The worst year of our lives....?

December 30

So that was the year 2020.  It was billed (initially!) as the “year of plenty”.  It certainly had plenty of something….  I hope that you were able to make the best of Christmas, whatever it was for you in your current circumstance and surely, things can only get better in 2021?  Without wishing to be grim, I do fear that like so many other things in life, and it is a bit of a cliché too that things may get worse in some parts before they can get better.  I hope I am wrong.  A lot is hanging on the vaccine/s that are now starting to get into circulation working as hoped.

Life here in Australia remains somewhat different to much of the rest of the world.  Here we are in the regime of putting out fires that flare up, rather than fanning flames that are spreading fast.  It happened where I am in Adelaide last month (November) and is now happening in Sydney.  A far bigger and more spread-out city, but as it stands, and everything crossed it does appear that the contact tracers and authorities are getting on top of it.  No thanks to some selfish idiots of course, but if you are reading this in the UK for example – but true for other countries too - you will not need reminding about that.

With life ‘as normal as it can be’ I had a busy month in December as I found myself cast in a very minor role in a movie, I cannot say what, naturally but it does have Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris as the main stars and in my actual job, I had a busy time as part of the “Pepsi Challenge” in the centre of Adelaide, where the public are invited to take a blind taste test with Pepsi Max against Coke.  It was in the new world of the Covid-normal with QR codes and manual check ins, only two at a booth at any one time and only nine permitted into the nominated area full stop.  This probably meant that we saw fewer consumers than hoped, and certainly less than last year but to use the overused phrase, it is what it is and certainly better than nothing.  We wait to see what promotions and where we can undertake in the new year.

In between all that I was on the commentary alongside Kye Richardson at the Riverland Speedway at Renmark, a highly charged warm evening it was too and with the UK now in various stages of lockdown and tiers I again recorded a “Look Back Live” with Graham Woodward on Spedeworth TV.  There will be more.  If you have not subscribed to the online steaming service yet, I know I have said this before but even if you do not consider yourself as a “Spedeworth person” I highly recommend that you do as for such a small amount there is now a huge amount of content to watch and the recent Banger World Final meetings from Ipswich were justifiably well received as the team – that are independent of the promotion – have put in a great deal of time and effort. 

Whilst life may appear outwardly normal here, over the festive period, particularly with the Speedway racing there were several signs that it is far from the case.  South Australia has again declared itself Covid-19 free, after 28 days of no community transmission of the virus but that did not allow the opportunity for more footfall into the venues over this time.  It was great to join Kye on the mic at Murray Bright on Boxing Day evening for what was a great meeting, and back to a ‘proper’ show too unlike the 10 division 41 race marathon a few weeks previous.  We were both pleased to see a good, sell-out crowd for the meeting but sadly a far cry from what could have been on the particular day.  Boxing Day has been a traditional grandee date for Sprint Cars in SA.  For many years at (the now dormant/defunct) Speedway City/Virginia/Adelaide Motorsport Park and in more recent years a round of the World Series at Murray Bridge.  With the WSS cancelled for 2020-21, the South Australian arm of Sprint Cars opted to run their own Speedweek.  A bold move, and whilst it might have naturally been assumed at outset that MB would host them on Boxing Day as per, they went to Whyalla instead.  A Demolition Derby was fixtured at MB with a good looking support, particularly that of Wingless Sprints which really are the coming division in Australia and with restrictions to 1,000 people it worked well.  But, still the best part of 6,000 fewer people than would have been present if things were “normal”.  That is a huge amount of burgers and beer that could have been consumed to add to the funds of the club/promotion.

The SA Speedweek did offer some silver linings.  Whyalla was due to host a WSS round in February, but this was a real chance for the venue to put itself on the Sprint Car map ahead of (hopefully) getting its round back fir the 21-22 season.  The circus then went to Mount Gambier on Monday night, again a well established Sprint Car venue that hosts the Kings Challenge annual (which is going ahead in a few weeks’ time, just minus the overseas entrants) and then to Tolmer Speedway on Tuesday night, where I went along to have a look.  Surely the only racetrack in the world that ultimately takes its name from a Police Officer?

It is fabulous news that Bradford Stadium is set to reopen to car racing in the new year and then hopefully bikes the year after 23 years of not doing so, but Tolmer is also a venue that has risen from what was apparently the dead, albeit in a much shorter time frame.  It was announced as closing at the start of 2020, and the anguish was compounded when the planned “last ever” meeting was rained out on the first weekend of February.  However, a group of fans were loathed to let the venue go and a new committee was formed and diving straight in at the deep end their first meeting was the first for 410 Sprint Cars in almost seven years.  I do love the bullring tracks, although my initial thoughts are or were that Tolmer could be a little too small and tight, all shapes and sizes count and nevertheless, a good entry put on a great show, there were some spectacular crashes and incidents which thankfully all concerned walked away totally unharmed from and there was a popular feature race winner in Daniel Pestka, one of the drivers more locally based to me.  It was well worth the six hour round trip and great to chat to other race fans too.  All enjoying the same thing but all equally worried about the future of the sport.  The current situation of all ticket events and restricted numbers, and in the case of Murray Bridge no pit access, whilst understandable is unsustainable long-term.  Hopefully, these will be curtailed as soon as possible.  It was disheartening to see fans, including families turned away on Tuesday night at Tolmer because they did not have tickets for what was a sell-out (1,000 people) event.  I hope they come back next time…

Happy New Year all. 

December 1

To hear of the passing of one member of the community is sad but receiving news of two on what was Saturday morning (here in Australia) was especially so.  Les Palmer and Terry Jones were both more recently known as racing-dads, but like so many were also racers of note.  Les was a real stand-out F2 star in the 1980’s in particular and Terry a real mainstay of Saloon Stock Cars and then Stock Rods, when each formula were at competitive peaks.  What is also noteworthy to both Les and Terry is that they not only backed their sons into a through the oval racing ladder but also backed, sponsored and helped several other drivers too and really had the sport of oval racing in their hearts.  Both were very familiar figures in the pit areas across the UK and will be very much missed.  I send my condolences to the families and many close friends connected.

