2011 Kerrick National Sports Sedan Series

[Phast Phil]

I note the following remark in a previous post for 2 SA teams

"Monterosso's old Escort was seen going in to be Dynoed last week with the new SR20 engine, Simon Longhurst's Cosworth Turbo is having a blown head gasket repaired".

We are now one week out from a local meeting for these 2 teams. Last time I dyno'd an engine it took us 2 days and one more to put it back in the car ready to drive out the shed.
Last time I blew a head gasket I with the help of my and Dean Randle's crew (yes some teams do help each other at the track) we changed it one Saturday evening and then we raced reliably and competitively on the Sunday.

Am I missing something here? How long does it take some guys to change a set of spark plugs......2 weeks?

For what it is worth for the locals it will be at least 12 months before we are back in town. In the meantime there is no dedicated sports sedan racing in SA judging by past observations.

I think maybe for next year the best system would be for each of the state bid for a race or 2, whether they be one off high visability events (like MCM) or a joint State/National event with the Shannons series. I see no other viable events as options unless we all become very wealthy all the sudden and can afford to do 6 Supercar events. I doubt if they would want us as they will have sports sedans of their own next year. I still think they have paid us the ultimate compliment. In order to bid successfully I foresee minimum entries numbers being fulfilled and some profit share going back to the state associations. In this instance then either Mallala or the SA sports sedan association (not one started yet) would have to do something pretty special to get a date. Mallala via Clem do something special now but I do not see it passing the minimum numbers test for 2012.

[MrBoost]

that sounds awesome

[Topgear]

Firing shots into people doesn't encourage them...
I agree that local SA competitors should do more, but people have other commitments besides motorsport...
They can be business, family, or financial...

Also keep this in mind... why should local competitors push themselves to enter an event with a much higher entry fee, to get in the way of faster national cars, probably be told to look in their mirrors!!!, to run around mid pack to last...?
When they could pay a third the price or less, take the family away for the weekend interstate, with a group of competitors that welcome their involvement, at a track they hardly ever go to...

People need to remember that Clem has done a great job and its not fault of his own, but local competitors can only be excited to race around the same track for so long... We have had no other track in SA for 2 decades, so to be blatantly honest... we're more excited to go and race at your tracks than we are to race here!
If you had chocolate cake for desert for 20 years you'd be sick to death of it!
Then some says pay 3 times the price and ill put some ice cream with it, you still wouldn't be excited!?

What your are asking local people to do next week, we can do any time for $195, $50 for a garage, in a very casual relaxed atmosphere and have some fun...
And trust me, its still hard to get guys to do this!!

Me personally, I love the Clem Smith cup and that the main game comes to town! And I am sorry I cant be there to support the event... I wish there was 30 cars all driving over the top of each other to get to the front!

But other local competitors... honestly... if the big guys didn't come back... I don't think it would bother them...?
What do they miss out on? The opportunity to pay a higher entry fee, get pushed around and get in the way... There not going to miss that...

The change of date killed potential competitor entries, not the local competitors...

Some people may view this as an argument but its not...
Honestly, I'm giving "feedback and informing" the national category and competitors of the "reason" why there isn't a local contribution when the series comes here...

Maybe the National series needs to ask itself, why wont local competitors come and race at their local national event...? And what can we do to encourage them to do so...?

I know local guys here were put off by the entry fee for starters...
Sorry but its the truth...

[Phast Phil]

Firing shots might not encourage them but it appears that it does bring the truth to the surface.

I have not had one team or commentor say the entry fee is too high, just a plethoria of other fabricated excuses.

If you get a garage for $50 at a local event then why do they charge me $165? As for entry fees I could always look at our profit margin and see if we could gift something back....except for one minor problem...there is no profit margin, only a loss margin and that has been the case at Mallala for some years. If we did get 30 cars, or even 24, then we would be able to reduce the price but the fact the locals do not enter only exaserbates the situation, and then they complain it is too expensive. The old chicken or the egg situation.

As for racing on the Eastern state tracks I think the last time a SA car appeared would have been Mick Monterosso about 6 yeras ago. I gotta tell you the fuel cost of transporting there is more than the premium entry fee for a televised Nationals event at Mallala.

