Mount Panorama[ BATHURST] Circuit

[Pierre]

Where to now .Doe's the Federal Government now finance all motoracing circuit upgrades. I think not! May be all sports can now recieve FEDERAL GOVERNMENT funding. The COCKROACH has done a very good snow job on this one, What do you think?..........:beer:

[Mattracer]

In this climate of street circuits, any upgrades to permanent circuits which benefit non-V8 Supercar competitors in future years should be encouraged.

[v8man]

Originally posted by Pierre
Where to now .Doe's the Federal Government now finance all motoracing circuit upgrades. I think not! May be all sports can now recieve FEDERAL GOVERNMENT funding. The COCKROACH has done a very good snow job on this one, What do you think?..........

The way you have written this you would think that this is the first time that the federal government has ever put any money into sport, well I am sorry to disappoint you but the goverment often funds various sporting organisations to assist in building or upgrading fixtures or assisting individuals reach the pinicleof their chosen field.
As for the funding for Bathurst it is about time and I just hope that it is used correctly and the job is not compromised because of the delays in starting the rebuilding

[louonline]

Pierre,
To you and I motor racing is a sport but it means nothing to the Government (State or Federal) unless there is some economic benefit.
Both Sports Ministers made that pretty clear on RPM today.
It took Bathurst nearly three years to convince the Government that there is an economic benefit in spending money on the Mount. The fact that we as motor racing fans enjoy the sport held no sway.
We may think it’s a big deal that the Gov. has spent money on a motor racing track but the fact of the matter is that both Governments have funded other sporting venues in the past.
But hey, look at it this way; by the time the Gov. collects the GST on the material and services used in the construction and the Income Tax on the workers building it, it will probably get half of its money back. The rest it’ll get back on the GST on ticket sales.
In the mean time it will have helped maintain a sporting Icon and kept a few people off the dole.
As for TC, love him or hate him, he is a smart operator out to make a quid like anybody else. Obviously he can see the value of the Mount otherwise he wouldn’t have locked himself/AVESCO into a ten year deal.
But in the end this is not the place to discuss all this political stuff.
Let’s just enjoy or motor sport.

[Falcadore]

Originally posted by Pierre
Where to now .Doe's the Federal Government now finance all motoracing circuit upgrades. I think not! May be all sports can now recieve FEDERAL GOVERNMENT funding. The COCKROACH has done a very good snow job on this one, What do you think?..........

What do I think? I think that Bathurst is a federal seat firmly held by an Independant member and therefore not really of interest to either political party.

CONSPIRACY THEORY!

I'll shut up now :P

[DAVID PATERSON]

Originally posted by Mattracer
In this climate of street circuits, any upgrades to permanent circuits which benefit non-V8 Supercar competitors in future years should be encouraged.

Noble sentiment, but Bathurst isn't really a permanent circuit. It's actually a street circuit with permanet infrastructure and surrounding facilities.

Unfortunately, most classes don't get invited to compete at Bathurst and thus, all those club level competitors will never get to use these facilties or drive the most awesome track in the country.

[Growling Ferret]

David

I agree with you wholeheartedly.

Bathurst is a once (or twice) a year facility. BLCC gets to use bits of the tracks for hillcimbs and various sprint events maybe a dozen times a year - but very rarely was the pit complex used for any of these.

Personally, I'd prefer to see federal money going into permanent 365 day a year facilities, rather than a new pit complex at Mt Panorama.

On a different note, with the 10 or 20 million investment at Mt Panorama, what chance of the dunnies at the top of the hill being upgraded?

[Onlooker]

Think of how the money may have been spent by the government had it not gone to the track,
what 100 odd looking statues in country towns accross the country, change the paint scheme on the busses in one capital city,pay for a survey into the lack of 80 year people using the internet for downloading music? New tiolets etc are great if you are trying to appease the 10k or so that camp up the top but the new pit lane has the added atraction of Minister for Sport at both State and Federal level glad handing some drivers and teams and being filmed in the proccess,hey they may be opening it the weekend of the election.

[Mike_Wooshy]

f1 to barthurst !!!!! sorry :X

[mayhem]

Yeah, I think that it might be a Catch 22 situation, spend the money elsewhere and leave Mt Panorama as a twice a year (it's still twice isn't it?) track, or upgrade the pits and increase the chances of using the joint a handful of times each year.

[Growling Ferret]

Mt Panorama won't be closed as a 6.2km race circuit more than once or twice a year - the residents would whinge too much...

There are about 50 households around the circuit - unfortunately, not all are massive motorsport fans...

[racer69]

Originally posted by louonline
As for TC, love him or hate him, he is a smart operator out to make a quid like anybody else. Obviously he can see the value of the Mount otherwise he wouldn’t have locked himself/AVESCO into a ten year deal.

What does the 10 year agreement really mean though?

If the pits weren't touch, does anyone actually think AVESCO would seriously risk not going there? or;

If AVESCO did go, that despite what has been bandied around that this has saved the race and the place, that the Bathurst 1000 or the track would go by the wayside, of course not.


On opening it too much, isn't there a law that states the place can only run too race meetings a year, or only be closed a certain amount of days a year?