It is good to read and see news that racing is set to resume in England (I refrain from referencing the whole of the United Kingdom – correct?) with the Unlimited National Banger World Final set to be staged.  I think everyone will agree that it is in far from perfect circumstances on a number of levels but as Gavin Botfield pointed out on Spedeworth TV last week, a big feature of their business model is based around the BWS events and for the big event not to run this year would have thrown a spanner in the works going into and through 2021 when hopefully life will start to resume some form of normality.  I know that other World Finals were all put back and so on, but hindsight is a wonderful thing and best left to Sir Kier Starmer.   With limited tickets, although as per my words last week perhaps ironically with greater crowd attendance numbers that we are permitted in South Australia, and the cold December weather there is the option to watch the race on an official live steam on Spedeworth TV.  Not only that, do note that all the great features of the channel remain on there including Graham Woodward’s weekly show, which last week not only featured a great interview with David Addison and another legend in Gordon Coull but also a look back at the ‘old’ Aldershot Stadium and Cross In Hand.  The latter was before my time, but the original Aldershot was my childhood.  Thursday afternoons at school were a non-event for me as I daydreamt about what I would see that evening.  I can still smell the hot dogs and burgers now.  Maybe even taste them….  Hard to believe that 28 years have passed since its closure.  There was a concerted effort to mark the 25 year mark by Stuart Sears and a few others two years ago, but it clashed with both the BriSCA Gala Night at Birmingham and 1600cc Banger World at Ipswich and rendered most would be committed elsewhere.  Hopefully, something can be done to mark the 30-year anniversary in two years’ time.  History should never be forgotten, overlooked, and certainly not re-written no matter what.

The sport has a long and rooted history in Cornwall and that, as we now know is under threat with the potential closure of the United Downs Raceway of St Day.  It is great news that Michael Burnage OBE has thrown his hat into the process to help keep the venue open.  Each situation is different and his efforts with Wimbledon doubtless saw a proper farewell season and meeting take place in London and likewise in Manchester in Belle Vue, although it now sits dormant the fact that it is not rubble already owes a lot to his efforts.   I was in contact with Crispen over the weekend, not specifically about St Day, but to say he was upbeat in general about the 2021 season that is on the horizon already in the southwest of England would be an understatement.  There are absolutely hordes of new cars, new faces and returning names set to appear in BriSCA F2 in the region and shots in the arm coming for both Saloon Stock Cars and even Stock Rods too.   Keep the faith everyone.  It almost made me want to start swimming now….

Finally, I will have to mention that crash in the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday.  What the hell?  The immediate scenes looked like hell.  How lucky is the sport and really, testimony to the halo.  Like many others I was not convinced which is was introduced, but equally felt that the ultimately fatal accident that befell Jules Bianchi was being overlooked just a little too much and it, or something like it had to come in.  All that was justified on Sunday, plus the newly mandated race suit in which Romain Grosjean was wearing which it is said gave or gives an extra 10 seconds of protection in a fire situation.  Incredible.  But, I’m sure there has to be questions as to how and why a very similar accident to that which took the life of Francois Cevert 47 years ago, where a car pierced through a guardrail could or should actually (still) happen.  But for now, time to thank those who have worked so hard for the safety in motorsport and F1 and raise a glass to Professor Sid Watkins and Charlie Whiting, both of whom no longer with us who dedicated so much to the cause in their lives.

November 25

After a short and sharp ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown life is returning to, well, something other than being forced to stay at home for anything other than essential supplies here in South Australia.  With a small cluster of Covid-19 and low population the sledgehammer can be used to crack the nut.  And whilst yes, the pizza shop saga goes on based around a lie that did bring about the severity of the shutdown, the authorities here are at pains to state that it did bring about the pause that was required for the contact tracers to get on top of the situation.  But at what cost?  A lot less than what might have been a second wave in Adelaide and beyond that would have likely been more severe than the first.  The media at both ends of the political spectrum have been homing in on the local government and authorities, but my feeling is that they are not reading the room on this one.  The issue remains around the hotel quarantine system that all returning travellers have to go through here and triggered the second wave in Melbourne and ultimately rendered that city in lockdown for near seven months and almost did the same here.  It is starting to look past its shelf life.

Even coming out of lockdown the restrictions we now have in place (which the government are hoping and almost insisting will be short-lived to roll them back to “what they were” as soon as next Tuesday) have never the less taken us back to where we were in June.  All sport is currently suspended, social distancing is half what it was and having resisted it here previously, face masks are now “a thing”.   There is a real irony that given everything, looking at the situation in the United Kingdom for example, with still a huge amount more cases that sports are set to resume with far greater crowd numbers (tier depending? – just confused from Adelaide looking on here..) than are set to be permissible here.   Even if we go back to the restrictions they were prior to the small outbreak, they will still be capped at 1,000.  No real reason why, but they will be. 

Obviously, it is great news that the likely return of Bradford Stadium for motor sport is gathering pace.  However, at the other end of England, the news broke that St Day, one of the most unique oval race venues on the planet is facing the end.  The short of it is that leaseholders and promoters Autospeed have been shafted by the County Council, who own the land on which the raceway sits.  The council offered a ten year lease renewal, which Autospeed signed, but the council then did not and it appears that during the course of this year they have sold it from under their noses and it is to be turned into an Eco Rum Distillery.  Or something like that.  The usual mantra of it “will create jobs” will be the next thing – but will it really?  It certainly will not bring the thousands of people from outside of Cornwall who visit the current business on the site each year. And why on the land of United Downs Raceway?  Is there no spare land in Cornwall for such a thing?  It is not as if there is any real infrastructure on the site.  Simply those on the council have clearly decided they do not what motor sport in their county anymore, despite a very long and successful history it has there not only as a sport, but tourist destination feature too.   I’m sure many of you reading this already have, but if not, please sign this petition to assist in getting the message across.  I have already heard this week that “they don’t work”.  They do!  A petition helped to persuade (then London Mayor) Boris Johnson to call in the plans at Wimbledon, which did allow a farewell season and meeting at the venue and a petition continues to make a presence at Belle Vue.  So, please sign:

https://www.change.org/p/cornwall-county-council-save-united-downs-raceway-cornwall-b529b6ba-e1ca-47a5-8dd2-d0c44abd586f?recruiter=1165390099&recruited_by_id=cc41f460-2cfb-11eb-8eab-d3947e97bbdd&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard

During the strictest part of the lockdown here last week, I recorded another episode of “Look Back Live” with Graham Woodward on Spedeworth TV.  Apologies for the frown I had on my face throughout, I was worried that what I was recording actually wasn’t as the camera card I had hoped to use decided to break, I was not able to pop to down the road to Big W to get one as would be the norm due to lockdown and quickly put a smaller sized one in.  But all was well in the end, and it was thoroughly enjoyable again looking back and going through a great night at the afore mentioned Wimbledon, this time the 1994 Banger Figure of Eight World Final.  This was at a time, indeed coming towards the end of the time when there was just “Bangers” – not the multiple divisions of such that started just a couple of years later – and were in a bit of a transitional phase.  But that aside, it was great to see so many familiar names, numbers and colours that are still racing or involved in some way in the sport today.  Not only in the Bangers, but the mid-90’s was a heyday for Stock Rod racing too and the meeting featured a great battle between Brian Smith and Graham Moreton.  The nature of the show means that they only stay on the Spedeworth TV site for a short time.  I look forward to being involved in more going forward, but with England (at least) heading out of lockdown next week, there is hope that there will be some current racing once again, in some form – not least the World Finals for both National and domestic/1600/Rookie Bangers which Spedeworth will run if, when and where they can before the dreadful year of 2020 is out.