I do get the one track only issue. In Queensland we only had one track for years (Lakeside) and then that closed and we only had QR for years and the AASA took that over and there was no competitive CAMS events and now we only have Morgan Park. Fortunately (except for QR) they were all awesome tracks and as it was what it was we dug in and raced there as the alternative was to have no track. That is possible in SA....no track. Clem is mortal after all (we think) and if someone was to buy Mallala and expect a return on investment it may not happen, or not without a big increase in entry fees etc.

What I am grateful off is the fact that I finally get some genuine honest feedback that some people do not want to pay much to go motor racing or cannot pay much to go racing. I wish they would tell me that as opposed to a fabricated reason as I would prefer an honest answer and there is no need to be embaressed about that. Unfortunately the real world at the moment is not catering for these people. I do the job of managing the Nationals at outlays cost only, I have cut back on as many expenses as possible and we are the lowest entry fee in the Nationals. If we are lucky we will break even this year so I cannot do any more than that. Yes it would be different if I could rely on 30 cars per race meeting and that is obviously the direction we need to take for 2012, so we will have to go where the numbers and local support is.

[MrBoost]

so if we are going for numbers what are the biggest rounds consistently?

I am guessing kerrick stipulates that the series must be on tv?? as this would limit the amount of 'big numbers' meetings we can choose to go to such as island magic (which is fair enough from a sponsors point of view).

from my memory we seem to always have a great turn out to eastern creek and sandown?
morgan park is relatively new to the series but had a great response last year.
wakefield at national level has been up and down. I think national guys dont like to bother with such a tight slow track but the core still enters who are chasing points. At the moment you would probably get a fair amount of nsw state cars go to a shannons round as we have 5 or so cars that would mix with the top 10ish. I dont know about the rest though unless it was a state joined round. I dont think the others would pay the bigger entry fee just to run at the nationals.

phillip island is probably likely to get an ok amount as people love this track, im sure there would be a bigger amount though if it was joined with the island magic weekend but then there would be no tv.... it is also a round of the vic state series.

winton will no doubt be large due to the state meeting again being in conjunction with the nationals. I think that would be a possible meeting that could easily survive. You have a slight chance of some nsw state guys turning up as well as we dont often get a chance to run at winton.

Heres a question for phil, i know if your a state based competitior chasing state points and its a joint round you pay the state fee instead of the national fee. What happens if your a state competitor from nsw going to winton. Do you pay the natioanl fee as you arent part of the vic state series? (which would be fair enough).

So what could replace mallala? Sandown? If we could retain MCM? though would we then remove the joint state/ national eastern creek? i dont think the national series would want two rounds at the same track even if it means large fields both times?

ohh i nearly forgot about bathurst! though the entry fee thing needs to be sorted. The nsw guys were told it would be around $1000 which seems to be different to what the national committee was told? your guaranteed numbers from all over but i think would definately need some system in place to stop dust covered cars coming out and crashing/breaking down all over the place. Is this round televised?

im a little out of the loop, what IS a national entry fee at the moment?

[MrBoost]

so if we are going for numbers what are the biggest rounds consistently?

I am guessing kerrick stipulates that the series must be on tv?? as this would limit the amount of 'big numbers' meetings we can choose to go to such as island magic (which is fair enough from a sponsors point of view).

from my memory we seem to always have a great turn out to eastern creek and sandown?
morgan park is relatively new to the series but had a great response last year.
wakefield at national level has been up and down. I think national guys dont like to bother with such a tight slow track but the core still enters who are chasing points. At the moment you would probably get a fair amount of nsw state cars go to a shannons round as we have 5 or so cars that would mix with the top 10ish. I dont know about the rest though unless it was a state joined round. I dont think the others would pay the bigger entry fee just to run at the nationals.

phillip island is probably likely to get an ok amount as people love this track, im sure there would be a bigger amount though if it was joined with the island magic weekend but then there would be no tv.... it is also a round of the vic state series.

winton will no doubt be large due to the state meeting again being in conjunction with the nationals. I think that would be a possible meeting that could easily survive. You have a slight chance of some nsw state guys turning up as well as we dont often get a chance to run at winton.

