Over the closed season of 2019 we were very busy putting together a BSCDA Promotional Team. A social media presence is vital in this day and age along with as much exposure in the general media too.
We are thrilled to have these members on board for this challenge and they will be working with the BSCDA committee throughout the year. All of these people have unique skills but one major thing in common, they love the sport we all love.
Thank you to our new team for their help so far, here is to a fantastic 2019 and beyond!
Sophie Clark & Guy Parker
(Both centre)
After several years of holding the position of BSCDA Secretary, myself and Guy Parker decided it was time to form a Promotional Team. Whilst the BSCDA had social media we felt it wasn’t being used to its maximum and we wanted a team behind the BSCDA to work with us on Promotional items.
After an appeal in the newsletter several members come on board and what a team we have. All our PR team have their own skills and bring so much to the table. Over the past year we have worked hard to ‘up our game’ and provide information via the world of social media to give fans what they want. We needed fresh ideas and enthusiasm and that’s exactly what evolved when we formed the PR Team.
Lockdown wasn’t easy for anyone as we were all missing what we love, however the PR Team worked hard to move into a new area of E Series Racing and the Lockdown Interview series along with other projects, making sure the fans were entertained and not missing out on the world of BriSCA F1 in some form or other.
All our ideas are based on trying to attract new fans as well as keeping our regulars informed with what’s happening within our fantastic sport. We have lots of other projects in the pipeline and with such a dedicated team the future is incredibly bright.
Andrew Kilcoyne
I’ve been a fan of the sport for thirty years. My first ever BriSCA F1 meeting was at Crewe as a 5 year old and within a couple of seasons I was attending every meeting, every season, with my dad.
Although I have had to cut back on a few meetings over the last few seasons, for varying reasons, I still get to 30+ meetings and still love the sport as much now as I did when I started.
As part of the BSCDA Promotional Team, I am hoping we can showcase BriSCA F1 to more people via social media. The world’s largest social network has over 1 billion daily active users meaning the sport can reach a huge audience easier than any other method meaning it should be embraced and seen as something that can help the sport move forward and bring in new fans.
I am also an admin on the BriSCA F1 Stock Cars (#OvalFamily) Fans Group on Facebook and have been for the last few seasons. I have been involved in keeping fans of the sport updated with booking lists, results and various news items all in one place. I will continue to do so but in my new role for the BSCDA.
I look forward to working with all the drivers and teams over the coming seasons in this new role.
Ian Bannister
I have been watching BriSCA F1 and F2 racing since the mid 1970’s, and attended my first meeting at my local track, Nelson, in 1976 aged just 12. I either went on the bus or on my bike and once I had been, I was hooked. Fast forward 46 years later I am still watching.
I was a massive fan of all the local drivers, Len Wolfenden, Frankie Wainman, and Ivan Scott who had a garage round the corner from my house.
Since I was at school I have always been a keen photographer, and I started taking photo’s at stock car meetings using initially a Kodak Instamatic 300 (110 cartridge), then a Kodak Instamatic 33 (126 cartridge), and I still have them both now.
Once Nelson closed in 1979, and I passed my driving test the following year, I started to venture further afield following my favourite drivers, attending meetings all over the country including Blackburn, Belle Vue, White City, Rochdale, Sheffield, Odsal, Aycliffe, Hartlepool, Crewe, Coventry, Leicester and Long Eaton.
Once I purchased a SLR camera I took more photos and even ventured to the middle at Mike Parker tracks, working alongside my good friend Howard Murtaugh, who introduced me to the sport in the first place.
In the late 1980’s I reduced the amount of meetings I attended due to work, family and other commitments (I have been the stadium announcer at Burnley FC since 1991), attending very few meetings.
Then in late 2017, Howard asked me if I fancied joining him to a Belle Vue meeting, and now my camera is always in my hand as I try to capture what goes on at meetings in a different way when I can.
