Having been around the NE racing scene in various capacities for quite a while (and I mean the real North East and I mean club racing), I have a pretty good idea why turnouts are low.
Fundamentally, the hobby needs new faces to stay alive. For various reasons there are almost no new electric racers in our part of the NE.
Bringing old racers out of club retirement only goes so far, ultimately the reasons they went into club retirement are still there, and soon enough they will stop again.
So, Jarrow had a boost 6 months ago with a new broom sweeping away the cobwebs, however the boost was only old racers coming back, it sounds like their interest is tailing off again, and Jarrow is back to the turnout it had during the last days as "Oxclose", half-a-dozen if you are lucky.
I have great sympathy for the situation but little surprise. No matter how much work the Jarrow club put in, they will always be fighting a losing battle.
This is probably the case for a lot of clubs across the country.
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