BRSCC AGM REPORT 2015


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The BRSCC Annual General Meeting took place on Tuesday 28th April at the Ibis Rugby East Hotel, Crick, Northamptonshire. A transcript of the Chairman’s report follows;

Good evening and thank you for attending this evening. 2014 proved to be a difficult year and this resulted in the Club sustaining a loss for the year.

This loss was due to three elements of the Club’s activities last year. Two being championships that failed to produce grid numbers that we had budgeted for and the third being an endurance race in the latter half of the season that failed to produce the number of entries expected.

Again this highlights the risks of forecasting grids at the beginning of the year and then not getting the support from competitors when the Club has had to commit to track time at the start of the season. I can report though that last year’s costs were in line with the forecasts in the budget.

These figures are the result of running a business that doesn’t manufacture goods that can be reduced in price in order to make them more competitive but rather the provision of a service that comes with fixed costs – circuit hire and MSA fees.

Budgets for each year are arrived at by taking into account last year’s grids and then forecasting the expected demand for each championship or series in the coming season. Commitments to circuit hire then have to be entered into at the beginning of each season. These commitments are binding on behalf of the Club with the circuits so you can see it’s not a perfect exercise.

We work closely with other clubs setting calendars for the year ahead but we are still subject to predatory actions from some commercial organisations that are aiming to marginalise the profits of the clubs. So we must continue to be vigilant.

It’s not all bad news though. Grids from our Mazda championships along with those of Caterhams and our OSS championship continue to improve along with the others such as Alfas, Ford Fiestas and Mighty Minis. Our Fiesta Junior Championship at last seems to be coming good with grids promising to get into the 14-15 level so we are convinced that the younger drivers are coming through from karts into what we believe is an affordable championship following on from our T-Car Series which was the first for junior drivers.

Our continuing claim to be the major organiser of international motorsport for Silverstone and Donington Park is providing a much needed income stream for the Club.

Looking forward to 2015, we are forecasting grids slightly down on 2014 as although there is a definite upward trend in the economy we are still aware that in the main the members are racing from their own pockets rather than from sponsors.

With this in mind, race entry fees have risen only enough to take into account the increase in the level of circuit hire. I'm confident that this, allied to keeping a strict control on our costs, will return a profit for the coming year.

We started the year as usual with our impressive stand at the Autosport International Show at the NEC in Birmingham. Our annual Awards Ceremony in February at Stratford-upon-Avon proved to be the best yet. Congratulations to all of our championship winners and a special mention for Midland Centre Chairman David Pierre for winning the Bert Lamkin Memorial Salver and Brian Jones who was awarded The John Nicol Trophy for his services to motorsport. My thanks to Dominic Ostrowski and Liz Goodrich for their hard work in organising a great evening.

The 2015 season has already seen the BRSCC as the organisers of the first round of the FIA WEC at Silverstone in April. I think you will agree that after six hours of racing, six seconds between first and second proved it to be a terrific race. Eat your heart out F1!

Last weekend we were delighted to be the organisers of the 24-hours of Silverstone for James Tucker and his Britcar organisation. There were difficult times early Saturday evening when the Safety Car called in on the radio to say they were aquaplaning at 30 mph! We managed to complete the whole 24 hours with out having any suspension of the race although there were many Safety Car periods. Although not supported by a huge grid it proved to be a great race.

Whilst on the subject of Silverstone, your board are excited about the prospects for the coming year working with the new team under the lead of new Managing Director, Patrick Allen. We look forward to working with them and I can see the improvements already both with facilities to competitors and public. We wish them well.

Many of you will be aware that I suffered a serious illness in the second half of 2014. I’m pleased to say I’m fully recovered and back in the driving seat! A special thank you though to those senior officials who covered for me during that period. I think you will agree that it proves we have great strength in depth in our team.

So the end of a difficult year and the promising start to what we believe will be an exciting 2015.

I finish as always by thanking the Centres for the help in making the race meetings run so smoothly, the directors and staff at HQ for the support they continue to give me and the marshals and officials who continue to provide of their time each weekend. And especially you, our members, our customers, without whom we would not have a club.

Thank you.

Bernard Cottrell – Chairman


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