What are still available on the site is the “Back at Home” magazine style show and the most recent episode featured a great interview with Terry Coke.  Banger World Champion in 1988 and still racing today in what has been an over 40-year career and he was also on the Spedeworth staff for a short time in the late-90’s.  Amongst a number of topics he and Graham did discuss was how the sport had changed, and the sake of the ‘show’ etc.  It is not something unique to Spedeworth or even the UK but the way the sport has found itself in in its efforts to survive, at least for domestic/club meetings. The Covid restrictions placed on running the meetings now, coupled with those that already were in or creeping in prior to it has enhanced that and to make them viable it has been the case that there are as many classes or divisions running and adds up to 30+ races and with time restrictions it leaves little for anything other than on and off races.  Even on track presentations and driver interviews and so on.  Let us hope that when life is in the post-Covid world (I refrain from using the word “normal”) we can strike a happy-medium somewhere along the way.

November 19

I really did speak too soon.  Only last week both on here and on my guest appearance on “Look Back Live” on Spedeworth TV I stated that life was pretty normal here, the second wave in Melbourne had been quashed, albeit only after a lot of pain of a long lockdown there and we were looking forward to a Covid-normal summer.  Well, maybe and even hopefully Australia still is but, in the state where I live, South Australia that has changed suddenly and very drastically.  

Only on Sunday afternoon I was sat enjoying a social afternoon with friends, comparing an British/Irish ‘pint’ with an Australian version in a busy (but yes, reduced capacity) pub with live music and a great vibe.  Just four days on from that we are now in a near total lockdown following an outbreak that has been traced back to what is known as a “quarantine hotel” here (where Australian citizens returning from overseas have to isolate for 14 days) where a cleaner picked Covid-19 up from a work surface and then passed it on to what appeared to be just about every member of her large family.  Said large family appeared to then visit an extraordinary number of places in the northern suburbs of Adelaide – with information obtained through the good track and trace system the health department have here – and the cluster quickly spread.  To add to that, it transpired that a security guard at another one of these designated hotels, also contracted the disease, via this cleaner (presumed?) and also had a second job in a take away pizza bar and there are fears that they could have passed it on to however many number of people had given the said business their custom over the previous two weeks.  It would appear that lab testing traced back the strain of the virus at the hotel with the cleaner to a returning traveller from the United Kingdom on November 2 and that it is a different strain in that has a short incubation period are most are asymptomatic with it.  Note that there are some experts both here in Australia and overseas that are disputing SA Health’s claims on that one, but that is what they are going with here and although there have ‘only’ been 36 cases, none of which are particularly sick, only two of which are in hospital (because they are over 80 years old) but as was noted in Melbourne back in July when the disease returned there, again via the hotel quarantine system and very quickly got out of control leading to 8,000 cases and 800 deaths.   The authorities here in South Australia, indeed the country as a whole cannot afford to let that happen, even in a small and remote city like Adelaide they have gone hard and quickly in an attempt to nip it in the bud, maybe even a bit more than that, whilst the seeds are still in the packet.

The upshot is that we have gone from an ordinary existence in an area that had been Covid free since April, the worst community transmission actually came via passengers from a cruise ship via Sydney, to now the complete opposite.  A few of my overseas friends questioned me yesterday when news of Adelaide’s shut down broke across the world with images of people panic buying not wearing masks.  Madness, they said, really basing their views on what is and has been happening in their countries.  Well, yes, it was but with the internal borders here as well as the international borders closed, the (somewhat controversial) hotel quarantine aside we have lived in a bubble on the other side of the world here.  We were in a Covid-safe world – as we thought – and there was no call for the use of masks here.  That has changed here this week and we now have a six day near total lockdown, except for essential services/workers.  Mask wearing is mandatory, we cannot leave our residences only to buy essential items from the essential shops (many a grey area in that one already today) We cannot even go for a walk or exercise – unless walking to the shop on the one a day visit, one person at a time.  And whilst the media has been flagging up the six day “circuit breaker” the small print is that a further eight days will follow of ‘lesser restrictions’ that may include a walk.  But a lot will depend on what happens over the next few days and these cases of the virulent version of Covid.  There are 4,000 people self-isolating here already, now with one of the strictest lockdowns there has been anywhere if this does not work, I really do not know what will.

I really want to be writing out what I love writing about and I want to be back talking about it, with some great race dates here that are now naturally hanging in the balance, those scheduled this weekend and next are naturally already cancelled or at the very least postponed.

Hopefully, this will work. It has to.  No new cases from nearly 30,000 tests in three days must be considered a good start and I can update with good news next time.

In the meantime, I will be back with Graham on Spedeworth TV on Sunday evening UK time, again in the 90’s but why not really.  Sunday nights at Wimbledon in the winter are still very much missed so let’s go back there.

November 11

Just as with many, I was upset to see the photo of the demolition of the main and indeed only real building at Arena Essex, the “Raceway Tavern” being demolished.  There remains a lot of debate and consternation as to what it is happening at the Arena site, which has been dormant since the end of 2017.   As recently as that start of this year, pre-Covid, there was serious talk that Speedway and cars could or even would be returning to the site. For a whole host of mostly obvious reasons this did not happen but never the less it was a surprise to see the current site owners take a wrecking ball to the building when there is apparently no clear plan going forward.  We will watch on, probably mostly in despair.  It is no great secret that Arena Essex was never really one of my favourite tracks. The car oval was too big, the motorbike Speedway shale too small and tight. But it is one I actually raced at myself and therefore does hold that place in my own memory bank.

On the subject of memories, with England back into lockdown (I will not ask what, as looking on from the other side of the world it is a variant on the April/May edition?) Spedeworth TV are once again running the “look back live” series over the coming weeks.  I have been in talks with Graham and Tom over what is set to be run, and whilst not wishing to give anything away at this stage, there are some great older meetings being uncovered.  Referring to 1996 as “archive” will make many of us feel old but look out for plenty of familiar names and faces in their youth and perhaps even a few blushes too.

Life here in Australia is probably now as ‘normal’ as it is going to get until the or a vaccine common place in society.  Melbourne in particular endured a near seven month lockdown, one of the most harsh in the world and has eradicated the virus (at what cost is another topic of course) and with closed international borders still in place, this large and sparsely populated country is in a unique position, along with that of New Zealand to be in its own Covid-free bubble at the bottom of the world.  A totally different world now to most of Europe and the United States.  It is scary and to think that those of us here with overseas connections (35% of the total population) are ‘stuck here’ for now.  Great, you might think, but there are two sides to everything.  Qantas, as an example, recently cancelled all flights to the UK and USA until October of next year.  Is that them showing their teeth at the government, or is that really going to be the case?

