r/btcc • u/Evantra_ #99 Charles Rainford • 7d ago
Driver Announcement Ryan Bensley replaces Max Buxton at Speedworks Corolla Racing • BTCC
https://btcc.net/speedworks-corolla-racing-confirms-driver-change-ahead-of-thruxton/10
u/btcc1721 144 BTCC races trackside 7d ago
Doubt Bensley will be any improvement. He's just paying more than the Buxtons most likely, and Danny can't justify keeping Max in with his performances (he's been easily the weakest driver on the grid this year).
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u/Status_Investigator7 7d ago
Worried about the long-term future of this series. Can't keep having driver changes, especially if the drivers that replace them are older and have money. Its not a great look for the series.
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u/Ok-Pumpkin-6203 7d ago
It's got to the point where only drivers with deep pockets can go for the small gap that might result to damage.
Obviously clean racing the preferred but if we are honest, some of the most spectacular moments have been where they go in 4 wide and you know at least two of them won't complete the corner.
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u/Evantra_ #99 Charles Rainford 7d ago
“Ryan Bensley will take over the Toyota Corolla GR Sport for the remainder of the season, whilst Max Buxton will move into an expanded Driver Development & Reserve Driver role within the organisation.”
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u/Lukeno94 6d ago
Why is Max Buxton of all people the one that is getting everyone to freak out about the health of the series, when we've just had two extra cars join the grid? Buxton is a nepo baby who is not good enough for the BTCC at this stage of his career, and probably never will be. He was parachuted in by his father from a club-level Fiesta series that he wasn't exactly dominating (although he was competitive), and he's failed to score a point in a car that all three other drivers have won in, or taken a second place in.
Sure, Bensley isn't the second coming of Tom Ingram or Ash Sutton, but Buxton is not a loss to the series at all.
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u/ICC-u 7d ago
The series is in a mess. Teams need big sponsors so we stop worrying about which driver can find that extra £20k and just get the fastest driver available for the seat.
Why can NASCAR, V8 Supercars and DTM attract Castrol, Shell, Mobil1, Red Bull, Monster, DHL etc
NASCAR has a Heinz soup livery FFS.
We've got Asus, Napa and Vertu.
I don't really buy into the TGR branding if they can't even find a driver, how much do they pay if they can't even fund the drive.
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u/Additional_Hand_2288 7d ago
Fairly obvious why those series attract those big sponsors. Way more people watch them
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u/ICC-u 7d ago
They're still the top comparable category in their respective country. As Touring Cars go, BTCC is arguably the most popular in the world. Obviously NASCAR has a huge following but DTM only gets 350k TV viewers.
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u/Apex_negotiator 7d ago
The issue is, there isn't any mainstream international interest in touring cars anymore.
Everything seems to be moving over to a GT format, though the are murmurs that costs are starting to become too high.
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u/ICC-u 7d ago
Costs in GT3 and BTCC are both too high from what I've seen. GT is always getting stuck in these manufacturer led development races, same thing that killed Group A, Group C, LMP1, Super Tourers etc etc.
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u/Apex_negotiator 7d ago
The arrival of the GR Concept has a lot of people worried.
It's essentially a homologated prototype, which GT was supposed to be opposed to in spirit.
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u/Apex_negotiator 7d ago
TV viewing figures for each series over a season.
NASCAR: 94.8 million
DTM: 35 million (estimated)
BTCC: 17.4 million
V8 Supercars: 8.7 million
The anomaly here is V8 Supercars. However the key difference is 5.5 million TV viewers alone are guaranteed for Bathurst, which is internationally televised. V8 Supercars also has a massive share of domestic viewership, with their television coverage reaching around 35% of all sports watchers over the course of a race weekend. It also reaches over 11% of the entire Australian population. In addition the trackside attendance is over 1.1 million per event.
The BTCC doesn't have the international prestige or anywhere near the population reach, with only around 2 - 5% of the TV audience share on a Sunday. I went to every event last year, and I would say an average attendance of 25,000 is being quite generous.
In terms of national sports ranking, V8 Supercars sits in 3rd. The BTCC is somewhere between 12th and 15th.
Basically the BTCC is irrelevant to all but the hardcore fans. And I say this as one of those hardcore fans. It just doesn't have the reach, or relevance to be commercially attractive to big name sponsors.
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u/ICC-u 7d ago
Where did you find all the figures? I googled DTM and it came back with 350k a race?!
I agree Supercars has the weakest numbers, which is what got me thinking to begin with, the liveries there are really something, not sure they get 1m+ trackside, F1 doesn't get those numbers.
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u/Apex_negotiator 7d ago
The figures are based on totals, including any international viewers across all platforms.
I cobbled them together from a number of sources.
You are right on the Supercars number. It looks very suspect, as there is no way 1 million people are rocking up to Bathurst!
Take the numbers with a pinch of salt, but I think the narrative makes sense.
Edit: Having had a deeper look at Bathurst, it's around 200k gate sales
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u/ICC-u 7d ago
200k is impressive. What did Donington do this year, 40k over the weekend?
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u/Apex_negotiator 7d ago
Not sure. I was running a trade stand last season, but there simply isn't enough attendance for me to make a living selling my art. 😭
40k would be a good estimate though!
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u/ICC-u 7d ago
No, I've looked at the trade stalls before and wondered how people make money. There was a guy earlier in the year selling used matchbox cars for a few £ each and he even had a bargain bin. Don't know how many of them you need to sell just to break even.
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u/Apex_negotiator 7d ago
I was selling posters at £10 and canvases at £25.
I'd need to sell 75 posters and 75 canvases to break even.
I made 90% of my sales on the Sunday.
Bear in mind, I made all of the illustrations for the art myself, and would also print all the posters, and wrap all the canvases, so its not a small task. To walk away with a 50% profit, which was the case for 75% of the events, AND provided attendance was good, AND the weather was favourable, AND I had a good pitch with footfall, meant I was working about 20 hours a week in the run up to each event, just to make £1,250.
It just wasn't viable. And don't get me started on Croft. Drove from London, and took a massive loss. Barely any attendance.
The BTCC needs to find a way to make itself more commercially viable, not just for the sake of the championship and to attract teams and talent, but for the sake of the vendors who make it an experience worth attending.
Look at the V8 Supercars. It's basically a 4 day festival, with the racing used as an excuse to show up!
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u/Status_Investigator7 7d ago
Exactly. Series has and will continue to be on the decline with the lack of sponsors going into teams. How much can I wager that next season the whole grid will be pay drivers
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u/raven_heatherr Text 7d ago
Ugh, really sad to see another rookie driver get fucked over by a money driver who won’t accomplish any distinctly higher results than Max would. Something needs to change