116 TROPHY: MORE RACING FOR LESS
Over the past three years there has been a growing presence at 750 Motor Club meetings. The 116 Trophy, a low-cost one-make endurance series for the BMW 116i.
“I’m always dubious as to putting your feet up and thinking ‘oh yeah this is success now’,” 116 Trophy coordinator Mark Bate tells Motorsport News, “but I don’t think there is any denying that it is doing really well.
“We don’t do a lot of advertising, it’s more word of mouth and friends of friends and then they decide to come and do it. It’s just been a very very small building series that’s built at a progressive rate.”
Indeed. In 116 Trophy’s debut 2019, initially sharing its grid with Roadsports, its turnouts were around 10-12. In Covid-disrupted 2020 numbers burgeoned to 25-30 while last season they grew further.
Bate, with two decades in the BMW world, is a familiar face as he
