PROGRESS on running a QLD event .

[hawkwind racing]

so ,when is it going to happen ???, what sort of $$ are we talking about for the insurance ?? need some advance notice not pushing ,really
cheers gary

[David Leikvold]

Gary, at our last get together at Don's we were told that the council needed a $1,000 deposit to ensure we didn't damage the relatively fragile surface of the airstrip (it's not drag strip quality, apparently it's a softish tar sprayed over fine blue metal or similar) so no burnouts or we lose the grand. Presumably we'd also lose the grand if a car rolled and chewed into the surface.
After poor old Bob Ellis drove himself mad for weeks hunting for insurance, the best quote for only the ONE day was $6,000. I kid you not. The council will NOT let us run without insurance and we can only have one day, twice a year. That means if we only got 20 entrants to pay up each one would have to part with $350 to race carefully over only one kilometre for one day. I can't really remember what our start and finish times were but for the purpose of argument let's say 8 hours. With only 20 starters and no delays (aircraft movements and such) we'd each be getting maybe a run an hour with each run costing about $40. If we had double the entries we'd get half the runs so the cost per run wouldn't change. Half a dozen runs isn't much of a deal for our interstate friends. While we certainly haven't given up on the idea we really need to find a much better deal on the insurance before we can start sending out invitations.

[Greg Watters]

Costs are similar to the Streetfighters forum gathering at Casino airfield
There were around 50 bikes running and had lots of runs, i was being fairly casual about it and still had 6 in the day, lots of time spent tuning and adjusting between runs.


$350 isn't that bad, a days dragracing can cost that much..

How soft can the surface be ?? most roads are just tar on bluemetal ??

[David Leikvold]

Greg, now that you ask, I don't know. Apparently the council people made a point of saying no burnouts because they were concerned about the surface being ripped up. Don't quote me, but I think someone who'd been to look at the airstrip (probably Don Noble or Bob Ellis) said it was a fairly thin covering but I can't be sure. Maybe the council knows something we don't or maybe the surface is as strong as an ordinary road and their concerns are unwarranted.
As for the cost, I haven't raced for many years and so I've lost touch with current prices. If that's about the going rate then so be it. Still seems like a lot of money for just one day. I guess I'll just have to stop thinking it's too much! One of the reasons I decided to go salt racing was that it I thought it couldn't be terribly expensive to only race once a year. The other was I wanted to go much much faster than I'd ever done before!

[Lynchy]

Dave

The surface at Warwick isn't bad but wouldn't hold up to a sustained static burnout. Either would a public road for that matter! The council didn't want burnouts as it would mark the piano keys (white painted sections at either end of the runway) + the potential to hurt the surface. They were also not keen on high speed turns as this too would rip up/ have the potential to rip up the surface.

Lynchy

[momec]

I also think we are in a holding pattern because its too close to the Lake G event to plan an airport thing. Once Lake G is resolved or done we will re look at Warwick.
Warwick requires a minimum of 2 months notice to council.
Burt never gave up.
We'll race some bloody where
Chris