hey Darren,Is the reason for the short track (1000 ft.), the same as over here, safety? Is it gonna be 1000 ft. at some tracks, and not others? Can you fill me in a little bit, about racing in Australia. Like number of tracks, attendance, sponserships. Is it ran better than over here, in your opinion? Have they had the racing tragedies we've endured over here? Other than knowing the fans over there are very enthusiastic, I'm not really up on the racing over there.Thanks. P.S, do you have a John Force type racer over there.
You wouldnt believe it, I just spent the last hour writing a post that covered all your questions hit submit and my computer went into meltdown so here it is again.
Calder is long but no trap/net and no wall past 1400 ft on the right. 1000 ft is the right decision to get racing back in 'the sporting capital of Australia'. Adelaide is holding the first 1000 ft ANDRA sanctioned event in Australia next month which is part of the pro series (our version of Full Throttle series)
Pro series consists of TF (10 cars) TA (both floppers and FC) Doorslammer (Pro mod) (20 cars), Top Bike (both twins and 4 cyl) Pro stock (smaller cubes) (16) and PSB which only has around 5 bikes these days. We run 6 or 7 rounds in most classes but some only run 4 or 5. The doorslammers have just started a series at regional tracks over the 1/8.
For the last 10 years we have only had 3 tracks the pros run at, WSID and Willowbank on the east coast and Perth to the west but it looks like we will have tracks in all 5 major cities by 2013.
Most of the pro guys get little help from sponsors and most run successful businesses that allow them to race and there are a lot of cars sitting out but hopefully that changes when we go truely national again.
Crowds vary, its hard to predict from one race to another, I have been to events where you cannot move but at the same time I have seen some small crowds in recent years. The biggest attendance I have seen was in melbourne in 95. There were 30 000+ on both Sat/sun but us Victorians will go watch anything. You gotta remember there are more people in LA than the whole of OZ.
NHRA do it so much better, fair enough you have 35+ fuel cars at an event but the way the NHRA come in and run the whole show is something we need to work towards. Dont get me wrong I love the racing back home but there is so much we can learn from the NHRA and I cannot understand why we havent thus far. Our shows go from 8 am to 10pm each day, the show is way too long. We gotta limit the amount of sportsman racers entering, thats the main difference. a quick show is a good show, give the crowd more bang for their entry!
We have had nowhere near the tragedies, Santos son lost his life years ago, thats what the 'in memory of Louie' refers to on his rear wing. We have had some bad crashes in the past five years but somehow they all walked away. But when you consider the small amout of races we do and the car counts that understandable.
Our Force would have to be Victor Bray (doorslammer), he knows how to look after his sponsors, he lost Castrol a couple of years ago but picked up Sidchrome tools. He is no household name but is the most popular racer. most other racers run a successful business. Some of the fuel teams have 1 maybe 2 full time guys but here its pretty much a hobby.
As for numbers, the fuel cars are running well now, 4.60's through to 90's with the occasional high .50 (1320) the funnys are starting to run into the 4's since Densham was here a few years ago. He run the first 4 @ 300 here. the doorslammers are running 5's more often than not. TA run 5.50's to get the number 1 spot.
That will do for now, Phoenix tomorrow. Feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer.