With restrictions easing further across Australia there has to be genuine hope that the Speedway racing season will finally get underway nationwide in the new year, with Victoria and New South Wales joining the rest of the country.  The big events such as the Sprint Car World Series and Warnambool Classic have bitten the bust for the season, a big financial hit for which there is little or no cover we all have to accept that, but there is scope for some competitive domestic racing.  Here where I am in South Australia it has been just that and it started last month, albeit under Covid-based restrictions and has by in large been a success.  Two very packed shows at Murray Bridge, including one this past Saturday evening and one each at Whyalla and Renmark, which clashed dates.  I enjoyed being part of the commentary team alongside the very capable Kye Richardson at the latter, which was predominantly Sedan (Saloon) car divisions whilst at Whyalla, in the same state but a long way away, was open-wheeled racing.  There is hope that restrictions might be eased as the next meetings unfold.  It does seem that given 25,000 are permitted into the Adelaide Oval, that restricting our venues to a total of 1,000 is unduly harsh and inexplicable.  It is a bone of contention, and even cost Murray Bridge a leading Sprint Car entrant at its most recent meeting who has stated that he and his team will not return until restrictions on numbers in particular are eased.

But currently it is what it is.  Easily the most overused phrase of the year….

October 20

March and the talk then that all of “this” as we are not to name it, really, would be over in six months by some seems almost a lifetime ago.  What a confusion patchwork it has all become.  I only look from afar at what is happening in Europe in particular with circuit-breakers, short lockdowns, lockdowns, tiers and traffic lights and it leaves one to think where all of this will be in six months’ time?  Who knows…?  It has been ‘bad’ enough in Australia, with Melbourne and Victoria having had the second wave, which on reflection is or was nothing compared to European countries – and parts of America – but there is now a real case, as they there come out of it that there is political ideology being thrown in too which will ultimately help neither side or anybody else.   Where I live, in South Australia, it has been free of community Covid-19 transmission since April and as such life is as normal as it is going to get until such times as, well, whatever.  A vaccine? A wonder drug? 

Still, several events are either cancelled or changed beyond all recognition for the rest of this year, leading up to and including Christmas.  The very mid-20^th century style “Christmas Pageant” which strangely takes place annually in November though the streets of Adelaide cannot do so this year, but instead will be an arena based event at the Adelaide Oval watched on by a restricted and socially distanced crowd, where those who attend will be decided by a ticket lottery.   New Year Celebrations are largely off, or at least in their usual formats.  And this is in what is a Covid-free society.  I recently got my old job back working as a Brand Ambassador for Pepsi, which was great given that in many other parts of Australia let alone the world it would not be currently possible.  However, even handing out free samples of the new mango flavour has seen us having to wear disposable gloves and placing the cans on to a 1.5 metre table for the customer to then pick up themselves rather than be handed a can.  Thankfully, our office in Adelaide did convince corporate HQ that the use of face masks here is not mandated and would likely have a detrimental effect on custom and image.  I fully appreciate that in other parts of the world they are now de rigueur but with life breaking up into fiefdoms wherever you are it seems, it is best to go with what you have where you are. Even the Federal Government here are having their advised ‘rules’ put to one side and it is all of these different regulations that are so confusing. For instance, why am I still witnessing food being prepared for public consumption without gloves?  Given the above, where we cannot touch a can of cold soft drink without wearing them.

After a long wait, and a delay to the start of the Speedway racing season, things finally got underway in the ‘new normal’ at Murray Bridge on Saturday night.  Again, with slightly puzzling and tough restrictions placed on the venue – and the sport as a whole – by the health department.  These rules are similar to what most venues have been operating under in the UK in what was left of the northern hemisphere summer (where Covid is obviously a lot more prevalent) with the limit set to 1,000 people via advanced ticket or booking in the whole venue, including competitors and the pit area totally segregated off and the venues own food options were not open. Instead just an out-sourced food truck (which presumably had its own covid safe plan) and at times appeared to struggle to cope with the 500 or so people, including me, that required feeding.  The guy in front of me queued 45 minutes for a cup of tea….  Again, given that there is an effective test, track and trace system here, there are closed internal borders or managed well these seem a bit harsh given the space available around the venue.  Plus, other events that are open to the public such as a Sunday street market I recently visited was literally shoulder to shoulder with people and large indoor shopping malls have operated almost as normal for some time now. The one way systems either implented or mooted back in May/June time long put aside. A high-profile AFL Football match at The Oval the previous evening had a crowd of 27,000.  Yes, it has a 58,000 capacity and a great deal of work had gone in from that venue to make sure that the crowd was socially distanced and so on but even so, it does not take too much of a mathematician or scientist to see that there is quite a discrepancy that is having a big effect on small business promoters and clubs.  Other club and junior sports also have the same restrictions.  Hopefully, they can and will be changed over the weeks and months going forward.  If they are not, the knock on outcomes do not actually bear thinking about.

But, for now, it is what it is – a well overused phrase during 2020.  It could be a lot worse and those of us that were at Murray Bridge on what was a cold Spring evening were simply grateful to be there watching and enjoying our sport.   There was plenty of it too, with what is already going to be a truncated season at best. MMS MB Speedway did run two to three times a month in the season pre-Covid but now the meetings currently are one a month in October, November and December.  The upshot of which is that each of these meetings are almost two shows in one with multiple divisions amid what was a 31-race program which started at 4.15pm and concluded just after 10.30pm.  No venue pays for itself and having as many competitors, most of which are pay to race divisions is the only way at this present moment in time.

Some were sceptical that there would be enough locally based Sprint Cars to make a field, but there was and with border restrictions between South Australia and New South Wales having eased a couple of weeks previous there were a couple of east-coast travellers too.  It proved to be a worthwhile trip for Marcus Dumesny as he took out the feature race win.  The Sprint Car part of the show was put right back into the second half, with the first heat not until race 24.  This will at least allow the die-hards to not complain about sitting through many support divisions but enjoy as much as you can I say.  The Junior Sedans and Street Stocks had in my opinion the best two races of the meeting. 

Whether restrictions are eased, and more fans are permitted for the next at Murray Bridge in November remains to be seen.  It is always disappointing reading social media comments where some, probably many, missed out on getting tickets because that has the potential to create a slippery slope and dissuade people from trying next time or even going again.  We are not at that stage, yet, though.   My next dose of the sport will be at the Riverland Speedway in Renmark where I am a club member and I am pleased to say I have been invited to take to the microphone for the evening as part of the commentary team.  It goes without saying that I am looking forward to that.

But for now, we just need to keep the faith, keep doing what we do, helping and looking out for each other and above all else not play politics.  Those that are, I hope, will be remembered after all this has finished.  Whenever that may be.

