In a different Speedway world we now find ourselves in what does the future hold, look at the divisions across WA some are flourishing some are stagnent and some are barely holding on. This brings me to a point I have raised on numerous occasions. What are we doing to foster the new generations into speedway and each division getting a slice of the pie. Realistically the WASCF have been the leaders for many years in Junior development and continue to do so. As for the rest of the divisions what are they all doing to get new blood and young guns into their division and sport, I say very little if anything.  Why isn’t each division setting up a junior development arm to work on putting together a program that will see young potential drivers being fostered and nutured.   Things like setting up a special junior division or even just mentoring and having these kids work with the teams to get  them involved.   It seems that while we have a junior sedan division everyone thinks that’s all we need, well times have changed and each division needs to look very closely about aligning themsleves with juniors or start developing them as eventually there won’t be too much stock to choose from in such a competitive market.

Regards

darren

After several seasons of Fast Friday racing at the Motorplex I would have thought that by now divisions would have grown significantly. Unfortunately they haven’t. Last meetings car counts in several divisions were very poor. 5 Street stocks, 5 Productions, 6 odd juniors, about 7 Super Six.  10 odd NOS cars and Sprintcars had reasonable fields. It makes you wonder if the concept is worth continuing with. I for one think it is a good concept but really with four and five cars racing around you would have to wonder. NOS is a great division that is growing and it’s the perfect place for them to grow.  There must be some underlying issue why the backbone divisions have poor car counts, if someone knows please share your thoughts.

darren.

Now that the big race is over for this season I will be meeting with the team next week to start work on next years event.  This years race was good and it was fairly well supported by the public next year will need to be different in a number of areas inclusing car numbers. To have 23 cars for such an inportant race is really P poor in my book. To the drivers who travelled over thanks, but alot more need to travel across to make the event what it should be. I expect next season there could be some changes to the race format and depending on car numbers only run it on one night or if it’s two have two big shows rather than a fast friday. To me the Fast friday did not add anything to the event.

To put together a $20,000 show is alot of work and to get sponsors for the event is hard work as in the current economic climate things are tough. You would think with that sort of money being put up the drivers would bend over backwards to continually thank the sponsors and mention them every chance they got. Unfortunately it didn’t happen and over the two nights drivers only mentioned them once.  So I ask you would you put up big money for an event when you can’t even get the basics covered off by the drivers.

That is my whinge onwards and upwards hopefully from here and not up in the air like the driver did on the weekend in the Shakerz Bakerz Patisserie, Valvoline, KCD, JPS Photography, SpeedSport Media, Wet Paint Signs Stealth. That wasn’t hard to mention sponsors now was it.

regards

Darren

With The Magic Man 34 being run this weekend, its been very interesting to see who really understands what its all about. The race is secondary in my opinion, its a time to celebrate the wonderful life of Michael Figliomeni and his feats both on and off the track. He was by far the greatest driver ever to leave the shores of Western Australia and arguably one of the greatest drivers of the modern era. When I hear people whinging and moaning about paying an extra $50 dollars for nominations or don’t like the format or don’t like certain cars, it really annoys the hell out of me. These same people don’t blink an eye tearing up a $230 tyre in a heat race they ran tenth in. This race is also the richest first place prize pool of any race in Australia. Don’t lose sight of what the race is for remember it’s to celebrate a magical life.

regards

darren

Well after a few technical issues I’m back on my blog. It’s been a big few weeks with the first meeting run at the Motorplex and next weekend we pay our respects and celebrate the life of the late Michael Figliomeni. A few guys from the east coast are travelling across which is great and we have around 20 of our own cars. A good field of cars but not as many as we would like for such a big event. National television coverage, the richest first place prize pool in Australia bar none. Still we can only get 22 cars. Is this a reflection of the economic times, not enough races around this event here in WA.  Has the governing body of Australia got some work to do to try and make big meetings more co-ordinated, maybe.  At the end of the day the event will be an awesome event and who wins it will certainly deserve it.

Cheers Darren