Last weekend officially wrapped up our 2024 season. A record attendance of almost 300 guests for the Awards Night, with a number of you staying on for Sunday morning's Annual General Meeting too. Our 2024 season review video premiered on the night and it will be shared with you on our YouTube channel later this week.
Thank you to guest speak Gary Paffett, host Mark Werrell and the hospitality at the Chesford Grange. Congratulations to all our award winners and champions.
Save The Date: Next year's awards night takes place on Saturday 22nd November 2025, at Chesford Grange. We will be in touch again in the spring, once the discounted hotel rooms are available for you to book.
Jeff Bloxham was there to take photos on the night. You are welcome to view and download these complimentary photos, within these four albums, now:
On Sunday morning we held our AGM, with members having been given a chance to raise questions in advance. One member asked for the 'quick-as you can' pit-stop to be reviewed in Adams & Page Swinging 60s, citing reasons of safety and also of competition on track, not in the pits. Reference was made to the previous two members surveys, which consistently showed a majority of drivers in the Swinging 60s series wished to continue with this style of pit-stop. There will be no changes for 2025 in pit-stops or winners penalties, to any series.
It is the intention that at the end of the 2025 season a member-wide survey will be held again; we are a listening club.
Deputy Chair
With Stuart Levers having held the role of Deputy Chair for the past two years, it is once again time to pass the batten. This process gives another committee member the chance of additional experience, supporting the Chairman throughout the year and hosting one of the quarterly meetings. We are very pleased to confirm the appointment of Malcolm Johnson.
Malcolm will remain as co-driver representative for the Adams & Page Swinging 60s, as well as Deputy Chairman. He has raced with the CSCC since 2011 and with other clubs for many decades before that.
Thank you to Stuart, for the past two seasons efforts; you can now go back to fully focussing on the Co-ordSport Tin Tops series representative role and your busy day job too.
Treasurers Statement
Club Accounts for year ending 30th. November 2023
The accounts for the year show a loss of £36,265 which is much lower than I forecast last year at the Club AGM.
In the final analysis, some revenue was more than expected, and some costs were lower. Year ending November 2024 Forecast
At last years AGM, the decision was made to raise the club membership fee for the first time in 12 years to £49.00.
At that meeting we also took the decision to raise race entry fees, for the first time in four years by 5%.
This year, some series had to be amalgamated due to lower entry numbers in 2023, and this has helped to reduce operating losses at some meetings.
In 2024 we welcomed the Lackford Sprite Championship, the MG Trophy Championship together with the Jaguar and BMW Championships and Hawthorn Jaguars. This has resulted in increased revenue, these championships have agreed to amalgamate and cross-promote with our existing series to reduce costs per series or championship.
As a result of these combined actions, I am forecasting a return to profit in the current financial year and am expecting a profit of some £60,000.
Year ending November 2025 Forecast
Looking ahead to next year, the forecast return to profit in 2024 means that we are able to take some decisions that will benefit all members.
In 2025 we will continue with live streaming at six selected events, reduce the amount of amalgamation in some series and the BMW Championship will not share a grid with another series.
Running two Swinging Sixties races at most meetings in 2024 proved hugely successful and will continue, but go further in 2025, with two grids at all UK rounds.
The Lackford Sprite Championship had some of their best grids for a number of years and the amalgamated Jaguar and MG Trophy championships worked well.
2025 will see the race weekends once again split into Modern and Classic days.
In 2024 we visited SPA twice, a decision that was forced on us by the event organisers, we took our moderns series to the Summer Classic which took place in April and our Classic Series to the 6 Hour meeting in September.
The April meeting was well supported but the Classic meeting in September was poorly supported.
Swinging Sixties and Classic K will share a grid at Spa in September 2025. The grid will also be shared with Triumph Competition with whom we shared grids when we first started going to Spa. There will be 30 grid places available for CSCC members, and 30 grid places for Triumph Competition.
In 2025 the club will be trying Zolder for the first time and all club cars on Motorsport UK list treaded tyres are welcome.
The budgets for 2025 have not been completed yet, but early indications are that we will show a small profit next year.
Richard Wos (Club Treasurer).
Chairman's Statement
Thank you Richard. Good morning all, I hope you’ve recovered from last nights festivities?
In 2022 and 2023 the club made a financial loss, as the country faced an inflation and interest rate crisis. We faced the dilemma of how to turn this around, the old adage of “if you keep doing the same thing the end result will stay the same” was never truer.
We erred on the side of caution in mid-2023, when we formed the calendar for 2024, with fewer two-day meetings.
This time last year we introduced to you our ideas of running additional championships, something we had never done before in our 20-year history. We added the:
Ramair BMW Championship
Berkshire Jag Components Jaguar Championship
MG Trophy
Lackford Engineering Midget and Sprite Challenge
And, the Mike Hawthorn Jaguar Challenge, which is a series, that shares a grid with our Mintex Classic K.
Initial teething problems with combined grids lessened as we gained more experience, and in fact produced some excellent battles between cars that normally wouldn’t have been together on the track.
We understood that grid sharing is not something anyone really wants, but it has proven successful for the clubs finances, and enabled us to return to profitability in 2024. This is something we need to do to ensure our survival and maintain good value entry fees.
Turning our attention to the forthcoming season, you will see that we have several more two-day meetings, in fact this is the greatest number of race days we have run in our history! This will mean less combined races, less changes of race format and room for championships and series to grow. Taking on more track time is a gamble for the club, so it relies on your support and new members being encouraged to join us.
We start our season with a track day on the Silverstone International circuit a couple of weeks before our season opener on that same circuit. Throughout the year we return to both Cadwell and Castle Combe that we haven’t visited for a few years, as well as our usual favourite haunts. We also have return invitations to the Thruxton Historic, Oulton Park Gold Cup, Brands Britannia, and for Turbo Tin Tops and WOSP New Millennium, a second chance to race at Brands Hatch GP, this time on the Super Touring Power weekend, lots to look forward to.
Unfortunately Roadbook were unable to secure our regular summer date at Spa and the news that it would move to April was both unwelcome from a weather point of view, but also came well after our UK dates had been set. Mintex Classic K and Adams & Page Swinging Sixties will be visiting later in the year, supporting the Spa 6 Hours.
We have however been able to add our first ever visit to Zolder, in Belgium. The Verum Builders Open Series permits every member to enter, provided they are using a Motorsport UK list treaded tyre. Zolder currently hosts TCR Europe events, and was a Formula One circuit until the mid 80’s, when just like Brands Hatch GP circuit the Formula outgrew the facilities. Described as a European version of Oulton Park, I’m very much looking forward to our visit to it.
Motorsport UK have now replaced the Blue Book with a new set of online-only regulations, called the National Competition Rules (NCR). They say that this overhaul should make it easier to understand, but it will certainly take some getting used to and more work whilst we finalise your 2025 regulations.
As ever, I can’t finish without offering my sincerest thanks to our directors, office staff, my fellow committee members, our officials, helpers, Marshalls and sponsors, but most of all to you, our members for your continued and valued support, thank you.
John Hammersley (CSCC Chairman)
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