Perth Street Race Canned By WA Government

[Buckshot]

V8X are reporting that the proposed WA Street Race has been scrapped by the WA Government.

Does this mean WA won't see the V8s next year ?

Wasn't the only reason they raced at Barbagallo this year because Shell put up the extra money as it's their 30th Anniversary in WA or something ?

[Michael H]

look, if it won't make money, it can't go ahead. I think we'ver got a real problem in this country. We need new permanent circuits, or revisions of old ones.

Eastern Creek needs a rebuild - urgently.

Lakeside should be lengthened and widened and upgraded.

Calder needs lengthening.

QR needs bulldozing and starting again.

Barbagello needs rebuilding and remodelling.

Wakefield Park is in a big field, and could utilise the hill for a great circuit.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Buckshot
Wasn't the only reason they raced at Barbagallo this year because Shell put up the extra money as it's their 30th Anniversary in WA or something?

I don't claim to be an expert, or even follow this garbage closely, but I am acutely aware of the damage this mob are doing to the sport across the country... But I think Shell want a round in each State no matter what they have to put up with... sure, they left Tassie out, but WA is a bigger market for Shell than Tassie ever will be.

Gordon Mitchell, from the WASCC, tells me that Wanneroo basically borrows against next year's SATCC round profits to do []b]this year's[/b] circuit upgrades as dictated by AVESCO. And AVESCO are trying to leave them high and dry!

Good job Mallala got lucky and old Clem Smith poured the money back in so it was a good circuit before he lost his round to the street race in Adelaide!

Originally posted by Michael H
look, if it won't make money, it can't go ahead. I think we'ver got a real problem in this country. We need new permanent circuits, or revisions of old ones.

Eastern Creek needs a rebuild - urgently.

Lakeside should be lengthened and widened and upgraded.

Calder needs lengthening.

QR needs bulldozing and starting again.

Barbagello needs rebuilding and remodelling.

Wakefield Park is in a big field, and could utilise the hill for a great circuit.

Correct, Michael... we need the permanent tracks to remain, be upgraded or improved... and to be profitable.

AVESCO has been successful in one thing, promoting the V8 series. But at what cost?

Just ask a competitor in another class...

As for your circuit points... why does EC need a rebuild?

Lakeside could handle a bit of extra length, but its tradition and the fact that it is just so good as it is really auger against that. And AVESCO created most of the strife they are in now, anyway. Inept management didn't help.

Calder can remain the pit it's always been, a Club level circuit with aspirations...

Wanneroo is okay, very little to be done, unless some extra length can be found.

Wakefield Park is just what it is. Like Oran Park in the early sixties, a bit of bitumen around a paddock. I don't think it needs to grow at all, unless EC and OP disappear and we need another circuit.

Good job you didn't mention Oran Park, really... I don't have to comment...

In summary: AVESCO should indeed help the circuits grow and prosper, rather than build its own agenda and trail of potential destruction by sticking its hands into Government pockets all the time. Motor Racing doesn't need to be seen as a sinkhole for public funds when hospital waiting lists are getting long... does nothing for our PR at all.

Now, I left Queensl... err, Willowbank out of that, didn't I?

Well, what better example is there of a Government getting its fingers burned by using Motor Racing ("We bought the Sandown 500! Yay!") as a vote catcher... the place was a dive from the moment Browny got his hands onto it, it could have been better, but only with a flyover, because the area available is too small and so were the minds behind it.

[racer69]

Agreed totally,

Tony C seemed really angry, like he doesn't think anything else in Australian motorsport is worth spending money on other than V8s, what an idiot, then goes on to say that he would purposely schedule a race on the same weekend as Rally Australia, just because WA decided they would rather spend the money on Rallying rather than his V8s, he's just acting like a child.

He's doing more harm than good for motorsport, he should be encouraging WA, Tassie and SA governments to put there money into permanent circuits for everyone, then in a few months i'll have places to race

[Crash Test]

Now to quote Tony C:

"Seeing they (EventsCorp) think we are so insignificant they won't mind us running an event at the same time, on the same weekend, against their rally next year and we will have their TV of course. They think we are insignificant, I'll f*cking show them who is f*cking insignificant."

Should I say any more?

I hope that Winton doesn't lose its round- they have done everything possible to keep a round, but simply due to its location, it simply can't draw a massive crowd.

With respects to extending Lakeside- there wouldn't be too many options if you wanted to keep its nature. They pegged out their proposed extensions, and the track was a shocker. The best one I've heard (although majorly costly and unlikely) is to keep Hungry going left, go up a bridge, then do a lap of the half built Nascar track, before going under (or over, whichever is easier) the bridge and back into the Eastern Loop. Whether that would give the track the desired length, I'm not sure.

[Crash Test]

And another thing, after the massive loss the Canberra race made, and judging by how long it took for things like Indy to get out of the red...it probably isn't the best thing to do with elections every few years, even though i might fill up all of the towns' accomodation...

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Crash Test
With respect to extending Lakeside - there wouldn't be too many options if you wanted to keep its nature... The best one I've heard (although majorly costly and unlikely) is to keep Hungry going left, go up a bridge, then do a lap of the half built Nascar track, before going under (or over, whichever is easier) the bridge and back into the Eastern Loop. Whether that would give the track the desired length, I'm not sure.

Old Sid had an idea back about 1965 or 1966, I wonder if there's a map of it in Racing Car News?

Anyway, the plot was to turn left, hard left, before the Dunlop Bridge, sail off across the dam or somewhere above it and around it along a long straight, then hard right and wind back down to Hungry again. Would have been good, I'm sure, took it out to 2.5 miles, from memory.

Like the airstrip, however, it never went any further than Sid's dreams.

But don't belittle his dreams... they got us Lakeside, even if it was only for 41 years!

[RaceTime]

Just to add a little bit more to the WA 'discussions' I believe that regardless of the outcome of Dictator Cochrane dummy spit, the WASCC are going ahead with plans to widen pit straight and remodel the pit lane area.

[Crash Test]

It's a shame that they didn't finish off the Nascar track, the dirt speedway, and the extension off the Karussel...oh well...

[racer69]

I think i've got a picture in one of my old Racing Car News from 88 i think, with a drawing of proposed chages, if i had a scanner i would scan it in.

Also, when tracks try to make changes, it still isn't enough in Tony's eyes, like Oran Park, they built brand new pit area in less than a year, without much outside funding, then people have a go at it for being on a hill and too small and so on, i think Tony just wants V8s racing and only on street circuits, that way V8s would be the only racing in Australia and he would look like a king, pity then there would be no more young drivers coming through.