A (Sort Of) Interesting Read

[zebra]

http://www.cams.com.au/en/Publications/Speadread/March_2011.aspx

Keys point is $9M funding for Eastern Creek to get the new upgrades underway.

[Messiah]

wonder if they could punt some of that money to making the place not stink like shit.

Minor gripe i know, but i almost felt awkward at superlap as the wind was blowing off the dump and across the track and i couldnt help but think "this smell must be making a great impression on the international drivers".

[Beer Baron]

well it still smells better than oran park does being next to pig farms. but no way known to remove the smell of eastern creek. it is a dump after all. ever wonder what 'the hill' is made out of?????

i wish they could have used the $9M to save oran park instead. I'd much rather have 2 circuits than one super duper circuit. and to be honest I'm not sure how great the new reverse layout is going to be. it removes a lot of character from the circuit. no more fast turn 1. instead it's long straight then hairpin. lame.

[zebra]

I agree there Baron, should keep the same anti-clockwise layout, just make it more interesting.

[phunky_monkey]

They'll be running multiple layouts won't they? It's not like we'll lose the original with it's quick turn 1, just have some more variety. At least it's a bit of variety, but I agree would have been good to have more circuits available by keeping Oran Park.

[bri73y]

I'm with The Baron on this one, why get rid of Oran Park ..?? it was only 15mins drive for me and a bloody good layout. OK the surface needed redoing, but such great variety in the one lap. The bloody housing estate could've been moved further inland to accomodate the track, shit they bought how many 100's of acres out there......

Eastern Creek is a great track, but a quick lap at Oran Park was way more satisfying as there's plenty of little sections within the lap to get it right!

[Beer Baron]

They'll be running multiple layouts won't they? It's not like we'll lose the original with it's quick turn 1, just have some more variety. At least it's a bit of variety, but I agree would have been good to have more circuits available by keeping Oran Park.

yeah they have multiple layouts but look at them. they are (permanently) changing the direction of the main straight so what is now turn 1 will be instead the last turn coming onto the straight. and what is currently T12 will now be T1 which is pretty much a double apex hairpin...

yeah brighty, I am still not over the loss of oran park. it was my favourite nsw track too. for all the shit facilities and all it's faults some of my fondest track memories were there. and like you said a lap of the GP circuit was like a roller coaster rids. when you were on the pace there for a good lap you fking knew about it!! a good lap there meant you were a bees dick off throwing it on the grass 3 or 4 times in the lap.

yes the bits in the nth circuit were bit 'dicky' with the stop and start 2nd and 3rd gear stuff but once you come up over the bridge balancing it on the throttle, then guide it in to the right-left S before getting back on it to get up the hill for the big left hander, then short shift in that short straight before you hold on over the flip-flop, run it down the hill as late as you can, on the brakes and turn in for the final corner and then slide it out to the wall on exit (fold your mirror in on the wall if you're good, or tap the quarter panel if you're not!), grab another gear as you get it straight and then blast it down the straight for another lap whilst wondering just how deep you can go through T1 this time and still pull it up for T2... not to worry though, plenty of run off at T2.....

sigh. I miss the place a lot. it was hard on cars and a long way to go for city slickers and in the afternoon breeze it smelt like pig shit but I would honestly swap it for eastern creek any day. eastern creek is a motorbike track and as such doesn't really have much soul in a car. yeah T1 gets your butt muscle clenched up in your stomach somewhere and there are some fun spots too but overall it doesn't have the same satisfaction that you get at oran GP circuit. there are only so many laps you can do there and still really enjoy it.

I feel badly let down by our government to be honest. Look at all the money they poured into WSID and as far as I can tell all it did was make more money for victor bray and his family and friends who he gave jobs and contracts to (not to mention his own fat salary).

Granted you could still argue WSID as a success but all it does is allow drag racing and burnouts which appeals to a limited group of people.

Oran Park on the other hand was a true multi-purpose facility with a very wide appeal. It was also an excellent location being far away from any residential or commercial properties so it's (negative) impact on the community was practically zero. I also have to question if what we really need is masses of low cost McMansions in Narellan when there is basically no infrastructure there to support it. There are no jobs out there, there are few schools out there, there is no train line there which means anyone living there will need to commute to work (in a car) and a long 1hr plus commute at that. This just adds more cars and more pollution.

