FIM World Championships, Prize Money & the Decline of the "Adventurer Race"

[David Stewart]

FIM World Championships, Prize Money & Decline of the “Adventurer Racer”

Another post made earlier got me to thinking about all of the above, the reasons for it and the effect it has had on the excitement surrounding sidecar racing.
Back when I was running Lydden Hill (& Bemsee) we used to have some great events that really punched above their weight for a little 1 mile circuit living in the shadow of Brands Hatch just 40 minutes up the road.
Sidecar Burn-Ups were of course some of those events, but we also had the Gerald Gadsden Trophy, the JS Moore Trophy, the European Supermotard Grand Prix and of course the Lord of Lydden.
The key thing about all of those events was the extra element of having what I used to refer to as the “Euro-Adventurers” turn up (usually on their way back from a Grand Prix or Ducados Open event) and bringing some of the other Dutch, Belgian, German & Finnish teams with them.
For the foreign teams we sometimes arranged a ferry crossing with Wayne Bullen at Norfolk Line (now DFDS) and gave them a few quid for diesel. When I say “a few quid” I really do mean that as anything I gave them had to come out of my own pocket because the circuit simply couldn’t afford it.
Tim Reeves was ‘just’ a passenger then, as they hadn’t yet figured out that in the words of Jeff Matthews “The wrong bloke is holding onto the handlebars on that bike!”
However, Tim spent a lot of time going around the Euro events persuading the other teams to come over to Lydden and support the events. Now I know not everyone has always got on with Tim, but my experience at the time was that he was a great ambassador for sidecar racing and Lydden Hill circuit too.
Rob Cameron & Paul Randall made similar efforts in the British Championship paddock with the F2s and the whole thing just worked.
Everyone understood the situation and everyone also knew that they were there primarily to have a good time, but they were also there to entertain the paying public.
Having British and World class competitors there really produced some fantastic events and the crowds that were attracted in the 1990s certainly went a long way to ensuring the survival of not only Lydden Hill, but also of the Bemsee club itself (things really were that close to the line back then).
So what happened?
Well, lots of things at the same time really.
1) The world championship left the Grand Prix paddock and then went 4-stroke.
2) IRTA (as mentioned in the other thread) kept the FIM money and invested it in the 3 solo GP classes.
3) The MCRCB took over the British Championships and concentrated almost exclusively on solos.
4) The only universally recognised British Sidecar Championship was the FSRA F2 Championship, leaving the F1s as the poor relations.
5) The European Championship was taken over by the UEM and condensed to 4 rounds.
F1 Sidecars ended up ‘guesting’ at British & European F3 car meetings, World Endurance Championships and various National meetings in Europe for a year or so. There was very little coordination from the governing bodies and it ended up as a proper mess.
Malcolm Haissell ended up almost by default as the real world championship representative (even though he was really just the Yokohama tyre agent) and he did a sterling job by getting the sidecars into the World Superbike Championship, which was at the time more popular in the UK than the Grand Prix series.
The problem was that the hiatus of being ejected from the Grand Prix paddock had caused a lot of top sidecar teams to pack it in altogether, as they were disenchanted with the whole thing.
Think about it.
These guys had been slogging around Europe, some of them on a shoestring, entertaining the crowds yet still almost entirely dependent on their prize money to get them to the next round. It must have felt like a real kick in the teeth to be told that after nearly 50 years on the schedule, sidecars weren’t good enough to warrant a place in the GP paddock. This applied to both British & European Teams.
So it was no surprise that some of them had simply had enough, but that meant that there now weren’t enough top line teams with enough time to go travelling to fill the new Superside grid.
That was a problem because there was initially a requirement to put 24 outfits on the grid at every round in order to be in with a chance of regaining full World Championship status from the FIM.
Don’t misunderstand me here, everyone knew that Superside was a World Championship, but according to the FIM at the time it was just a World Cup Series.
Now I acknowledge that Superside had some great teams running at the front and in the midfield, but in order to fill the grid teams were accepted that, whilst they had the kit to compete, didn’t really have the speed. The fast “Adventurer Racers” had long since packed up. Some of these well funded but less able teams were getting lapped every race and now and again 3 times in a 12 lap race and that wasn’t good for the overall image of sidecar racing in front of the huge crowds that World Superbike was attracting at the time.
Now THAT was the crux of the problem.
The numbers of truly competitive Sidecar Teams simply weren’t there, BECAUSE the rewards had vanished. Once those numbers diminished it was all over.
The only place to get decent prize money for sidecars was the Isle of Man TT and that meant going to F2 machinery. That was another cause of F1 Sidecars decline as not many teams could afford both bikes – most could barely afford one and if they wanted prize money they had to buy an F2.
Seems pretty gloomy eh?
Well, as is now well known, Roger Body was as frustrated as anyone with that situation and decided the only way to fix the problem was effectively to throw cash at it. Now a lot of people could easily have come up with that idea, but Roger actually put his money where his mouth was and got things moving.
In 2010, Thundersport GB ran the “Battle of Britain Sidecar Championship” so called because we weren’t allowed to use the “British Championship” title by the governing bodies, but everyone knew what it was and it produced some epic racing.
The average grid size that year was 29.4 outfits, something that has never been equalled since.
Roger and I agreed to part ways at the end of that season as we had very different ideas about how to move forward, but it has since found a home at BSB and has been ably administered by Bemsee ever since.
British Sidecar Racing is now back in front of big crowds and the sponsorship opportunities are there for any team willing to work at it, the organisers can’t really do much more to make that happen.
The number of quality British Teams is now on the rise and Rogers championship is now the world leader in this field.
It needs the same approach at World level and now Roger has stepped up to that challenge as well, but there is an issue...........
My belief is that in order to make the World Championship back into the spectacle it once was you need those “Adventurer Racers” to hit the road in Europe. Not just the rich boys, but those lads that have the pace despite a lack of cash. People like Ricky Stevens, Ben Holland, Steve Kershaw, Tony Brown etc.
If those lads could commit to just one season and it dragged other similar crews out from the German, Dutch and French Championships it would revitalise world championship sidecar racing, but it would be at the expense of National Championships because that is where the teams must come from.
What is needed isn’t anyone in particular having a bigger slice of the cake, it needs a bigger cake altogether.
The numbers aren’t there at the moment, but IF next years TT doesn’t happen, could some of those teams that have looked towards the Isle of Man for prize money suddenly become interested in this new opportunity?
Fate can be a fickle mistress!

