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What Do We Want A Street Race For Anyway? |
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Jody Seabright V8s racing around the city streets. I’m struggling to remember a time when motorsport has been in the mass media focus as much as it has been this year. The surprise this time is that the majority of the reporting has been positive on the motorsport side of the ledger. For once. From the history of the Nissan Mobil street races in Wellington, the potential was that once again motorsport would be portrayed as a dirty, noisy, smelly event that has no place in the streets. Now 8 years later things are rather different. There are a number of councils and other organisations round the country all climbing over themselves trying to get in on the action. The mass media is now telling the public that motorsport is a desirable sport to be involved with. With the positive response to the NZ V8s as well, we’d better make the best of the positive publicity while the sun shines, before the clouds gather again. However as far as a street race in Auckland goes, I do agree that the proposed circuit wasn’t going to work, not only for the disruption to Auckland, but also for access by the paying punters, ie us. Ironically the most criticism that I’ve heard about that proposal was from motorsport people, with non-motorsport people being the ones who were in favour of it. The motorsport fraternity in general would rather see the money spent on temporary facilities being invested in a permanent circuit instead. Some of the focus has now turned to Wellington, where the legacy of the Nissan Mobil means that “Street Races” are a permitted activity and don’t need Resource Consent. A huge bonus according to IMG and AVESCO, for some reason. However Wellington City Council and others here haven’t been throwing themselves at the promoters to get the V8 Supercars. Many in the council, including the current Mayor Kerry Prendergast, remember all to well the issues that presented themselves last time. Overall, the reaction to reports that Wellington is now the front runner for a Street Race has been met with a somewhat muted response. It is only in the last few days that a web site has been launched to show support for a Wellington event. The council even sees themselves as being in a positive negotiating position, publicly saying that they are looking for a better deal than proposed before, and are now talking to two promoters for the Supercars. One is obviously IMG, and there is another yet to be named, but apparently with considerable experience in promoting major events. The other factor that has changed since 1996 is that most of the waterfront has been redeveloped and now can’t be used for a race track. That was the great advantage of the old track. Over half of it wasn’t public road and you could take your time setting it up over a number of weeks without upsetting anyone. Not so in Wellington now and even less so in Auckland. So there will need to be huge public support in order for them to be happy with the inevitable disruptions. However, the questions that have not been asked or answered to my satisfaction are. Why does Tony Cochrane, AVESCO, and IMG want a Street Race so much? Why are they forcing New Zealand to have one? The series lost Canberra a few years ago and it would appear (at face value anyway) that they are looking to replace that race somewhere. The apparent easy option is therefore to try to force NZ to have one of these things. Maybe we are seen as easy to beat up on. I remember that not so long ago Cochrane went public saying that it was going to be an Auckland Street Race or nothing for NZ. Full Stop, no negotiation. Well he has been conspicuous by his closed mouth in the last few weeks, and negotiations continue to find another venue. So things aren’t that cut and dried, and there is obviously a great desire to still to come to NZ. It appears that the main reason that motivates Cochrane et al is money. The cost to AVESCO for NZ to host a street race is nil, especially when you consider that TVNZ provides the coverage to them at it’s own cost. The cost to film a street circuit is more than double that of a permanent circuit, so you know why Channel 10 wouldn’t want to have another one on their doorstep that they have to cover the full cost of. Both Surfers and Melbourne are for higher profile events and the V8s are just the support races. Bathurst is now virtually a permanent circuit anyway. So what’s best for us? I believe that any NZ round or rounds are best held at a permanent circuit. This would mean a substantial investment required to upgrade the existing facilities at the track chosen, but then that can only be good for all of us, all year round. Many circuits already have plans to upgrade if they get the Supercars, including Manfeild. I would love to see Manfeild get an extreme make over and have the Supercars, especially when you consider that if/when the Hampton Downes track gets built near Meremere (between Auckland and Hamilton), then we will have two high quality facilities to attract more people to our sport. However when you consider the issues of a population base, proximity to accommodation, transport, and a shipping port, then my pick would probably be that Hampton Downes has the edge over Manfeild. We will wait to see how things pan out, and in the mean time take all the advantage we can of the positive publicity of our sport. |
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