Right Here is a copy of my email to santa Pod about thr Jap Show.
I have just returned from The Jap Show after organising a club trip for members of our car club. This has ben aranged for 10 months with the members and their families looking forwards to it for some time. I myself have been a frequent visitor and as part of Doug Ripleys Top Methanol Funny car crew won the 2004 MSA UK Methanol Championship so the rest of our group left it to me to get it organised. We turned up with 9 Nissan Elgrands of which at least 5 of them would have been in the running for a show and shine trophy, we paid on entry and joined the que to park up.
When we got to the turn off for the "public parking" we were told we would not be allowed into the pits area and to park up in the public car park. we did under protest. I later brought this up with 2 of your car park attendents who told me to complain at the gate, this I did and yet again nobody was bothered and no attempt whatsoever was made to rectify the situation. We paid in total £252 to sit in a public car park, I can do that for nothing at Asda. I have had to apologise to the members of our club for the treatment, all of them spending many hours making sure there vehicles were in first class show condition. Can I refer you back to your own words on your website qoute "Make sure you enter it in the Show Car Paddock, Dont leave it in the main carpark where no-one will see it, get into the show and get noticed" We are disgusted that the time and effort shown by our club members was ignored by the Santa Pod staff and future shows at this venue will not be attended by our club.
Brian Willoughby Elgrand Owners Club UK
Here is the reply
Hi Brian,
Thank you for your email.
Firstly, I would like to say that we are always disappointed when we here that our customers haven’t had a great experience.
I would also like to apologise if you though that our staff didn’t seem bothered. I can assure you that this is not normally the case and all of our staff go above and beyond to ensure that every customer has a great experience.
understand that you did not want to be parked up in the public car park, if you had booked in a club stand then you would have been able to gain access to the paddock and if you have booked in early enough you would have been able to park in one of the prime club areas.
With regards to the Show & Shine we only have limited spaces and we do it on a first come, first serve basis. So unfortunately by the time you had arrived the Show & Shine was full.
I would be interested to hear any of your comments and hope that you would now consider revisiting Santa Pod Raceway.
Best regards
Phil Bennett
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hil@santapod.com">phil@santapod.com</a><!-- e -->
My reply back.
Phil,
Can I respectfully request that you read through your website with regard to the show and shine which did tell people to just turn up and enter not if we feel its full we will reject you, some of our members had a long journey down from the North East in vehicles that do 17mpg tops to be usherd into the public car park at 9.42 in the morning. As regards to limited space we and other forum groups have mentioned that there was plenty of space in the pits near the finish line gantry and we can only say what we see with our own eyes.
With regard to coming back again, I will do the best I can with our club but for some that went for the first time they will not be returning dispite living for their Nissan Trucks. What happened spoilt what could have been a fantastic day and whats dones done.
Regards Brian Willoughby (Elgrand Owners Club UK).
Ok guys, those of you that went are you interested in another go, this time pre booking a club pitch? and those of you that didnt do you want to go in the future? I would like to know so that we can get something organised for the Jap Show Final this year