2012 National Calendar

Here:
http://www.thenationals.com.au/news/760/2012-Nationals-calendar-revealed
July and September is the goss

There was talk of Phillip Island and Queensland Raceway now that it has been resurfaced.

Rd 3...Bathurst??? :)

[quote author=Nat22 link=topic=1475.msg14160#msg14160 date=1320732150]
There was talk of Phillip Island and Queensland Raceway now that it has been resurfaced.
[/quote]

That would be sensational. Bring it on.

[quote author=ABR link=topic=1475.msg14142#msg14142 date=1320705435]
3 round championship would be great..

Rd1 Eastern Creek
Rd2 Phillip Island
Rd3 Queensland Raceway/Sandown

QR has just been re-surfaced..

I think the 3rd round would be awesome as it gives competitors the extra chance of getting a good result if they had a disastrous weekend ...
[/quote]
+1

[quote author=ABR link=topic=1475.msg14168#msg14168 date=1320734348]
QR is great, especially now that its resurfaced ...

The best part with QR is that spectators can see the whole track, its fast and i think from a marketing point of view would be great to showcase our sport ...

I would love to see 3 rounds, and each round in Vic, NSW and QLD would be fair for all competitors i would think ..



I am not sure the good folk from SA would agree there Ant

Ant I am all for a 3rd round because it would help to get over a DNF as well as the enjoyment you get out of race weekends. But the biggest problem for most people is the cost to travel ontop of the other costs of racing, so you could be sure that the final round would struggle for numbers, it is unfortunate but true I believe

We have tried the lot over the years, 1 Round, 5 Rounds(one in each State),3 Rounds and then back to 2. The problem with the three rounds is that the last round suffers and ends up with a low entry, if people have a bad run in the first two they decide to save money and not go. The only way round it is to pay the entry for the 3 rounds up front, something that a lot of the people can't afford so they don't enter at all. Lets leave it at 2 for the next couple of years and see if the sport keeps on growing and we get back to the fields like we used to have.

Feedback from the meeting to me has pretty much been it was great.

Whilst I don't race at these meetings, I organise race meetings and I believe a 3 round series would only harm the State clubs. There's a big flow on effect. Whilst it couldn't be helped, 2 clubs suffered badly because a National round was on the same weekend. 3 rounds only increase the chances of more clashes and poor numbers for the State clubs.

Whilst a limited few can afford to race all the time, the majority are working to a budget. If those on a budget decide to miss State club events to save more money for Nationals, the State club suffers.

I don't know what it's like in other states but in NSW numbers talk and the rest walk. If a State club constantly produces low numbers, they'll eventually get the boot from that promoter. If the state club has only minimal meetings, the majority of people then say why do I pay for a licence, pay for membership, pay for this and pay for that, then leave the sport.

Without the State clubs thriving, the Nationals will die. From my experience in dealing with promoters, leave it how it is. 2 meetings. In the next few years if the state clubs increase, maybe they can afford to take a hit on losing numbers as they'll have more to support the club events.

Congratulations to the winners of 2011, and all who participated and made it happen.

Cheers
Wayne

Hi Ant

Yes it can get pretty cut throat with everyone pushing for meetings. I suppose its just the way it is these days as it all revolves around how much money categories can put in promoters pockets. We're lucky in NSW as the numbers are good and we're now a wanted category.

You see at some meetings here we all pay the same, but say, we could have 25 entries at x amount od dollars each, another has say 10 at the same dollars, you can see how the lower number clubs begin to skate on thin ice.

Hope to see back down here soon :)

Ok then, if not more rounds then more laps, 42 laps is a joke for a national title held over 8 nights away from home. When we went to NZ in 09, we did 34 laps in half a day and a 15 lapper at the end of the day with an hour lunch break. (all in one day, gearbox and non gearbox). Optional practice was on the Saturday from mid day till 4 pm.
I spent less doing that including frieghting the kart over than this year doing our Nationals.

We need to break away from car events and have non and gearbox back together I think. We will always be a low priority to cars from a promoters view regardless of what they say to your face.

We should have races for each class too, perhaps 15 mins each and that is how many laps you get.
Inters and Nationals=10 laps.
125 gb= 9 laps
Non gb =7 laps
Everyone then has a 45 min turn around time. Maybe you would get 6 races in the one weekend, practice and qualifying aswell on the saturday meaning Friday practice isn't needed and nor is an extra day off work or an extra days accommodation.
2 good mates of mine are buying 250's at the minute and coming into the sport and the first thing they said at the nationals last sunday was, "you don't get much seat time do you?". I think this needs to be worked on majorly and quickly.

On a saftey note, I though Mark Jones was going to have a baby over the mic in the final when Jamieson and Hossack were heading to turn one and there was a 3 kart wide wall of slower karts blocking the track.
This is one of the reasons we don't run at club events. The speed difference is massive.

Natt22 & Rotax 111, you hit the nail right on the head.

Safe.......If only. and at least not for three years at best.

At Lakeside Ron Moore basically run the Qld. show in the late 1980's early 1990's

For an entry fee of $55.00 we had the track solely for Superkarts

running separate 80cc, 125cc and 250 races,

with a combined feature event at the end of the day.

