Given the nature of the saying, it’s perhaps ironic that the origins of the phrase ‘there’s lies, damned lies and statistics’ are murky. In Autosport's in-depth investigation, there are plenty of statistics about the club racing campaign that has just concluded, which can be interpreted in many different ways.
Take the headline figure of 50% of series with comparable year-on-year data having a smaller average grid size this season than last. The impression that gives can depend on whether you are a glass-half-full or half-empty kind of person.
If you are an optimist, you can spin that to say it’s pretty impressive that half of all series grew or at least maintained their numbers in a tricky financial climate. Take the opposing view, and it’s a fairly large percentage of categories that suffered a decline.
Delve a little deeper into the numbers and the more negative interpretation grows stronger. On the face of it, there seems little change compared with 2023. Last year 52% of series grew or stayed the same, so the percentage has only gone down by 2%.
But it’s worth noting that the proportion of series with static numbers has shot up from 11% in 2023 to 19% this year, meaning just 31% of categories actually grew this time around. It’s also worth considering that only once before in the five years in which Autosport has conducted this analysis has the number of championships growing/staying the same not been larger than the figure for those decreasing.
That was in 2022, when just 40% grew or remained constant in a year when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unexpectedly sent inflation soaring and created havoc in the economy. Although the financial waters are still muddy, they are undoubtedly less turbulent in 2024, and that makes the lack of grid size growth this year more significant.
But, if that’s too many percentages for you, it’s important to take a pause here before getting too bogged down in the numbers. Comparing grid sizes is a very blunt method of measuring the success of a series; after all, some of the more niche categories catering for a very specific type of car are highly unlikely to ever be overflowing with entries.
And comparisons between clubs should have even more caveats given the vastly different ways in which organisers operate. Some principally administer categories the club themselves own, others primarily look after championships that are run by external companies or individuals and therefore are not directly involved in getting cars onto the grids.
Another consideration is whether or not a club opts to amalgamate two or more series, since this can have a significant impact on the overall averages. Take the increase the Classic Sports Car Club enjoyed during 2024 when several of its categories were paired up.
Ask any club chief how things are at the moment and the practically unanimous answer is that these are tricky times
“Amalgamating grids is not universally popular,” says CSCC director David Smitheram. “The marshals and officials that give up their time want to see healthy grids and they had lots to look at and competitors had plenty of people to race.
“We’ve gone the other way for next year. I think we’ve got more dates than we’ve ever had before. From a financial point of view, it’s not the best thing to do but we’re trying to balance what’s right for the members.
“We’re constantly reacting to what’s in the present while trying to predict what’s happening in the future. If something happens outside of our control in the Middle East or Russia and oil prices go up, then I’m going to look foolish.”
Despite all of these caveats, and the fact that they are far from a perfect metric, Autosport still feels grid sizes are a useful way of establishing general trends and reflecting on how club racing is faring. And, speaking of trends, ask any club chief how things are at the moment and the practically unanimous answer is that these are tricky times.
“There’s a lot of challenges out there and I would say it’s as tough now as it was in the COVID times,” says British Racing & Sports Car Club chairman Peter Daly. “There’s too many race meetings in relation to the number of cars and drivers out there. We’ve reduced our number of meetings over the last five years – if all clubs decided they were only going to run five race meetings each, we would instantly fill those.”
It’s a sentiment that 750 Motor Club managing director Giles Groombridge shares: “It’s difficult and there’s so many championships out there. There’s so much choice and, unless you’re someone really invested in competing for a championship, then people will just pick and choose events. It’s a big challenge and it feels like we’re at a point of market saturation and I don’t think that’s healthy.”
Considering how the 750MC has regularly performed well in Autosport’s analysis, Groombridge’s comments are significant. And this links nicely back to how the statistics are interpreted.
By this time next year, we should know whether these worrying signs were really the start of a storm threatening to strike at the core of club racing, or if it was just a passing grey cloud that briefly appeared menacing. The real longer-term truth behind these numbers will only then be known.