September 25

Hard to believe that five weeks has passed since my previous update.  I had a great trip to the Flinders Ranges for a spot of off-roading in the outback, the short video of which is now on site.  But this the time since updates have things changed?  A little, but not much.  For better or worse, depending on who or where you are.

Where are we now?  The UK and Europe having leaped forward is now taking a big step back in the Covid situation, I note.  But, I will confess that I have been focusing more on the here and now in Australia.  Behind the closed international borders and a heavy restriction on the numbers each week that can return, which are still creating issues with hundreds of thousands of Australian citizens and residents stranded overseas. All this whilst the likes of Lord Alan Sugar and Tom Hanks can swan into the country to film television and film.  We are all in this together.  Yes, of course we are!

There is slight light at the end of the tunnel.  The promotional work for Pepsi that I was part of prior to Covid-19 hitting is re-starting (at least where I am in Adelaide) and I will once again be part of the world-famous “Pepsi Challenge” just prior to Christmas.  Although this will surely be down to what the current restrictions are at that time.  At present it is not permitted to serve food and drink to anyone standing up….

Whilst focusing on every day life here in the southern hemisphere I have naturally been keeping up to date with all the racing in the northern end of the world and despite the restrictions and everything been thrown at it, how great has it looked?!  Plenty of great looking meetings, some of which I have caught up on via videos on social media and others via the excellent Spedeworth TV service.  Hopefully, this momentum can be continue through whatever the next stage of Covid restrictions will be and even more hoping on the other side early into next year.

When Covid struck in Australia, for the large part of the country the race season was reaching its conclusion.  We lost several state and national titles, big weekends and season long series were curtailed.  But, a lot had been run and effectively it was ‘just’ the end of the season that was lost.  At the time everyone hoped that Covid-19 would be the six-month thing that was touted at the time and by the time Spring arrived we would be re-starting the season pretty much as usual.   Throughout the winter Speedway Australia either said little or when they did put an (on hindsight) positive spin on things.  Even as recently as in early August, despite Melbourne and the state of Victoria – a corner pin of the sport here – going back into harsh stage four restrictions and the state government in Western Australia keeping their internal border as a hard border to anyone other that those that live there was outward hope that the Sprint Car World Series would take place.  I couldn’t see it and indeed it was cancelled a couple of weeks ago, that was due to run throughout the summer into February.  Talk about stating the obvious.  Whether meetings such as the Classic in January can go ahead remains to be seen.  They might but would a heavily reduced entry with no overseas entrants (I do not doubt the governments would not put Kyle Larson in the same category as Lord Sugar) and above all else a much reduced crowd, all wearing masks. 

The season itself is starting, albeit patchy depending on where you are very much as it is, was and still is in the UK, Europe and USA etc.  With ‘regional’ Victoria now out of restrictions but still ultimately still heavily restricted practice days are the only realistic option, or behind closed doors racing which just as with other countries is not financially viable for many venues. Hence there are several paid practice days scheduled and that is about it.   Although New South Wales are revising their restrictions daily, and things like school sports can now happen, it would seem that venues such as Sydney Speedway, which is/was/is due to start its final season are unable to operate viably.  Where I am in South Australia it is a little bit of a conundrum.  Life appears so ‘normal’ here in so many ways but is not, of course.  My local venue of Murray Bridge is able to run under very similar restrictions to those venues that have been running in England.  Restricted crowd numbers via online ticket only, the pits totally segregated and so on.  And a limited number of meetings between now and the new year too.  For a venue that did run two to three times a month there are just three shows, one a month starting next month. 

What will 2021 bring? A vaccine? A hope that life will be better?  It is impossible to make plans or even think about it given what we are faced with.  It is not so much the pandemic itself but the pandemonium that the fallout has caused and is causing.   

Stay safe everyone.  

August 17

Four weeks since I last updated this blog and has anything changed?  Classic case of not much but a huge amount too.  Australia is an even greater covid-19 patchwork quilt than it was then, with metropolitan Melbourne in stage 4 lockdown and unfortunate cases of daily deaths, the state of Victoria which said city is the capital of is in stage 3 plus mandatory mask wearing everywhere outside. New South Wales, where Sydney is the principle city appears to be escaping the worst of what could be a second wave, although it is still tenterhooks time and the rest of the country is basically clear, aside from repatriates in quarantine from time to time.  Where I reside, in Adelaide/South Australia falls into that.  All of which happen behind closed borders.  Closed borders. Near iron curtains… Across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand, which had proclaimed was “totally free of the disease” a cluster apparently popped up out of nowhere.  Proof, if it was needed, that a total eradication policy through hard lockdowns does not and will not work.  But still there are many here (in Australia) that seem to think that is achievable. 

Looking at the other side of the world, I am not sure whether Europe and the UK etc are behind us down in these parts or ahead?  Different in some ways but the same in others with restrictions ebbing and flowing, rules changing at the drop of a proverbial hat and confusion ensuing.  As written previously, here in Australia we are still under a “travel ban”, a policy which was great in March and played a huge part in the “first wave” but running out of its shelf life now (although has been quietly extended by the federal government until October 24)  There are a number of reasons and examples as to why and how this is no longer working and causing a great deal of harm to the country and her people, covid-19 or otherwise.  A lot will depend on the outcome of the stage 4 in Melbourne as to what happens next. 

What has obviously changed in the past few weeks is that not only have race meetings resumed in UK and Netherlands, ahead of schedule it is probably true to say but limited crowds too.  Again, this has varied from track to track, area to area with promotors working to rules that they are presented by their local authorities.  This is the same with any health and safety policy hence there has always been a difference with what you can and can’t do – pit access and so on – at various venues, sometimes even with the same promotor.  And why mask wearing has been mandatory at some and not others.  Obviously with social distancing, some venues will find it harder to operate than others and so it is just a case of going with what you have got and running with it, just as in the United States and also just as with the US it has been great to see what is on offer be embraced with good numbers on both sides.  Crowds as good as any I have seen (for domestic meetings) at Taunton’s Monday night sessions, even taking into account the restricted numbers and the meeting at King’s Lynn this Saturday being sold out within a few hours leaving probably double the number of people who got tickets disappointed.  Whether Trackstar plan to live stream this meeting given that I do not know, but live streams are still very much the plan at Spedeworth.  There have not been as many as were planned, given that the racing return was to be run behind closed doors initially but then the rules/laws changing to allow limited crowd numbers shifted the focus on that.  But assured, having invested in the technology, Spedeworth TV – affiliated with the promotion rather than owned by it – will be doing just that.