I know I'm talking about "THE GOOD 'OL DAYS"

When I transfered to NSW racing with the club there was much the same,

we did our own flags, sharing this chore.

Sure we had some race meetings we shared with Gemini's, even Trucks at Oran Park

Would this work now though ?

The cost of insurance is so much higher now, if it existed at all back then.

The promotors are after much more money these days,

instead of running the racing on our own.

You all have ideas, but what is practicle these days ?

i think it would be great to have our own race meetings im all for it. But the big question is how do we make it happen? do we invite other classes if so who? what track/s would you use but i think its a great idea see if we can make it happen

We do it in Vic when we race at Winton and Calder as you have seen Jay. They also do it in SA so it is possible and still happens

matt that was a shit meeting for me (keep breaking chains and then broke a reed, then brokek the engine mounts seat mounts and the engine tensioner) but i reckon we had more fun the night before running a muck through town i really would nt mind speaking with my other partner in crime from that weekend and coming back down for another race meeting and doing some more running a muck.

On a saftey note, I though Mark Jones was going to have a baby over the mic in the final when Jamieson and Hossack were heading to turn one and there was a 3 kart wide wall of slower karts blocking the track.
This is one of the reasons we don't run at club events. The speed difference is massive.
[/quote]

Bingo.......This Scott, is my greatest fear. Now that i'm Stock Honda-ing I know only to well the speed differencial, It is dangerously large. Also as stated, we can seriouly ruin some poor b*stard's 250 title on the dieing laps.
Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world and I don't have the answers but if we did we would have our own day with our own divisions.
BTW...Wayne is right about how more national rounds would effect club round numbers adversely.

[quote author=Nat22 link=topic=1475.msg14191#msg14191 date=1320751292]
We have tried the lot over the years, 1 Round, 5 Rounds(one in each State),3 Rounds and then back to 2. The problem with the three rounds is that the last round suffers and ends up with a low entry, if people have a bad run in the first two they decide to save money and not go.
[/quote]

[size=16pt]+1[/size]

I remember very well, agreed from all clubs that the 3rd round always copped it bad, the 1st round always had the most entries.
So we went from 3 rounds to 1 round, each state got it's turn to try an make money, till some state clubs didn't have the finanace to fund a Championship, so other states took it on their behalf (with blessing of host state) .......... and we have now ended up where we are now........due to costs and availability of a CAMS "Champion" Status.

I liked the idea of this years NGB "Nationals" status, share the profits pro-rata by entries per state. 2 rounds per year of sharing the wealth fairly to all clubs should surely bring us all back together in one place with some separated classes??

Maybe the point score needs to be looked at so a DNF does not mean that it's virtually impossible to claw back in 8 race heats over 2 meetings? Now that's possibly an argument for another day.... :D

[quote]BTW...Wayne is right about how more national rounds would effect club round numbers adversely.[/quote]

And from discussions held at our club meeting last night NSW [i]could[/i] be very adversly affected.

ALL of you are still members of YOUR State clubs. Now YOUR committees sit down with promoters and or circuits and make booking and commitments that COST real dollars.
For example, we buy time with PIARC for a certain amount of dollars per round. This means to NOT LOOSE YOUR money we need a minimum commitment from YOU to enter. If for example we agree to pay someone $5,000 to race if only ONE of you turn up and pays a couple of hundred entry YOUR club pays the balance. Same with booking a circuit. And to be fair the same goes for SKA. In Vic for this year we've cut the number of meetings and have increased our entry fee partially because many "only race the Championships" and may do one or two test days.
This is great incentive to build our sport with new members who will take much longer to get off their P plates and enter a Championship event.
We pay a deposit NOW (in the case of Vic for 6 rounds) and hope like hell YOU our MEMBER may turn up.
Clubs don't ask for a pre registration fee or an entry form to be filled out now. Now we just sit there and wait while you make your mind up.
We (the clubs) have made our commitments and booking right now. Without knowing for sure the SKA Championship dates.

I keep hearing "all we want to do is race" but when someone tries to lift the bar and make sure everyone plays nice we're branded Aholes and P...ks.
Rockstars...........

If you want to only race ten of your mates keep going the way you are.

Now SERIOUSLY go and ask yourself who gives what and when back to YOU the member?


Just remember one thing. CLUB MONEY is YOUR money.

Right, spray over. I feel much better now.
:)

Better move this now Mike.

Ant maybe you should compete at all the state rounds in your state ( and even a couple interstate) and both the national rounds before you start pushing for 3 national rounds just to have some of an idea of the level of commitment required to race and not just do pratice days. Mate I am not having a go but just pointing out that you have not actually raced at any level and maybe you should hold back until you do, espeacially doing a full state series let alone a national campaign on top of it with a few interstate meets in between

Ant as I said mate I am not having a go and I know better than any one about a bad round at the Nats and trying to recover ( You cannot when your engine is f##ked) as has happened to me 2 years in a row at the second round. All I can say mate is have fun next year running as many rounds as you can and lets see how your year pans out and I hope for your sake it is better than my last 2 at Nat level. Although I have 1 kart that won it's class this year with a clean sweep of every race and a lap record at EC. Just a shame I was not driving it ;) ;)