I don't know if this is a little 'off topic' but, in the context of 'attendance at sporting events in Cornwall'. I live about three miles away from United Downs (stock cars and bangers) Raceway in St Day. The racetrack is about five miles away from Penryn, where the rugby club would be based, but it's much harder to get to as the roads on the Downs get progressively smaller/narrower. The racetrack itself is situated in the center of a long-gone copper mine. The area around the track is huge. When I attended the race meeting on Sunday just gone (31st Oct) although it's obviously difficult to put an exact figure on the attendance because it's an open, embanked, no-terracing, oval around the track perimeter, I would guestimate there to be about 3,000 people (male and female) of all ages. The weather wasn't good, it rained, bring your own chairs and there's no shelter. I guestimate about seven or eight hundred cars in the official (waste ground) car park with many more parked out on the roads and industrial estates adjacent to the official car park. It took me about 45 minutes to exit through the gate after the race ended. BUT, this is the point, stock car and banger racing truly is a 'minority sport' with little or no media 'exposure'. Yet on Sunday there were drivers racing their cars there that had come down from Rochdale, Sheffield, Ormskirk and a town in Essex amongst many other places not in Cornwall. During the course of the year there are regular 'Challenge Cup' races between English and Scottish drivers. Nobody complains about the distance they have had to travel in order to get there even though they are pulling a racing car on a heavy trailer behind their team vans and/or wagons. Sadly, due to historical 'political' circumstances the racetrack may not have a future in 2022. Perhaps some of that big crowd (by Championship /League 1 standards) could be attracted to a 'New' sporting event (R.L), on a Sunday, just a mere five miles away ? ? Who knows ? ?