In 2019, after a career in engineering, banking and education I retired, and now work as a semi-professional photographer, and I was proud to be asked to join the BSCDA Promotional Team to help promote and showcase the sport, and grow the audience and fan base. I am currently helping with the graphics side of what the team does using the skills from my previous employment to help move the image forward in a positive and engaging way.
Jonathan Abbott
I’m told my Dad took me to my first stock car meeting at four years of age. Alongside my Grandad, the three of us made the monthly trip to Long Eaton, and as I got older we expanded our travels to the likes of Coventry and Northampton. Some 38 years later, I’m still going Stock Car Racing!
I have a genuine passion for the sport, haven’t missed a seasons racing, and for me Stock Car Racing has always been that constant. That I now attend with my own family and the enjoyment it gives us, I guess in some way, is part of my reason for getting involved with the BSCDA Promotional Team. I want the sport to thrive, and allow future generations the same pleasure I’ve had.
Interviewing stock car drivers in one form or another, has been around as long as the sport itself; during an early 2019 Mildenhall meeting Guy Parker enthusiastically approached me with an idea to mix this up a bit. From memory the conversation started “you’ll be good at this” – and it’s gone from there.
The basic proposition was to interview drivers away from the intensity of a race meeting, where answers to the questions posed, would allow fans to really get an insight to who these drivers were, ‘away from the stock car track’. This was the basis for the original Off Track series. From then, I have produced Off Track Small Talk, and bringing us up to date Off Track, the Lockdown series. All three have had a differing objective, but driven by the same principle, ‘what would fans of the sport really want to know?’
I have a view that the more accessible drivers / individuals are, the more fans will engage and the more prosperous the sport will be. My role within the BSCDA PR team will be to continue producing interesting and engaging content, which supports this vision, and ultimately benefits Formula 1 Stock Car Racing.
Jordan Cooper
I’m Jordan, I run JCproduction, 22 years of age and son of BriSCA F1 driver Russell Cooper (415).
I have been going F1 racing my whole life with my dad and I raced in BriSCA Ministox as a kid for a couple of years.
Back in 2015 I purchased my first GoPro off a friend and used it taped to the back of my dad’s car with loads of gaffa tape. We watched the footage back at end of the meeting in the bar and couldn’t believe how awesome the footage looked, even the bar security crowded around my tablet to watch the footage. From that day I knew I wanted to keep filming on board footage and get more camera angles.
Slowly I started getting more gear and purchased my first DSLR camera and have been taking photos and videos of BriSCA F1 ever since. I now have multiple DSLR cameras and a large amount of GoPro cameras ready for the 2020/21 season and loads of mounts to leave on cars for the whole year.
I would like to thank everyone who has donated to me to keep the videos going. I would also like to thank my sponsors; Oypla, SD Racing, J.D Car and Commercial, Paul Wadsworth Landscapes, Progress windows, Keeping Abreast, Stox Safe and Cambridge Oval Racing Club.
Also, a big thank you to all drivers for taking part in my on-board content!
Sam Render
I have grown up around stock car racing my entire life with the first home I lived in up to the age of 5 being located next door to my godfathers, Richard Earl’s (ex 285) garage. For the first 8 years I only attended non-BriSCA F1 meetings at our local track, Blyton Raceway before attending my first BriSCA Formula 1 meeting at Kings Lynn at the age of 9 and since that first meeting I have been hooked.
For the next 15 seasons I would travel up and down the country with the 285 team attending around 20 -30 meetings per season with the majority of meetings Richard and in later seasons Sean Willis (ex 287) racing at with the remaining meetings being attended as spectators. As I got older I began helping out more at meetings with the car and was fortunate enough to race one of Richard’s cars myself from 2015-2019 under the number 385.
During the 2021 season I joined the BSCDA Promotional Team shortly before the World Final and have enjoyed being part of the Promotional Team, helping with the content we provide. I hope we can continue to create new content for many seasons to come that existing fans of the sport have come to enjoy as well as brining lapse fans back to the sport and hopefully bring BriSCA Formula 1 to new fans of the sport.