Cupra racecars on bio fuel and, if funding can be secured, introduce a third car with an engine which will run on bio-methane - a waste gas more harmful than CO2 but when burnt releases near zero CO2.

http://www.eemsonline.co.uk/news/20-06-08_2

Andy Priaulx MBE

Well done Andy. And about time too.

Miid-season break rumours

It's a six week gap between BTCC meetings, due to some some overpaid continental types kicking an inflated pig bladder around a field for an hour and a half every other evening. Still, there's some news and/or made-up stuff to keep BTCC fans occupied for a while...

• Clyde Valley Racing actually announce entry. And it look s like it's for real!
  
• Robertshaw Racing have their two Lacetti's up for sale at the end of the season
  
• They also have Taylor's Integra for sale, but also "for hire race-by-race for the remaining rounds of 2008".
  
• Rumours of BSB racer Paul Bird's plans to enter BTCC resurface again
  
• Rumours of John Batchelor's return later this season, threads relating to which have been deleted from 10/10ths...
  

Clyde Valley Racing for real

After all their "hype" (which was, to be fair, just a lot a sponsor proposal material available for all to see on the interweb hyped up by numerous rumourmongers on the forums) Clyde Valley Racing (aka Cartridge World Carbon Zero Racing) look set to go in 2009.

According to Dan Eaves, both he and title sponsor Cartridge World have a two year deal in place, and press releases suggest the team will collect their SEAT Leons in December '08 and January '09. (This suggests they have agreements in place to purchase ex-WTCC cars, as they finish their season in late November). Second driver will be India's "premier racing driver" [sic] Phiroze Bilimoria (occasional GT racer, was due to partner Boardman at Edenbridge in the 2003 BTCC season).

BTCC feature on Top Gear

The new series of Top Gear will include a feature by Richard Hammond on "a birthday tribute to Touring Cars". Presumably this will be in honour of the BTCC's 50 years. The new series of Top Gear is expected to start on June 22.

Team 48 June update....

Notwithstanding the subtle removal of the #19 and #48 cars from the btcc.net entry list page, Matthew Gore is still confident Team 48 will be out in some form after the break:

I got confirmation from Luther [Blisset] that we should be at Snetterton in July. The cars have been aquired but sponsorship hasn't come through to run it due to the set backs, Darelle [Wilson] is ready and waiting now and so am I so whatever Team48 has to do they will do, major set backs since March so as an Imported driver from little Ja[maica] I am still bless[ed] to be in the mix. Hope to be there in July, trust me don't listen to everything the papers or forums say, its worse that our [Jamaica] Star.

myracingclub

Following the success of internet-based fan consortium myfootballclub look what's appeared: myracingclub.com. It's a nice and flashy looking website, but what's it all about, is it viable, or is it some sort of scam?

The concept is simple: members are invited to sign up, pay around £40 for their "stake" which is then used to fund the buyout of a team. Members don't have to pay immediately - once a certain threshold of intended members has been reached (50,000 in myfootballclub's case) members are given time to pay up the membership fee which will allow the company to have funds to purchase their intended target. If the funds or members fall short the money is, in theory, refunded. In myfootballclub's case, that team was non-league Ebbsfleet United FC, winners of this year's FA Trophy. Football purists may not have liked the idea, but it's worked - those members have a chance to vote on team selection and transfers, as well as providing some funding and security for the club.

But will such a concept transfer to the motor racing scene, as myracingclub hope? Let's have a look at the numbers first:

• myracingclub are looking for 25,000 paid up members at £40 a year. That's £1,000,000 in capital they hope to raise.
  
• myfootballclub's initial hopes were to raise £1.75m (50,000 members at £35 membership fee). In fact they paid out just £600,000 for 75% of Ebbsfleet, with 21,000 members.

So myracingclub are expecting more members paying more money for a sport that has less following than football in the UK. But forget about the financials - would it work in practice? Let's have a look at their launching press release:

From registration and launch of the racing team, members will be able to make key team decisions, including racing championships entered, car sponsorship, race day approach and more importantly decide on the team drivers.

• Deciding on team drivers is an obvious draw. There are many fans out there aggrieved that the likes on Dan Eaves and Alan Morrison aren't currently racing.
• Likewise deciding on championships entered, although I can't imagine a team starting from scratch will enter more than one category.
  
• As for race-day strategy... well how is that going to work? Will the fans be online voting on gear-ratios or damper settings just before the race, instead of actually watching racing at the circuit?
  
• The most bizarre claim is that members will be able to make key decisions on car sponsorship. It's not as if the team can suddenly turn around and say "Should we be sponsored by ASDA or Tesco this season - vote now!"

In the normal motor racing world, wannabe race drivers have to find sponsorship to enable them to apply to drive in various race championships which will cost the driver up to £80,000 per season.

Notwithstanding the fact that £80,000 would probably just get you midfield in Clios, sponsorship drives (no pun intended) the vast majority of the motorsport teams in the UK. Even if 25,000 fans stump up £40 for a stake in myracingclub, that £1,000,000 is going to be burnt through pretty quickly. Triple Eight Race Engineering, the team that runs the hugely successful VX Racing squad, made a profit of just £50k last year, and that was on a turnover of £4.1m. Unless you obtain manufacturer support your only other source of income is through sponsorship. (And no, despite what their FAQ says, you won't be getting much back from merchandising). Football clubs have the luxury of keeping gate receipts (a vital source of income) but that's not the case for motor racing teams. A new team will have to find a shedload of sponsors willing to bankroll a team with no history or past performance. And how likely is that, given that sponsors are hard enough to come by at the moment?

I'd put my £40 down on a couple of BTCC tickets instead...