Interesting lake

[gidge348]

Not sure if this has been discussed before but I have just been to see an interesting lake or series of lakes out of Carnamah in West Australia.
(Type “Carnamah West Australia” in Google earth)

http://www.carnamah.wa.gov.au/tourism/c ... yarra.html

Carnamah is a wheat belt town about 4-5 hours north of Perth and the lakes are the Yarra Yarra Lakes about 5 kms west of the town. There is good bitumen up to 1 km from the lake then a good gravel road, built for tourist busses as far as I can see to the lake edge.

The total lake system is about 25kms long 9kms wide but the main southern lake is big enough to get probably a 9 mile track with a bit of luck but most likely would only be suitable for short course and/or licensing runs.

…..But may be a viable backup or second race meeting (particularly for us in the west).

I tried to make discrete enquires at the local pub, but it was closed, the garage knew nothing and I didn’t want to contact the council or any authority without some authorisation from the club.

Carnamah is one of the hundreds of struggling farming towns in Australia and I am sure that the thought of say 500 or so hungry and thirsty salt lake members descending on their town for a week or so may be of interest to them?

I walked out from the southern car park to the edge of the good salt it was basically a thin crust of salt with probably 1-2 inches of black slop under that a hard surface definitely no good drive over.

There are farms and private property that abuts the lake all around I am not sure if there is a better way onto the lake but I am sure the council would know.

Obviously access onto the lake is paramount priority but if we could get the council on side they may be able to help in some way? Not sure worth an ask, considering if only 500 people only spend $100 each in the town over the week that would mean another $50,000 in the local economy……
I don’t mind contacting the council but don’t want to tread on any ones toes.

[David Leikvold]

G'day Gidge,
Good luck with that idea, the more salt racing in Australia the better. Not sure that you'd get many takers from the east coast but if you concentrated on getting Perth based racers from ALL forms of motorsport including the car clubs that already organise lap dashes and such you might be able to grow a good local following, especially if you made the event CAMS affiliated by using an existing car club as the organisers. There's no point reinventing the wheel. Don't bother with the DLRA rule book either, just let existing cars run what they normally would at any CAMS event. You might get a lot of bikes interested too, there isn't a bike rider in the world who doesn't desperately want to ride really really fast.

Why don't you start by getting in touch with the CAMS office in Perth first to see if there are any car clubs that do organise club race meetings. That would also mean that insurance for any event would be much easier to find. The tyranny of distance means you'd never be able to rely on any practical support from the DLRA as we're mostly from the east coast. I don't think that's such a bad thing, if you get local club support you'll be able to have face to face meetings with everyone involved and therefore be better able to achieve your aims. Good luck.