Which leads me to Spedeworth TV – if you have not subscribed to the channel yet it really is worth it.  Instead of suffering another tediously dull F1 Grand Prix on Sky Sports, scrap that and replace it.  The channel can be watched on smart phone, smart TV and so on.   Whilst many of you reading this will, I know, say that “I’m not a Spedeworth person so not for me thank you”, the back catalogue includes the F2 World Final from Buxton last year, interviews with Gordon Moodie, Chris Bradbury and more recently F1 World Champion Tom Harris who was a guest on Graham Woodward’s Friday evening magazine style show.  Plus, the most recent meeting at Northampton.  And if you are into all forms of oval racing like me, then a late evening switching between Aghadowey, Aldershot and Ipswich can’t be bad eh?

On Graham’s most recent show, there was a feature interview with Jim Gregory.  Part of Spedeworth for the best part of 30 years, Jim recently announced his retirement from the microphone via social media, having performed the role at Swaffham for the past eight years.  The interview with Jim is excellent, thought provoking and very poignant given that it was not his choice to depart Spedeworth, but he took it so honourably well.   So easy to see and sense he has such a great passion for the sport, and as he makes clear NOT how it WAS but how it IS currently and yet it is nothing more than age that has crept up on him and forced him to stop, given that being a some way beyond “retirement years” he is still undertaking a full time job. 

When Alan and Lynn Cullen departed at the start of the 1994 season, Jim was able to assume most of the vacated commentary dates, but it left them without a lap scorer.  Not only did Spedeworth have to find one, or two but hit the ground running training too. When Ray Wood and Pete Welland jointly suggested to then Spedeworth Director Dave Smith that I give it a go, even I was not so sure, but Jim convinced me to have a go.  He was a great help to me, I learnt so much – probably without either of us realising it at the time – and despite being far younger than anyone else who had performed the task (and probably since) we formed good bond as part of a good team at the time which included Arlington, Wimbledon, Ipswich and even the last few meetings at Wisbech.  It came to an end late in 1996 when I was offered a commentary role at Ringwood Raceway, a position Jim knew I really wanted but Spedeworth by then under different ownership made me choose between the two and so that was that.  The rest is not quite history but a story to tell another day.  I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Jim, because I could have encountered someone far less patient and easy to work with to learn the ropes from and I took a lot of what he did to my own commentary career.  Despite being a humble man, as shows in his interview with Graham, his place in the annals of the sport is well cemented and thoroughly deserved.

Thankfully, Jim is still very much with us and I hope to see him when I return to Britain next year.  Other legendary voices I went on to work alongside, such as Bev Greenhalf, Bill Dally and John Earrey are sadly not and their enormous contributions to the sport should never be forgotten.  When Crispen offered me to step into Bill’s shoes in 2004 even I was brash enough to overlook that he had been the only previous commentator for Autospeed dating back to 1954!  Incredible.  And again, going back to Jim’s interview where would any of us commentators or presenters be without John Earrey?  He was an absolute pioneer on the mic for bikes and cars.  It dawned me on quite recently and again this week in thoughts and conversations that I worked alongside him on what was (I am fairly sure) his last commentary, at Ipswich.  For whatever reason (and I cannot remember why) there were staffing issues over the 1995 Bank Holiday weekend and in an almost bizarre game of musical chairs, Jim swapped to work at Arlington taking East Anglian lap scorer Maggie with him and I swapped from Arlington to Ipswich and John – perhaps reluctantly - came out of what had been a few years of retirement to take to the mic at Foxhall.  Of the four of us working in Race Control that Monday afternoon 25 years ago I am now the only one still here…...

Sobering thoughts.  Appreciate what and who you have in life.  It is not forever by any means. 

July 20

A postcard from my little corner of the bottom of the world.  In South Australia, the state borders were closed many months ago now, they have reopened to some states but not others.  I was all for them to be open back up to all a few weeks ago but given what is now happening in the neighbouring state of Victoria, Melbourne in particular I am happy for them to be closed off.  The small economy here, much of it still struggling from the devastating bushfires 6-7 months ago would not cope with a second wave and associated lockdowns.  There has not been community transmission since March.  The media going into near hysteria over one or maybe two cases (in hotel quarantine) helps nothing.  But obviously it could happen and we desperately do not want it to, only have to look at what has happened in Melbourne, which we are lead to believe stemmed from a rogue security guard sharing a cigarette lighter with person in quarantine in a quarantine hotel.  Now an entire city of 4 million is in lockdown and having to wear a face covering (or face a $200 fine) when going out. That is everywhere, not just in shops etc as per the UK and most of the USA. Surely there must be more to this ‘second wave’ being triggered than just that? 

Life here – in Adelaide and SA - is as normal as the “new normal” can be.  Shops and restaurants are open, there is no requirement for face coverings and the only rule/s are whatever restrictions they face individually under the one person per two square metre rule plus the 1.5 metre social distancing. I must say for the latter there was little in evidence when I visited the city centre at the weekend.  Tonight (Monday) at the Adelaide Oval there is set to be a 25,000 crowd for an AFL game, which will be a big experiment going forward.  But that is here, the last five months has almost seen Australia go from a collection of federated jurisdictions almost into nine separate franchised countries with almost completely different rules, laws, and expert opinions.  It is a confusing patchwork that has the danger to unravel into other things.  I know that Australia is not immune (no pun intended) to this, as the United States probably has 50 examples and even in the United Kingdom the devolved assemblies have seized the opportunity to “do their own thing”, for better or worse, depending on the opinion.

However, the status quo is unsustainable.  At the start of the pandemic, a six-month time frame was quoted.  Nobody really knew what was being dealt with of course but we are now just five weeks from the back end of that.  It will go on longer and in Australia as a whole, mainly due to Victoria/Melbourne taking a big step backwards, things are worse now than they were in March.  I cannot see the borders opening internationally any time soon, highly unlikely this year which will continue to cripple the tourist industry and speaking purely selfishly renders me a bit stuck. I could not visit my family in the UK even if I needed to (heaven forbid) I would have to apply to the federal government for an exemption to the travel ban.  Then if granted I would have to find a flight, which currently would involve me getting to Sydney (somehow) and then flying from there on one of the very limited flights currently flying at what would be a cost of around 3,000 GBP.  Then on my return I would have to pay to be in a quarantine hotel for 14 days at a cost of $3,000 (approx 1,600GBP) and then have to self isolate for a further 14 more on my return to Adelaide!   As for domestic travel and tourism, they are desperately trying but those of us that live here can only do and go to so many places. The state borders with Victoria in particular I can see, even writing this in July, will not be open to the rest of Australia let alone the world this side of summer (here).  I will happily stand corrected if I am wrong.  There are lots of communities that straddle the border/s and I cannot begin to imagine how complicated life is now becoming.  To draw comparisons, it would be like a hard border being placed between Aldershot and Farnham, Brighton having a ring of steel or the army patrolling the Tamar bridge. 