When Oran Park was around it was the best motorsport facility in NSW. It had the GP circuit which offered racing to classes from basic track days, driving training up to V8SC races. Alternatively you could operate the sth circuit for racing or driver training and run the nth circuit at the same time for go karts or drifting. They also had a rally track used by rally schools, they had a off road motorbike track which was also heavily used and a 4WD course too (also heavily used). It also had a skidpan which was used for drift practice and driver education courses. Peter Finlay also ran his formula ford school there (which I attended and loved). So many different groups of people used and loved the place and yet even combined our needs where not even considered. You look at all the people who were deprived of a place to enjoy their motorsport. Rally drivers, off road 4WD drivers, Kart racers, drifters, club level circuit drivers, state level circuit racing (in dozens of classes and types) and even national level competition. Not to mention all the businesses like Finlay and rallyschool etc that operated out of the place.

What does eastern creek offer? 1 circuit with 1 layout. a skidpan. the peanut track. ummm. that's it. and now they want to destroy the character of that circuit too. so instead of one good circuit we'll have half a dozen worse ones. great plan.

I still think that $9Mil would have been better spent saving oran park and maybe even some change left to resurface the place. eastern creek is fine as is. it was oran park that needed some bloody money. with money spent oran park would have been a premier multi-purpose motorsport facility for years to come.

[JAS-25T]

Taking your emotion out of it Dick, yes, it is a poorly designed location for housing (OP), but spending $9Mil as opposed to making $X00Mil is aclear cut decision.

[Beer Baron]

yeah I know the owners of OP made the right decision for them but honestly sydney needs more housing in the sticks like we need a hole in the head. the problem is everyone wants to live within 20kms of the city. once you get out near narellan there is just no infrastructure to support huge developments like that. I mean it's a rural area, not the suburbs of the north shore.

i wonder how well the places out there will sell. I know there is a lot of people who can no longer afford to be in the sydney property market so maybe it will be attractive to some, but quality of life when you have to commute a total of 3 hours a day is questionable.

I just wish our government could have seen what a great place it was and what wide appeal it had. a huge cross-section of the community used the place and even those that didn't use it benefited. when you had a place like 'drifland' running open, affordable drift events every week people are far less inclined to try and practice their 3rd gear entries down at the local suburban street. having less people 'hooning' around is surely a good thing too. now these guys have no-where in sydney to practice. so if they want to do it they have to break the law.

Oran Park benefited a lot of people in a lot of ways. and aside from all that it was just a damn fun place to drive.

It should have been bought by the government a long time ago and run properly for the people of NSW. This state is so harsh on people speeding, or owning modified cars, or drifting etc but where the hell are they supposed to go? if we had a few tracks and some options I'm sure plenty more people would take their silvias etc off the road for good and use them only at the track. my guess is the government doesn't really want that as motor enthusiasts are an easy targert and a registered car generates rego income, defect fine income, speeding fine income etc. an unregistered track car generates $0 for the government.

Overall it's a pretty sad time to be a motor sport enthusiast in NSW. When I went to europe back in september to spend some days driving nurburgrin and Spa etc it makes me realise even more how bad things are here.

[phunky_monkey]

yeah they have multiple layouts but look at them. they are (permanently) changing the direction of the main straight so what is now turn 1 will be instead the last turn coming onto the straight. and what is currently T12 will now be T1 which is pretty much a double apex hairpin...

I haven't seen them, do you have a link? Can't seem to find them (must be going blind!). If that's the case then it's balls. Turn one is Eastern Creeks defining corner (along with corporate hill) in my books so I'm definitely glad I'll be doing a few days there over the coming months before the changes occur.

[LSX-438]

... why get rid of Oran Park ..??

Work it out:

5000 home sites x $300k

Get the calculator out... We're talking BILLIONS of bucks, and that's just land value. Imagine total money changing hands when you consider buildings and infrastructure for a whole new suburb. It's many many billions. Not to say the land owners got billions of dollars, but it's just about money.

[evil_weevil]

NSW Government should also stop doing the homebush 500 and investing X amount of millions and put it to EC or a new track

[Duncan]

yeah they were talking about axing the taxpayer 500 and putting the money to EC instead. good and bad to me.

Eastern Creek is run by the Arsehole rectum dickheads club and they are only interested in $$$$ not club motorsport. The ARDC president was perfectly clear about that at the CAMS club forum we went to.

We really need another track in NSW, I'm surprised no-one can make the numbers stand up.

We paid $8,400 to hire wakefield last week. $8,400 * say 350 days a year is about $3M a year income. Eastern Creek is about $20k to hire for the day, so $7M a year. Don't tell me no-one can make a profit on a track with those numbers.....

