Egbert...I don't think you understand the severity of this sittuation. I love cars, and I've been to the races, especially Bridgestone production cars...but the amount of people walking through the gates is stagering...apart from friends of the drivers or teams...NO ONE!

Just look at the Wesbank challenge on TV...Look past the cars...there's no spectators!

I asked this question time and time again - how do sponsors justify this budget each year infront of their exco when they all know Motorsport is not being watched in SA? That Street race in Soweto was GREAT! If we can have more like that to up the visibility of the races it will be great. Look at the production cars, its cars that people drive and talk about everyday - those people need to be at races and support their marquee...Unfortunately this is not the case...privateers in the races like Gary Green in his Alfa 147 GTA don't even get TV airtime because they have no CONCRETE sponsors that need their logo's on TV!...its actually sad but its a dying sport in SA! Too expensive with litterally no RETURN...even if a GTi wins...we don't hear about it on the news, media should STOP runing after Malema ass and start reporting on things that matter...do media know the power they have? A month's coverage on the news or in newspaper, will certainly up the ratings by at least 10% SA is a car loving nation...how the heck to we not love production cars??? It's strange to me!

Our Alfa club decided to sponsor Gary Green with some monies we scraped together...in June they will come to Kayalami and we'll be there in droves in our Alfa's to support Gary Green...take your kids and wives to events like this...its different and fun...I can guarantee you'll get your money's worth!

This is a tricky one, but I think the right decision. I am all for the country paying huge amounts to have the Soccer World cup here, but I do feel that Motorsports is quite a different proposition. Of all sports, Motor racing is my favourite (although not F1), & I have done a bit of historic racing in the past (cars and bikes in Europe - racing a Lotus XI around Spa was certainly a highlight!), and then bikes in SA. But motorsport is HUGELY expensive (at the top levels), and the audiences (compared to other sports such as Soccer or Rugby) much smaller. The TV audiences are large sure, but I doubt they are ever likely to visit the countries where they watch their races... Indeed there are many European venues that have already decided that they cannot afford top level motorsport. I thought it was bizarre to see the Gauteng Logo on all manner of top level racing cars. I am prepared to wager that few people outside of SA even know where (or what!) Gauteng is... To me, it was a marketing department gone crazy.

It also brings up another issue: the way that money spoils sport. Watching rugby today, is watching a different (inferior) sport to the one I played 20 years ago. Same with motor racing. Some of the best races to take part in (and to watch) were shoestring events; we rarely had enough money to do things properly!! For one event, we could not afford to hire an extra trailer, so I ended up driving a full race MGB GT V8 through London, to get to Brands Hatch very early on a public holiday... Keeping quiet was not an option, as it had straight exhausts, and with a racing clutch would stall unless you had at least 3000 revs!!! Plus, it had to be revved hard otherwise it would oil its plugs!!! Other events included the historic TT on the Isle of Man...where we camped in tents, in the rain, as we could not afford the ferry crossing and hotel bills! But doing a lap of the Island on a Scott Flying Squirrel was worth it!!!

BTW OS, I don't think that drove is the correct collective noun for Alfa's... I would suggest a breakdown of Alfas...

Perhaps if you spel it dro-#@$%-ve ?