We are now at the stage where a car with differing state number plates is looked at and treated with disdain and even receiving verbal abuse as well as people “running the border” and being arrested for such and even talk, as I type this of being sent to prison.  I was pleased to note that my local Woolworths did have toilet paper on sale yesterday and last week I went into a shop called “Cheap as Chips” here.  For UK readers think ‘The Range’ and you would not be far off.  Walking in I was confronted by a near bank of hand sanitisers including a 1.5kg pump pack that was not dissimilar to my dad’s old Swarfega back in the day.  Oh, and this said sanitiser is made in China, of course.  The irony!  It was not that long ago that this store, as well as all others were rationing hand sanitiser and now there I was tripping over the stuff almost.  Are we expected to have nightly baths in 75% ethyl alcohol?  And this is coming from one who has (had to) use hand sanitiser for many years given I am classed as immunocompromised.  I know how to look after myself though thanks, I will continue doing what I do. 

As for the Speedway racing season here in Australia. In northern parts of the country it has started/re-started and in some cases with socially distanced crowd.  But down here in the southern part of the country?  See above…   The venues have slowly been putting out their dates for the new season that will start towards the end of September and early October but it will need a big shift in the current Covid-19 situation in Victoria for it to go ahead successfully.  My most local venue of Murray Bridge does rely to an extent on interstate visitors, particularly for the Sprint Car divisions but even some of the more domestic divisions from the country areas of Victoria and the vice versa. Timmis Speedway Mildura which I enjoyed being part of last season (and hope to again in the new) relies just as much on the South Australia drivers given its geographical position than it does many of those in the rest of Victoria.  If the border remains closed it will create real issues.  And as for the big Sprint Car series and dates in the summer?  The dates at what is to be Sydney Speedway’s final season, the World Series, the Grand Annual Classic.  As it stands the chances of any of the big USA stars coming as in the past look unlikely.  Let us just hope that things show an improvement in the coming weeks and months, but it is difficult to be anything other than negative at this present moment in time.

To be more positive, it is good to see, read and hear that things are improving in Europe and in the UK to the point that venues are set to reopen to at least see some racing for the remainder of the season, even if rightly the big titles have been postponed until next year.  There are plenty of creases to be ironed out on what is going to have to be the “new normal” now but it is good, and I will watch with interest on how it unfolds.  Literally watch in many cases, as Spedeworth TV’s live stream meetings have now become a reality with the first being the behind closed doors all-Banger meeting at Aldershot last weekend with coverage that was every bit as professional as anything you would see on Sky Sports, Foxtel or BT – maybe even more so.  I have played a part behind the scenes, even if in a very small way but I highly recommend the small subscription fee because as well as some of the upcoming race meetings set to be shown, there are other feature programmes too such as Graham Woodward’s magazine style show where in the latest episode an in-depth interview with Tom Harris was a feature where his career in the USA was discussed at length as well as BriSCA F1.  No point in stating that Spedeworth are breaking the mould with a live-stream service, it is something that has been the norm in both the USA and Australia for several years now, so long overdue in the UK but it is something now that needs to be supported to assist the sustainability of the sport in this uncertain times.

June 10

Hard to think that in a few weeks’ time we will be getting into the second half of 2020.  A year that none of us will forget in a hurry, but not for the right reasons obviously.  What have we achieved? What have you achieved?  It has been great going through my old photos for sure and sharing old memories.  I have also completed a 35,000-word book.  I am still unsure about it, but it is still work in progress.  I also completed Speedway Australia’s interactive online officials training course and have a Certificate to prove it.   But all that said, just where did the time really go, and the past 12 weeks in particular.

Two weeks from today, if the global coronavirus crisis had not happened, I would have been packing my cases for a trip to the UK.  Whilst it is good to read and hear that Britain is coming out of the crisis, albeit very much in its own way, it is no surprise that the Ipswich and Skegness weekends had to be cancelled. Sadly a sport that is as much a spectator sport as a competitor sport, particularly big weekends such as this cannot really operate until crowds are permitted into stadia in decent numbers, and that is several weeks or even months away yet.  Note that in Belgium and the Netherlands a line has been drawn to September.  Switching to a more competitor based sport, just as with the majority of ‘club’ circuit motor racing across the world, perhaps with an online livestream are things being discussed but are not going to happen overnight, or in the timeframe of this crisis that has forced the shutdown of so much in life.

Spedeworth TV, as an example is now well set up for the live-stream, and it is set to become a feature regardless of the situation going forward.  In a similar fashion to Dirt-Vision in the USA and Clay-per-View in Australia, official live-streams is going to be part of a natural progression and is happening, and it could be that the first of these are meetings run behind closed doors to spectators.  The lookback videos shown on Spedeworth TV have brought back many a memory and some great races, good interviews and programming and I am pleased to say that I have accepted an offer to be involved with the project, even if in a relatively small way.  The online e-sports has been great to get many through the “lockdown” period, and whilst as life begins to get going again now many have indeed moved away from watching on, it will remain a permanent feature of life. Many do not or did not realise how much it already was.   The last round of the F2 e-series is set to be an officially branded and promoted event at a ‘secret’ track.   I will let you into one secret though - I will be commentating on it.  Something new and different for me, and I am looking forward to being part of it, even if only for a one-off.

Back to the health crisis, and here on the other side of the world things are the same, but different.  I have been bemused when I have caught UK Sky News late of an evening where the number of “deaths” are being reported, where as here in Australia it is the number of “cases” and as of yesterday that was just two. Today I believe it to be three.  And they are in a quarantine hotel anyway, having arrived from overseas. I repeat, these are not those who have died but been confirmed as positive with covid-19.  Do not even get me started (again) on the UK not doing the same thing with regard mandatory quarantine months ago, as was the case in Australia and New Zealand.  Yes, different scenarios again, but it was doable, surely?  It made a massive difference here and across the Tasman Sea.  New Zealand has now successfully eradicated Covoid-19 and Australia is a few weeks away from doing the same.  We are not walking around wearing face masks here, simply because we do not need to.   But, all this said and on the other side of the coin, what next?  It could be debated that in Europe and probably other parts of the world there is now some form of herd immunity, the number of cases dropping in a huge city such as London must be testament to this or the most plausible answer.  Whereas here in this corner of the world, we have the international (and domestic) borders closed and as such effectively we are in a bubble.  These borders are vital to the economy, obviously, they are going to have to be opened sooner rather than later, so what then?  Or are we set to be isolated until a vaccine is found, which has been and continues to be suggested by some?  Difficult times.   Yes, we will all go on staycations this year, but next too? Good luck with that one. 