[Beer Baron]

yeah I agree dunc. it's bullshit. we need a new oran park somewhere. pouring more money into EC is not the answer and the new layouts don't really inspire me at all. I'd much rather leave EC as it is (there's nothing really wrong with it) and plough the money into something new.

it's sad to look back 30 years to see what tracks we had then to what we have now.

[badhairdave]

I don't think the issue is the numbers any more Duncan, I think it has more to do with getting it through the planning approval stage as the usual NIMBY attitude still prevails, even out in the sticks.

Look at all the issues Gary is having with residents around MDTC and that is well and truly in the middle of nowhere with very few residents even near the track. He at least managed to get it off the ground but for how long?

[wolverine]

I feel badly let down by our government to be honest. Look at all the money they poured into WSID and as far as I can tell all it did was make more money for victor bray and his family and friends who he gave jobs and contracts to (not to mention his own fat salary).

Pretty sure you have the wrong guy there BB.

[badhairdave]

Jim Reed rings a bell?

[Beer Baron]

my sincere apologies! I may have had one of australias top drag racers confused with some other bloke. hmm, let me just do a quick edit here...

funnily enough do a google on jim read and wsid and you get bits like this (take from the first result):

"THE Greens have called on the corporate watchdog on to examine the financial viability of the Sydney Dragway amid allegations of favouritism by the chairman of the board.

Australian drag-racing legend Jim Read has headed the board of Western Sydney International Dragway at Eastern Creek since it opened in 2004, after the NSW government paid $30 million of taxpayers' money to build it. He strongly denies any wrongdoing.

His wife Denise runs all the merchandising at the dragway and is responsible for sponsors' signage and logos - exactly the same sponsors she deals with in her similar role with her husband's Jim Read Racing team.

One of the drivers of that team is Mr Read's son, Phil Read, whose plumbing firm provides much of the maintenance for plumbing work at the dragway.

In the past his stepdaughter Monique has operated the public address system, stepdaughter Melissa has sold programs, son Luke has done maintenance and nephew Michael Ryan lived in a flat at the site to provide security.

A former director and accountant of the WSID, Ian Seckold, said: ''The joke at the track was that if your name wasn't Read you couldn't get a job here." - SMH

Another choice passage from the article gives you an idea of how read see's himself:

Mr Read has just returned from America where he was inducted into the Drag Racing Hall of Fame in Florida. He denies any suggestion of wrongdoing. ''This place wouldn't exist without me,'' he said.

The last financial return filed by the dragway, again for the year ending June 2008, showed that Mr Read collected a salary package worth a total of almost $160,000.

''I am the one who didn't go to work for seven years to get the place built,'' he said. ''There was no one else except my wife, she gave up seven years of her life to set up this place.''

boohoo, poor read on only $160K for a very cruzy job, and that package doesn't include any 'fringe benefits' either I'll bet. His salary wasn't enough so the board gave him an unsecured loan of $200K. and who is on the board? jims race team crew cheif, another mate (dept mayor of liverpool) and the blokes wife. not bad that in a year where they received only $220K in grants they loaned $200K of it to Jim.

"One of the directors on the WSID board, which two years ago approved an almost $200,000 unsecured loan to Mr Read, is Robert Cavagnino, who is also the crew chief of one of Mr Read's racing teams. Also on the board is former NSW Labor Party staffer and deputy mayor of Liverpool Tony Beuk and his ex-wife Diane. Mr Beuk used his Labor connections to lobby for the government to build the raceway.

Ms Hale said: ''It rings alarm bells to learn that an employee of the Labor Party heads up a public company that receives ongoing government funding for the construction and operation of the dragway.

''WSID's manager, Tony Beuk, is still listed on the Labor Party's website as an employee of the NSW branch of the ALP."

Mr Beuk signed off the last financial reports for the not-for-profit organisation. The latest, for the year ending June 2008, shows that the dragway made a loss of $758,153. It also received a grant of $225,296 and at the same time loaned Mr Read $190,887."

I would love to know how that place runs at a nearly $800,000 loss when it charges such exorbitant prices for hire, claims that it's hire days are nearly all fully booked months in advance, it also receives grants and yet it still pisses away $800K of tax payers money. I would have thought 30mil to lay down 2 500meter strips of tarmac and a carpark and some buildings was more than ample. apparently not.

[fatz]

track days are shit at ec due to management

whens the next sau day there?

cause the $8400 for the wakfield day was well spent and a awesome day

[fatz]

and on oran park

500k for mc mansion in the middle of oran park

bargain

i like houses that you can touch your neighbours house through the bedroom window!

lol