[Phil Davies]

Insightful and on point, as ever, Dave.
Bit more flesh on the bones, Kenny Roberts was the instigator for the dumping of outfits from the world championship - because when he approached potential sponsors, he was met with, "I can get an entire sidecar team for the season for less than half of what you are asking for", so Kenny, business savvy as ever, saw to dump the money competition and as only the solos had a voice at the suits of the FIM, exit outfits.
IRTA was only ever a solo organisation as its roots are embedded in the KR/BS breakaway series start up.

So, having spent a fortune on an LCR 3 wheeled F3 car where did you go with it then? - certainly not the TT, ever.
Enter Roy with the F2 idea - answer to an ACU maiden's prayer, from that moment on the ACU practically ignored all the 'big' outfits - I remember being one of the originators of the 'F1 sidecar' movement as I was staring at the prospect of 'my' organising body allowing 'my' class to just wither away because it was not TT centered.
The 'F1 sidecar' movement eventually morphed into the FSRA, but that org is primarily focussed on F2s, not 'Sidecars', and that is the problem, across all the 'barrow boys' we have many classes but not one voice or representative, so no-one meaningful ever listens (apart from your good self) as nobody sings a single cohesive sidecar tune.

To move forward from where we are 'We' (as in UK 'We') really need a single organisation that represents and speaks for Sidecars (ALL of them), modern F1 and F2, classic, historic, BEARS, scooter, push bike, etc - OK, maybe not push bike!
That organisation can and should speak to all promoters on the basis of 'we can offer you a packaged show', in or out of any solo related event, promoting and gathering 3 wheel entries for any event, that can nuture talent.

The end of season Mallory 'festivals' used to draw big crowds, so the appeal of 'the chariots' is still there with the paying public, maybe a starting point to gather momentum is more Sidecar only meetings?
Divide and conquer is a well known strategy, outfits did just that.
Just my 2d - shoot me down Dave!