One of National motorsport's best kept secrets?

Brave. That's how one of the Clubmans Sports Prototype competitors describes the Clubmans Register's decision to end a 50-year association with the British Automobile Racing Club and move the series to be part of MotorSport Vision Racing's stable for 2020.

And it's difficult to argue with that assessment. Putting decades of shared history aside and jumping ship is a bold move from the championship's promoters. It was not the work of a moment or undertaken lightly. But the early signs, at least, suggest it could pay off handsomely.

While Clubmans, first launched back in 1965, featured a wealth of up-and-coming star drivers in its early days, the same cannot quite be said of recent years. There's no denying its illustrious history. Among those to have cut their teeth in the category have been British Touring Car champions Will Hoy, Frank Sytner and Chris Hodgetts, and multiple Le Mans 24 Hours winner Derek Bell.

And even a future Formula 1 design hero was involved in the category, as Patrick Head worked on Clubmans cars long before his Williams days. Now, Clubmans wants to try to get back on the map again.

"I don't believe there's any formula in the UK where you can go racing in such a quick car at such a reasonable price, but we're under the radar for a lot of people," says Clubmans Register vice-chairman Peter Richings.

"They know we're around but they don't think of us as a potential class to go racing in. Yet the CSP1 top-class cars are seriously quick cars - 200bhp, 460kg, that's a pretty good power-to-weight ratio. And you can actually run a car like that - an ordinary working bloke can run one of those on a sensible budget if he's prepared to do a bit of work himself. But we feel we've been hidden away a little bit and we needed to break out and show what we can do."

Richings says the final round of last season was an interesting case in point. Instead of running as part of a BARC meeting as normal, the curtain closer was held at a British Racing & Sports Car Club Silverstone event in October.

"Suddenly there were a whole bunch of different race categories alongside us and it was interesting how some of the competitors from other series were coming over and saying, 'These cars are interesting, they're quick, how much does it cost to run one of these?,'" Richings recalls.

This experience, combined with the BARC being increasingly unable to offer Clubmans "races at the circuits we wanted to go to at the time we wanted to go to them", led category bosses to begin exploring other possible options and speak to alternative organising clubs.

"What we found with MSVR, and what surprised us, was they were really enthusiastic to talk with us," continues Richings. "They were immediately so enthusiastic and said they would love us to come and race with them: 'Here's the calendar we can offer you, where would you like to come and race?' They offered us a calendar which looked good but they had us going to Snetterton twice.

Last year grids averaged 18 cars, but both Chaplin and Richings are confident that the changes will lead to higher entries, and not just registrations, this time around

"We said there's nothing wrong with Snetterton but we'd rather go elsewhere. They said, 'Where would you like to go?', and we said we like Croft, as it's a super circuit and one of our favourites and they said, 'We've got an arrangement with the Darlington & District Motor Club and they can run a race for us.' So we did that deal and it was just so easy."

While he says "I'm not knocking the BARC, they've done a lot for us and have been great", Richings adds that the improved calendar offering from MSVR was a key factor in deciding to jump ship.

"Getting the right circuits and right spread throughout the year is really important," he explains. But it was still a big decision to take as the Register will now be promoting the championship itself and buying the track time. Early indications suggest that the move has proved to be a popular one.

Autosport reported last month that registrations had surged to 42, that figure including six drivers brand new to the championship and a further six who have decided to make a comeback. And that's with still nearly two months to go until the Donington Park opener.

One of those returnees is Steve Chaplin. In more recent years he has been sharing a Peugeot 309 and an MG Midget with his son but, now that his Phantom P79's (above) engine has been replaced, he is ready to make a first Clubmans outing for over two years.

"The MSVR move is a brave move and it deserves supporting," says Chaplin about his return to Clubmans competition.

"MSVR have done some seriously good things over the years and I've been impressed with the upgrades to the circuits they own so I'm more than happy to be racing with them. There's a buoyancy about the club [the Clubmans Register] and a fresh energy, and I wanted to be involved in it."

