The closing of another chapter in UK RC racing

[Darryl]

It is with great regret, that I have to announce, that Dartford Race Track will be closing with immediate effect.

The Track is no longer financially viable with outgoings greater than income generated from race days due to:

A lack of numbers following the unfortunate thefts earlier in the year,

Uncertainty over longer term viability of the club due to the likelihood of eviction from the current site by the local council, resulting in inadequate track maintenance and even greater drop in numbers due to track condition,

Lack of funds to realistically setup the necessary facilities at a new site with existing membership levels and active support.

I would like to thank the small group of steadfast supporters for all their works over the years.


To this end the track and accompanying facilities will be cleared down over the next couple of weeks.

This means that the remaining rounds of the DRT summer series are also cancel


Regards,

Darryl
DRT Chairman

[MR Piraterc]

That is truely sad news to hear that another race track is lost

[icefever]

as Rich said this is sad News, i only ever raced at DRT once due to commitments it was not always possible to race every weekend. but i did enjoy the day.

That said i think Daryl hit a few points home, Land is one of the key parts in the longevity of a club, it is difficult to invest only for the short term. with many councils taking away recreational areas it falls on getting  land from an understanding landlord. This always costs money?

Then you have the problem of getting people to race at the track in reasonable numbers with a good membership, just to pay for the land. But to get a sustained membership and racers you need good faciltys with a well maintained track. More money and Time of a loyal few.

Then as time goes on more investment is needed to keep the racers happy, more money.

Then we get to the raceday and the racers turn up and pay a small amount £5 or £10, now the reason for rambling on about this is that there was an article on here about a certain club asking £2.50 more for a race than other clubs???

Now we see the impact of racing at clubs for a small fee. i am not for one minute saying that 2.50per racer would have helped DRT but if 100 racers went to a good facilty and paid the extra 2.50, ten times a year then that is an extra £2500.00 that the club can either invest or use keep the track open.

We as racers surely have a responsibilty to our sport if we want to keep it going with more tracks around the country. No one else is going to help???

Lets hope that this is last track that we see close, and maybe the guys down at dartford can do a Sandy/Herts and rise from the ashes.

   

[Darryl]

Following the closure of DRT.

We have a few items available, that some of the other clubs may be able to use:

Shade cloth, Blue, 30m long, 1.8m wide (New)
Whacker Plate Used, requres a service
3x new horn speakers
collection of scafholding poles and connectors (Enough to construct a 40' drivers stand)
varoius trestle tables

PM if you may be interested