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Editorial section

06 Oct 2001
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2001: What a year!

As anyone who's been around for a few years will know, 1998 was a serious year of rebirth for the sport - from low turnouts and consequently cancelled races in 1997 (and there were only about 3 races to start with), suddenly the BPCC became a full 6-round championship, and fields started to increase in size and quality.

1999 and 2000 continued this happy trend, the hard work and dedication of assorted race organisers paying dividends in ever-stronger fields. At the same time, we made new national and international contacts, with other pedal car events globally, and with interested people who'd never previously heard of the sport within the UK. These contacts in turn have helped the sport increase its profile, with the Italian factory Karbyk team 'testing the water' in 2000 and returning to win the Leicester race in 2001. Speaking of which, that all new Leicester race - taking the BPCC to a record 7 rounds totalling a massive 56+ hours of racing, spread across half the year - was another result of the new contacts we'd made in 2000. All of these contacts, incidentally, we now refer to as friends.

A few years ago, there was a school of thought that ran, "If we have more races, the existing racers will simply be spread more thinly as they wont all do everything".

Another school of thought ran, "More races = a more meaningful championship + more interest in it = more teams".

Fortunately, the later prevailed and has been proved right beyond its dreams.

So, back to 2001 then: A revised Wolverhampton track, and all-new circuits at Swansea and Leicester, made this season even more challenging than normal. However, the enthusiasm that generated the new events and continues to improve the existing ones drew in the racers like never before. As a comparison, 2000 (an excellent year) saw 37 different teams producing a grand total of 91 race entries over the 6 rounds, an average entry of just over 15 cars per race. This despite the fuel blockade which prevented 8 teams from racing at Curborough. Seven teams raced all six events, two raced 3 times, and the rest were evenly split having raced either twice or once.

In 2001, however, things took another jump upwards: Despite losing 9 teams who only ever raced at Bolton, the 2001 BPCC attracted no less than 43 (yes, Forty Three!) teams in all, making a massive 131 race entries over 7 rounds, an average entry of nearly 19 cars per race! This year saw eight teams race every event (and they make up 8 of the top 9 finishers, not surprisingly), but possibly more importantly, more teams are racing more often, even if they are unable to get to every round - several teams raced five, four or three times during 2001, with several more racing twice or once.

For 2002, the manager of one large scout team has stated that they have moved their summer camp in order to come to Leicester - what commitment!

Not only that, but with more interest we benefit from a higher profile generally - one spectator at Leicester, for example, runs a local business in the city. Whilst leaning on the barrier watching the race, he offered to sponsor the 2002 event. Other retailers and businesses are similarly interested, and who can blame them, given the amount of media and private interest SpokesFest generates?

In my mind, this just goes to show what a fantastic sport we have, that can attract huge crowds into a city centre at a normally quiet time, and prompt random spectators to offer to sponsor the event next time! For anyone who's spent fruitless hours trying to get sponsorship for their team (and I know exactly how that feels), this should be taken as a sign of great encouragement - once people see the sport in action, they're captivated. Judging by the Sunday turnout after the race, most of them want a go, too!

Leicester's Lord Mayor and City Centre Manager want SpokesFest as a whole - and our small part of it - to be bigger next year. This is all largely down to SpokesFest organisers Roger Lovell and Simon Thomas, who arranged for the race to be slap bang in the middle of town - an absolute masterstroke, even if it created a lot of work for them. Before I met Roger and Simon, I wouldn't have believed it was possible to be laid back and hyperactive at the same time. You live and learn.

A fantastic year all round, see in at Rugby in 2002!

Antony Hawkins

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