[louonline]

Originally posted by racer69
What does the 10 year agreement really mean though?

If the pits weren't touch, does anyone actually think AVESCO would seriously risk not going there? or;

If AVESCO did go, that despite what has been bandied around that this has saved the race and the place, that the Bathurst 1000 or the track would go by the wayside, of course not.


On opening it too much, isn't there a law that states the place can only run too race meetings a year, or only be closed a certain amount of days a year?

No. AVESCO didn't save the Mount, as I said TC is a smart operator, he locked himself in before somebody else did.
And no, the "Eastern Creek 1000" doesn't quite have the same ring to it as the "BATHURST 1000" !
DITO FOR phillip Island.
I've been told that by 2006 Bathurst will be able to stage up to five full meetings per year.
If one of them is the B24 I'll be happy.

[pplater]

A PROCAR/V8 Sprint round a-la Clipsal to kick off the season...

[racer69]

A V8 Sprint round has been tried before (1995 and 1996), and failed.

Bring the bikes back at Easter

[Falcadore]

pplater: if AVESCO plans to only run two NSW events, they're not going to run both of them over an hour from their major population centre.

[HRT #1]

Originally posted by racer69
A V8 Sprint round has been tried before (1995 and 1996), and failed.

Bring the bikes back at Easter

As I recall the bikes has been tried before at Easter and it to failed aswell just like the 2 litres and every other second Bathurst race that has been held their in the past.

[Falcadore]

Depends on defination of failure. The Twelve Hour failed mainly because beauracracy and administration got a little out of control. The 12 Hour race was pretty much a success, giving us those brilliant Mazda vs Porsche battles, it just got to big to handle.

Funny you should describe the Easter bikes a failure as it lasted for well over a decade and in the end was only stopped I think after the massive crowd rioted one night, leading to some crazy beer restriction in October in the mid 80s.

But I wonder - if there hadn't been such an air of animosity about a second Bathurst weather a ST race might have lasted longer? The whole poisonous 'they are bad' campaigning was just about the most disgusting performances, from both sides, in the sports history.

[bestfit]

Funny you should describe the Easter bikes a failure as it lasted for well over a decade

Actually the bikes raced at Bathurst for over 6 decades, 57 years at Mt Panorama.

1931 - 1937 Vales Circuit.
1938 - 1994 (+2000 one off revival) Mt Panorama.

I attended ecery meeting from 1971 to 1994

[275 GTB-4]

Originally posted by HRT #1
As I recall the bikes has been tried before at Easter and it to failed aswell just like the 2 litres and every other second Bathurst race that has been held their in the past.

Bikes at Bathurst were just awesome - not to mention the sidecar boys - whoo hoooo!

[Crash Test]

But the latest incarnation of the bike race died in the arse financially.

No where near enough people turned up to the 2ltr races, and did anyone actually see the Mazdas racing the Porsches? The racing was super, but events just don't happen if they keep taking dollars out of the promoters pockets, and sadly, it costs an awful lot of coin to do anything at Bathurst. Wasn't it floated recently to have a club/historic meeting at Bathurst, but basically canned because of the mega cost of running a meeting there. Maybe that would change when everything is done and finished. Will the BCC drop the rent though??...

[mayhem]

I assume the costs that you talk about are Council costs Crash Test? Or is it added expenses like insurance etc?

[DAVID PATERSON]

I was told that it's much more expensive to hold a meeting at Bathurst than other tracks because in addition to hitring the track, you also have to hire the pits, the medical centre, the control tower, scrutineering etc. These are all separte hires with separate fees. Though i have also heard that some other tracks are now trying to pull the same stunt.

[louonline]

Hi David,
I don’t know what the hiring fees are but I don’t doubt that by its very nature it's much more expensive to hold a meeting at Bathurst than other tracks. I would imagine that there is no set fee to stage an event. I would say that the promoter and BCC sit down and come to a mutual arrangement.
I can see the merits in having separate fees for individual facilities to accommodate say a company wishing to shoot an advertisement using one facility.
I know the BLCC was hired the pit garages to hold a standing 400m.
In all fairness you can’t really compare ‘hiring fees’ for Bathurst with any other track in Australia. You would have to compare it with its counterparts in other parts of the world.
It would be interesting to know just how it compares.

[racer69]

Originally posted by bestfit
Actually the bikes raced at Bathurst for over 6 decades, 57 years at Mt Panorama.

1931 - 1937 Vales Circuit.
1938 - 1994 (+2000 one off revival) Mt Panorama.

I attended ecery meeting from 1971 to 1994

If a return of bikes only isn't viable, then can some headway be made into the insurance problems which currently seem to prohibit 2+4 race meetings.

Until what, 1972 or 1973, the Easter weekend was a combined Bikes/Cars affair, running from memory onto the Easter Monday.

It will no doubt be argued Bathurst isn't suitable for bikes, but it can be argued if it has ever been suitable for bikes, but Bathurst is easy stuff compared to the TT course on the Isle of Man.......How good would it be to see a return of the Bathurst TT, the Arai 500 etc.........