Leicester Electric Car Club

After discussions between the committee with the lack of attendance and uncertainty of the venue, and with no real prospect of this improving, it’s a real shame but we have decided to call it a day at the current venue and will be winding the club up, for now

I would like to thank all the past and present committee for their work in running the club, also those that have helped in anyway and the racers who attended over the years,

We’ll be putting the equipment track carpet etc into storage and will continue to look at possible venues, but for now we are closing the doors

This is a difficult post to write,

Early enquiries with the few that race with us regularly suggest there’s only 2 again this week and it doesn’t look like improving, we can’t keep running without racers… Kettering is on a break this week, we’d welcome MTCs and thanks for the mention from those that run KMCC but we haven’t had any enquiries… so with nobody coming do we continue to book the hall for March? Or Call it here?

So question is, is this it?

With the venue we are at having an uncertain future, (which we’d hopefully know more on this over the next couple of weeks one way or another) and no attendance now, is it worth the fight and mental stress to keep going? It seems next to impossible to find somewhere similar size and price, that’s available and able to store our equipment, but even if we did find somewhere, would anyone come? The last few weeks is suggesting not,

as mentioned before the club has been running for over 40 years, personally I (Andrew) have been coming to this club for almost 30 years and helped to run the club in one official role or another for the last 23 years along side the rest of the committee, and it’s quite saddening to see where it is now with so few attendance,
Not sure where it’s gone wrong,

but the self doubt over what reasons could be putting people off and all to easy to blame this or that, but questions of what can we do haven’t been good for the mental health, it’s unpaid voluntary work running a club like this and Ive always tried to do as much as I can for the good of the club but I just don’t know where to go from here… in the past we have averaged 20-25 racers per night anywhere up to 30-32 at our peak,
But attendance has been gradually dropping over the last 8 years
It didn’t help when covid hit in 2020, we had difficulty reopening with the restrictions and some committee unable to continue due to the risks covid brought for them and family, but when the venue and local restrictions allowed we managed to reopen in 2021, since reopening we’ve just never really recovered on the numbers averaging 8-10 each year, being fortunate to have a community rate for the hall hire has kept losses to a minimum and enabled us to wether the low attendance but still not good…
I’ve known various classes raced at the club over the years, I started with 10th 2wd and 4wd buggys on foam back in the 90s and the clubs main class varied over the years from the buggys went to 10th touring, and rebel 12 later moving into mardave v12 which then became the GT12 class we know today, and was the most popular for the longest period of late but with numbers dropping, was it the class we raced? Had that lost its interest? So we tried starting various classes alongside in the hope to attract new members like the Minis or LMGT3, but whilst picking up some new faces and some moving on it was still the same with 8-10 coming, later 4-6
now on top of the struggles we’re having with the venue we seem to be down to just a couple, we have had messages questioning if are we not running a particular class anymore? As there wasn’t any race one week, no, just none came including the person that ask, have also heard a couple times from more than one that the top guys are too quick and with numbers low they don’t like to be in the same heat moving out the way all the time, I get that, but what can we do? no fun on your own no fun moving out the way… so is low attendance now the last straw putting people off? If everyone thinks, there’s not many there I’m not going, or go else where, it vicious cycles into nobody turning up, and it seems that’s where we are… if it’s the committee, have you considered volunteering? Every AGM was a struggle, as there’s so few able or willing to donate their time on a regular basis to run the club…

So back to the original question, is this it for the club? I believe so, it’s a real shame to see another club fold in Leicester, but a club without members is no longer a club

Friday 27th February Meeting Cancelled

With a couple regulars confirming they’re not coming with family bereavement or looking after partner post op, and only 2 regulars confirming they would be racing tonight in our WhatsApp club group, we have taken the decision to cancel tonight,

We don’t require prebooking and have always just relied on people just turning up but recent attendance has been very low and we need to know there’s a minimum of 4 or 5 that are coming and willing to help put the track up and pack away… as I’ve mentioned we have a club WhatsApp group where we gauge how many are coming, if you would like adding to the group just message the page or one of the committee

Tonight’s track

Find live timing and results in the comments

Who’s joining us this Friday?
Minis Brushless or Brushed, LMGT3, GT12 all welcome
Doors open at 6.30pm at the Westend Neighbourhood Centre, Andrewes street, Leicester LE3 5PA

Who’s joining us this Friday?
With the Hinckley club on a 2 week break there’s a couple of mini racers interested in coming down, so there should hopefully be a few minis this week along with the LMGT3/GT12, if you’re free on Friday night and fancy joining us the more the merrier
Doors open at 6.30pm at the Westend Neighbourhood Centre, Andrewes street, Leicester LE3 5PA

Who’s joining us tonight for some RC racing?
LMGT3, GT12 and Minis
We race every Friday throughout the year, doors open 6.30pm at the Westend Neighbourhood Centre, Andrewes Street, Leicester LE3 5PA

Who’s joining us tonight for some RC racing?
We race every Friday throughout the year, doors open 6.30pm at the Westend Neighbourhood Centre, Andrewes Street, Leicester LE3 5PA