The Organisation of Motor Race Meetings.

The Or anisation of Motor Race Meetings.

MOTOR-RACING as a public entertainment has like the extent to which it has in the U.S.A. not been developed in England to anything and on the Continent. Crowds of 100,000 to 200,000 regularly attend the big Continental road races, while

even the comparatively unimportant Dieppe Grand Prix drew 150,000 spectators. At Brooklands, although no official figures are published, we believe the record attendance is in the neighbourhood of 25,000. This does not mean that the British public is not interested in motor racing. Such an event as the Bright on Speed Trials held last month, which was attended by 100,000 spectators, is sufficient proof to the contrary. But if motor racing is to become a national sport, in the sense that it is in France, Germany and Italy, organisers must see to it that spectators leave the course at the end of the day with feelings of enthusiasm and

elation—otherwise the sport will receive a set-back which will effectively stunt its growth for many years to come. Elsewhere in this issue a report of the meeting at Brighton describes the difficulties which mitigated against the smooth execution of the programme, and it is not necessary to repeat them here. The Brighton and Hove Motor Club had previously only organised Club Meetings at which spectators were rightly of minor consideration. But a race meeting on the Brighton Front, in the heart of the largest city on the South Coast,

is an event of public importance, and demands suitable organisation. In this case the Brighton & Hove Club, in view of the fact that it was their first venture of the kind, can well plead that nothing like so large a crowd as 100,000 was expected to attend. But when one remembers that the population of Brighton and Hove is over 200,000, it is obvious that a vast crowd was already at hand, without any visitors to swell the number of spectators.

It may be argued that the size of the crowd which actually attended is sufficient proof of the success of the meeting, but against this lies the uncomfortable fact that when the proceedings had at last come to an end the crowd had thinned deplorably—a definite indication of a lack of sustained interest. The Brighton & Hove Motor Club are to be congratulated on attempting to popularise the sport, and they have given a lead which

other clubs with similar facilities would do well to follow.

The spirit of the organisers, all of them voluntary workers, could not be finer, but we implore them—and all organisers of new events —to ensure in future the smooth running of their programme, without any delays and reiterated haranguing of the crowd, so that the sport of motor-racing, which we all desire so fervently to be popularised in this country, may at last be given a chance to come into its own.