it was revealed yesterday that there is plans underway for another street race for V8 supercars..Where ????
right in my home town of albury thats where :):)
some fella who obviously has too much money on his hands wants to hold a race through the streets of Albury and has already approached avesco and has had favourable response from them.
$5 million dollors is needed to kick start the track in its first year but the local economy will grow because of this event.. so far 4 possible tracks have been looked at and from what I have heard they are pretty good tracks..local driver Brad Jones supports the idea and all things going well they hope to have it on the calender for 2002.
my personal opinion is unsure at the moment..sure I would love a V8 race on the streets i use everyday but do we really need another street race..freemantle failed in their attempts to get a street race but yet canberra and adelaide have jumped at the idea..if it does happen it would probably spell the end of the winton round which is a huge shame considering the amount of money that has been spent on that track and it is only an hours drive from Albury so its not ahuge problem to get to each year.
But v8's in my home town would be a site to see and if it does happen i may even attend :)
at least our roads are a bit wider than the streets of canberra but whether anything comes of this onlt time will tell.
Crash Test
24 Nov 2000, 02:36
Tony Cochrane for president!
How many people do you think the race would get??
a bloody lot :)
look at the location..in the middle of Sydney and Melbourne..in the 2 cities of Albury/Wodonga there is at a rough guess a population of over 100,000 people and then there is the communities that are 10,15 or 20 mins away adding at least another 50,000 people..but as for spectators i would guess well over 100,000 for the 3 day event..not sure what other rounds get but look at winton which is in the middle of nowhere and they have had over 40,000 people to their V8 event which is an excellent effort so i would say being a reasonably large city we could get a very good crowd and we have pretty good facilities to hold an event such as this and believe me this town needs something like this to spice it up a little.
CHEERS
Marcus (maybe i should get on the "Albury want a V8 race board" :))
i wont go, i will sit under a pinetree in the winton cemetary and sulk....... :( :( :(
WINTON SHOULD LIVE WITH US FOREVER AND EVER, AMEN!
well this has gained huge momentum in just 24 hours..from a little story in thursdays paper to front page and then a 2 page wrtie up in todays "border morning mail"
gomick..according to mick ronke (promoter of winton) this albury thing will have no long term effect on the winton round (this remains to be seen)
I was amazed at the write up today..this paper never covers motorsport that well..allthough this year we did get a bathurst lead up all about nathan pretty and brad jones and an after race report of course..but 3 pages for it today was great to see and it stirred some debate at work.
TV reports have also been used in all our local news reports and if nothing else it has sparked community interest in motorsport.
anyway todays paper went on about funding to stage the race and the "economic boon" for our local community and all the genral rigmarole that goes on with this kind of thing..the organizer a Tim farrah has stated that the track would stay away from residential areas and would not include part of the Hume highway that runs through our city..the highway thing is fine but non residential area..come on if its a street race then ya have to have some form of residency in my books ..but who knows.
local v8 driver nathan pretty got wind of this and took out his road car and went for a spin to work out what he thinks would be an acceptable track..he feels we should showcase the main centre of albury using part of our main street and the surrounding areas..and this is what he has come up withhttp://www.zyworld.com/karma_racing/alburytrack.jpg
this looks pretty (pardon the pun) damm good to me and he has even added estimated speeds for the V8's
of course this is just nathan's idea of a track around our streets and as far as we know is not actually being considered..but after seeing it the people behind the bid just may look into it a bit more..saturday morning i shall get up and take a spin around nathan's proposed track and see what it is like..but as I use these roads every day it sounds like a good idea to me.
BRING ON THE V8's
well i drove around nathan's proposed track today and i must say it would be an exciting one allthough alot of work needs to be done ..for example the council have spent alot of money installing speedhumps along our main street which is dean street as well as traffic islands so obviously they would have to be removed..it is quite bumpy even in my road car so resurfacing would need to be done but it is wide and give plenty of opportunity for overtaking with right angled corners ..also the pit area may need alot of work because as that stands at present it is Kmart and a heap of other buildings so im not sure how that would work ..but it sure would make a pretty good track.
Not another bloody street race. O.k, why dont we close all the permenant facilities in Australia, so all the races can be street races.
Locally, Mallala is on the brink of closure, because of the Adelaide street race and if the Fremantle thing goes ahead, that will spell the end of circuit racing in the west, as Wanaroo will most certainly close.
Two street races are more than enough!!!!!
redback
27 Nov 2000, 14:36
I agree completely with gomick and hoffy, we don't need another street race. They obviously provide a load of money for the promoters but do nothing for the long term of Australian motor sport.
We need permanent tracks for the new crop of drivers coming through. It is hard enough to get on the tracks for testing now because of the driving schools and big V8/GTP teams teams booking the tracks. Although this provides enough money to cover their costs the tracks need the big promotional events like V8 races to make it worthwhile owning them.
Cochrane will destroy the basis of the sport and when he has made enough money he will leave the mess behind him.
I totally agree guys..when I first heard of this I didnt think that it was a good idea and in some ways (mainly the ones you have pointed out) I still agree..but to have V8's running through the streets of my home town would be good so if it does happen then Im right behind it..but I still agree that there is no need for more street races at the expense of purpose built race tracks..i would be very upset to see Winton loose its round if Albury gets the go ahead and i believe that would be the case..i guess we will have to wait and see.