Killing two birds at one Silverstone

Maybe I am missing something. I don’t think I am. But there are two national motorsport events taking place at Silverstone next weekend, and yet oddly, both are separate from each other. Where is the logic in that?

The events in question are the Walter Hayes Trophy and the Silverstone Motorsport UK show, which, truth be told, aren’t the biggest of crowd pullers.

It was a case of one man and his dog watching trackside as Adrian Campfield and Wayne Boyd duked it out in the WHT final at Silverstone last year, and while that was going on, a couple of thousand were browsing around the Motorsport UK show held within the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

A crying shame in both instances because they are ideal season-closing events for the national and club racing scene.

So why don’t they join forces? In doing so, they would create a larger incentive for people to leave their nice warm houses, to forego watching whatever Grand Prix is on the TV – in this case the Abu Dhabi snore-a-thon – and encourage them to visit Silverstone for what would be an excellent showcase of all that is good in national motorsport?

Combine the normal ticket prices for both events – and perhaps slash a few quid off – and punters would feel a real sense of value for money, something which is all too uncommon when visiting circuits these days.

Those same punters would not only be treated to a good days’ racing on the National Circuit, but when the wind begins to pick up – as it so frequently does at Silverstone – they would be only too happy to trot across to The Wing and walk past more than 100 exhibitors who are representing British motorsport.

In turn, these exhibitors would be more inclined to return in the future, for events like the Silverstone Motorsport UK show are essentially marketing expenses, and unless there is genuine business to be secured at them, then that money falls straight off the bottom line. The more potential customers that there are, the greater the brand exposure and the greater the opportunity to make money.

The only issue I can envisage by the linking the two up would be getting people from one end of the circuit to the other. At the moment that wouldn’t be so much of an issue as Silverstone is like Chernobyl during the weekend in question anyway, so use of private vehicles shouldn’t prove too problematic.

Pie in the sky? I don’t think so. I think it is an easy solution to boosting attendance figures, revenue, and creating a real must-attend event as the season enters hibernation.

Or maybe, like I said at the outset, I am missing something…