Heres a question for phil, i know if your a state based competitior chasing state points and its a joint round you pay the state fee instead of the national fee. What happens if your a state competitor from nsw going to winton. Do you pay the natioanl fee as you arent part of the vic state series? (which would be fair enough).

So what could replace mallala? Sandown? If we could retain MCM? though would we then remove the joint state/ national eastern creek? i dont think the national series would want two rounds at the same track even if it means large fields both times?

ohh i nearly forgot about bathurst! though the entry fee thing needs to be sorted. The nsw guys were told it would be around $1000 which seems to be different to what the national committee was told? your guaranteed numbers from all over but i think would definately need some system in place to stop dust covered cars coming out and crashing/breaking down all over the place. Is this round televised?

im a little out of the loop, what IS a national entry fee at the moment?

[Phast Phil]

I wish I could nominate a "consistent" round, track or event. I would have said Oran Park and or Eastern Creek in the past but every now and then even those events let us down. Sandown should be gold but same there, every now and then low entries. Even your famed Phillip Island has been weak once or twice.

Yes, our sponsor wants TV and pays for it. Is that good for us? Well it is better for the teams as you have a marketing angle for potential sponsors a opposed to no TV. Are the entry fees higher at Nationals televised events despite the sponsor covering all TV cost? Yes it is because the fee charged on from the Nationals is a bulk category fee.

To do a simple analysis (ignoring series costs such as some transport and accomodation, trophies, minimal organising costs like postage and telephone, mobile internet fee and one or 2 other small items) each category gets charged about $16,500 per event. If you had 32 cars then this would equate to about $500 per car but at 16 cars it is obviously $1,000 per car. This year our entry fee is $858 per round including GST. obviously we need more than an average of 16 cars and preferably some rounds in the high 20's.

At 3 rounds that are joint Nationals / State rounds each state association will contribute $6,000. The state competitors who will only run the one round in their state (considered a state level only competitor) will pay their entry fee direct to their state association at whatever $ rate that their state association has decided on, but gnerally this is expected to be less than the normal nationals entry fee.

As for the MCM, there is no guarantee you will be asked again, hopeful...yes...but no guarantee. The only reason NSW SS were asked this time is another regular MCM category pulled out and they wanted a replacement with a very quick decision time offered.

I really do not want to go down the Bathurst argument again, if the offer was competitive, had TV and fulfilled out sporting regs requirement then it would be considered, but using up about 50% of our whole years budget at one event will not sustain our series.

One must also remember that any National series attracts a bigger CAMS fee including the track insurance and that is part of the reason that National events cost more than state events and why state events cost more than club events. Is it justifiable and does the risk and increased crowd numbers warrent such a significant increase??.........probably not but it is something I as an individual have no control over. So to hold a National event at a state event turns a state event into a National event and that will attract a bigger fee and that rolls on to a bigger entry fee. We are dependant on CAMS so try lobbying them to reduce the fees and we will all benefit.

The answer that is practised very well at some events in the USA, particularly speedway, is to get spectator bums on seats. I ventured over there earlier this year to experience an event that lost money for a couple of years but the promotors stuck with it feeling it had potential and now the stadium is full every night for the 5 nights running and is a non stop show that I thoroughly enjoyed. Over there that have some people called "promotors" and they operate their tracks dependant on spectators and they pay a prize purse at every event and the nominating teams pay little or nothing and can win money and cover some or all expenses. For some reason this does not happen in road racing in most of the world and we need to understand why and either accept that is the case or do something about it if the general concensus feels it could change. Whichever way you look at it the answer is spectators. Sponsorship can cover some of the void but they want a dividend for their outlay. So do spectators, they want to be entertained so we could all start there...lets entertain them.

[Ricey88]

For anyone that dosen't already have this, its the web address of the live streaming of mallala

http://www.itvlive.com.au/

I think it is only sunday, and it is live so remember SA time difference.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend in VIC and SA.

[Dasnowman]

Ricciardello on Speedcafe!!

Speedcafe - Ricciardello

:D

Dasnowman

[jd yort]

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend in VIC and SA.

Ditto, especially all the forum regulars.