wiganworld   (Feedback, help, your ideas for new content.)

6000 is the largest gate ever taken at a motorcycle meeting at the Three Sisters Circuit. The club running the meeting was the Preston and District Motorcycle Club and it occurred in the early eighties, possibly '82 or '83.

This was the sole cause of the council 'taking over the door', so to speak.
Before then (since it's opening in 1979) the council had 'rented' the circuit out to the clubs on a 'per day' basis and the clubs kept the gate money.
This kept the cost for the rider to a minimum.
However, the council soon found out how many paying spectators passed through the gate in the course of the day.

Anyroadup, back then, 30 years ago, there were a lot more motorcycle races held at the Three Sisters than there are today. There were three clubs actively using the circuit, 'Preston and District', the 'Bolton' club and the 'Shaw' club, not to mention the council's own annual event the 'WMBC Festival of Speed'. The 6000 gate figure is unlikely to be matched nowadays.

In those days it was a lot more popular. The bikes were noisier (more two-strokes than today), and the noise regulations were less strict (there are noise-meter operators at every meeting and, if your bike is over the required noise level, you are excluded).

SO, why start to moan now? It's been happening for 30 years!

And, property value? There are properties valued at over £2 million overlooking Oulton Park in Cheshire, and they don't complain!

And ... if the Aintree Racing Drivers School didn't have use of it, it would be closed all week, bringing in NO revenue.

And just to rub salt in .... The Aintree Racing Drivers School had to move from Aintree because a golf-course was built within the track and the two couldn't be run together, for obvious reasons.