Last year grids averaged 18 cars, but both Chaplin and Richings are confident that the changes will lead to higher entries, and not just registrations, this time around. Chaplin says the potential to boost grids is significant.

"There are lots of Clubmans cars in garages and we need them back out on track - even if they only do one or two rounds," he states. For Chaplin, Clubmans was where he made his car racing debut in 2001. Since then he has raced a variety of other machinery including a Lola T332 F5000 car - which he describes as "a bit of a beast" - but still feels Clubmans stands out compared to other series.

And not just because of the look of the cars. Many of the quirky prototypes feature tall rear wings and it is also one of the increasingly rare series that is not one-make - the grid may predominantly feature Mallock models but cars from much smaller operations like Vision, Phantom and Gem are in action too. Chaplin feels the paddock atmosphere also sets Clubmans apart from other classes.

"Having experienced other championships, there's friendships there but a substantial amount of rivalry," says Chaplin.

"Clubmans is unique because everyone is really pushing to get everyone out on track. Numerous times I've been in the paddock and they've had the head off a car and are replacing a valve. People muck in and I love it for that. The social side is also brilliant - it's a great group of people. They're down-to-earth racers and preparers and engineers."

Richings, who first began racing in Clubmans back in 1979, and has spent fewer than 10 years away in Formula 3 and GT3 categories since, agrees. "Clubmans is a really close-knit community - it's hard racing on the track but we're all friends off it," he adds.

"People have said we're the best-kept secret in motorsport, but we don't want to be a secret - we want people to know about what we're doing" Clubmans Register vice-chairman Peter Richings

"If someone breaks a car, then everyone mucks in to fix it. Mike Evans, our chairman, had a startline accident at Thruxton last year. The car looked dreadful on the Saturday but by Sunday morning it had bits from three or four other people on it - someone's wing, someone's this, someone's that and someone's steeringrack - and he was back on the grid and won the next morning. We really just want to build on that."

Another of the ways Clubmans is looking to expand on its popularity is by trialling a new race format this year. "Over the last few years we've run a format where we have a two-day weekend," explains Richings.

"We qualify in the morning and race on Saturday afternoon. We then have another race on Sunday morning and one on Sunday afternoon. That's been the format we've used for the last five years or so, which has proved pretty popular. But one or two of our competitors have said we could back off a little bit.

"So, what we're doing this year is four weekends like that and two where it's just a single day - qualify in the morning and two races in the rest of the day. We're prepared to see how that goes and if the one-day format is more popular we will perhaps do three and three next year."

While it's not a radical change, it is an important example of a series organiser listening to its competitors and making appropriate changes. All of these tweaks, right from the appointment of a regular clerk of the course to the fundamental one of switching organising club, are designed with the competitor's experience in mind, to try to boost popularity. And the Clubmans Register is keen to spread that message as far as it possibly can.

"People have said we're the best-kept secret in motorsport, but we don't want to be a secret - we want people to know about what we're doing," says Richings. "This is a real opportunity for us to show what we are capable of."

Clubmans is far from on its own in making this journey as an unprecedented number of championships have reached a similar conclusion and have decided to move elsewhere. Of the other eight categories to swap organising club for 2020, a particularly noteworthy one is Sports 2000. It features similar cars to Clubmans and it too has moved to MSVR.

Richings believes the two series could complement each other nicely - after all, Sports 2000 was one of the categories at that October Silverstone meeting that generated such interest in Clubmans.

"They seem to be a very similar bunch of people to us - a lot of owner-drivers, enthusiastic club racers," he says. Along with those other eight series, the new season marks a turning point in Clubmans's history and Richings is very excited to be a part of it.

"It's a new decade and I'm convinced we're going to do something quite special," he concludes. "It's a new dawn for Clubmans, if you like."

A new dawn that seems to be getting off to a bright start.