British motor racing wealth

Browsing through British Racing News, the official journal of the BRSCC, we came across an article introducing the sponsors this large club needs to oil the wheels of its competition programme. It was not the sponsors’ names that caught our eye but some interesting financial statistics.
This season the BRSCC itself will distribute £55,000 in sponsored prize money, though that figure also includes expenditure on racing championships as well as individual racing rewards. The club estimate that British motor racing as a whole receives nearly a quarter of a million pounds per annum (actually £225,000) when their own efforts are incorporated together with those of other clubs.
Sensibly the BRSCC point out that most of these sponsors – and the names vary from the familiar high street ring of McVities to specialist products such as those from Aleybars – that these sponsors are spending about the same amount of money again on various publicity exercises to promote their sponsorship.
The club comment that they feel motor racing “probably would survive without such backing,” but that we should recognise the contribution such sponsors make. They add that, well before the season started, both the BRSCC and other organisers had sold all of their championships and major races.