As for now though, life is returning to some form of normal (at various paces) across Australia.  You may have read that in New Zealand it is as good as ‘normal’ from this week, as it should and where I live, South Australia following on from an authorised 5,000 strong BLM march on Saturday, 2,000 + corporates are being permitted into the Adelaide Oval to watch the Port Adelaide v Adelaide Crows AFL match.  Before both teams must then move to Queensland because of intrastate quarantine regulations. It might be the last matches they play at their (shared) home ground this season, it might not.  It was also announced that crowds of 500 will be permitted into local league games from next month, even more if is possible for some crowds to sit within arena car parking areas.  Restaurants and pubs opened to 80 patrons a couple of weeks ago – 20 per ‘room’ or set about according to the square metre of the room.  So, things are slowly getting there.  It is very easy to shut something, knock a wall down or whatever but far more difficult to reopen and restart anything – and that is the quandary being faced, everywhere.

May 26

Time flies when you are having fun!  Or not.  However, time is marching on and June is around the corner. Are we any closer to the end of this Coronavirus crisis and the associated tsunami it is created?  I see and read what is happening in other parts of the world, naturally we get a lot more news of Britain and the United States in Australia than we do a lot of other countries.  The situation here is looking good, covid-19 wise.  With international borders closed back in March, and the domestic borders closed too by their devolved governments – a bone of contention – it did more than flatten the curve, which was the original brief for the restrictions if I recall, it stopped it.   The bigger problem is re-starting the economy that was shut down, getting people back to work who had been furloughed (hands if you had never heard of that word until this year?) and those like myself who lost their jobs, back into the workplace.  All the time we were told to stay at home and mostly did, aside from a daily walk, it all seemed ok.  This is true for most of the rest of the world coping with the crisis.  It will get worse before it gets better. 

Life is starting to get back to something looking like normal here, more people are going to work, the roads are back to how they were and there is hope that even more normality will resume from next week (in my state of South Australia) where pubs and restaurants will be able to accommodate up to 80 patrons (although only 20 per room) adhering to the social distancing measures in place.  Gyms, cinemas, spas, beauty salons likewise will be permitted to reopen albeit with 20 people.  This, of course is not viable for many business’ and they will remain closed until the next set of easing of restrictions come in, which is mooted for early July.  Could we return to ‘normal’ by August?  Could I be watching actual racing at an actual track come the new season in October?  Needless to say, very much hoping and all the time this part of the world, which includes New Zealand is in a low-covid bubble, has the international borders closed I cannot see why not.  The 14-day isolation that was announced by the UK government earlier this week, sadly to me showed how far behind the game they are.  Such was introduced here in March.  Anyone that comes in from other countries (there are still a small number of what are being dubbed repatriation flights coming in and out) must isolate at a hotel provided by the government.  They are collected from the airport and taken to said hotel where they must remain for the set time strictly.  They are fed and looked after.  Ignore it?  Someone tried that and ended up spending time in the other kind of hotel….  This is not what Britain is proposing at all, surely it is too little too late.  But, that said, easy for me to pass judgement when I am on the other side of the world.

And, what a strange world it has become.  I have tried to get into some of the I-series and e-series, but there are just so many!  I spend enough time at my laptop or PC as it is without adding to it.  It is great that the online series are giving plenty of drivers, would be drivers and spectators something to watch and follow during the times that is no 'real thing'.  Some in the higher reaches of motor sport have received TV coverage.  The V8 Super Cars here did, shown live on Fox Sports.  I just could not get into it though.  It was not for me. The Indy Car series looked very realistic though, had worldwide TV coverage and was generally well received. This was until the last round, at a virtual Indianapolis Motor Speedway when Simon Pagenaud opted to do a stop and wait on Lando Norris and then Santino Ferruchi pulled off a move that was straight from a National Banger school of racing as the race finished.  Now these were not a bunch of mates playing a computer game in their lounge rooms, or side by side on Skegness seafront.  These were well paid real drivers, racing for their real teams in their real sponsors colours on live television. Let's not forget Kyle Larson being caught using a word he shouldn't prior to this, which cost him his Nascar ride and then there was news that at the weekend, in the virtual Formula E (which makes a similar noise anyway) Daniel Abt was found to be using an 18-year-old ‘ringer’ instead of himself.  Well who would have thought of that?! Probably plenty actually.  The virtual world is coming along but has a way to go before it is a big a part of our lives as some hope and there is no substitute for the real thing, whatever the sport.

What of the real thing?  We are out of season here Speedway wise, we lost the last few weeks of the 19-20 season.  The north of the country is set for some meetings soon, but these could be thwarted by state borders remaining closed.  Some venues further south have released their 20-21 schedules, but we would only just be getting those about now in ‘ordinary’ times.  In the USA it varies from state to state, just as it does, or might here in Australia.  Some venues there have resumed racing with no spectators, others with spectators limited, others with little or no restrictions and others that remain forcibly closed.  Whether it will come to it that re-starting racing in the UK will vary from region to region, area to area remains to be seen. The decision of the ORCi to have some practice dates at suitable and selected venues first will (have to) be the way forward.

As for other sports resuming, being born and bred in the south of England I find the popularity of Rugby League in parts of Australia quite strange.  But it is, and that is set to resume very soon here and likewise Australian Football League in the next few weeks.  Both going against public opinion I will add.  Poll after poll has shown the public are indifferent as to whether these two ball games re-start or not, despite those running them thinking they are more important.  Money involved of course.  Nascar has already re-started in the USA and Formula One set to in July, with two Grand Prix planned in Austria and then two at Silverstone which were on, off and now with Boris writing the rules as he goes along, possibly back on again?  Which one will be the British Grand Prix?  Will Ted Kravitz have to wear a mask in the pitlane?  More questions than answers.

These really are unprecedented times, said he, copying someone elses line.

May 12

When I packed my life up into many to move to Australia, I will admit that I did seriously question myself as to whether it really was worth including my many boxes of photo albums, mostly comprising of old racing photos circa 1988 (when I first had a camera of my own) to 2005, when I stopped getting them printed or developed.  Would I really need these photos? Would I look at them? Could I keep them in the UK and retrieve them as, if or when in the future?  But I am glad I did!  Yes, they were shut in a cupboard to a point I had initially forgotten they were there but during these times of loss of employment and the subsequent Covid-19 lockdown, going through them, scanning them and sharing them via my social media has given a lot of joy, not just to myself but those looking at them.  It has been heartening that even a simple photo has triggered such interest and talk.  Memories are a great thing, and even better shared. 

With all this, I do fear that there is a moral in my tale here.  For I get to 2005 and the photo albums suddenly just stop.   Whilst I still took photos, they moved on to photo cards – some I still have and others I do not – and by then I was editing unloaded 7.3 magazine and spent many hours going through photographs, albeit the work of others and lost interest in taking my own.  So, therefore the photo memories become less so, and then maybe worse than that from 2013 onwards they moved to the smartphone and any that were shared were so via social media platforms and that has remained to this day.  Printing photos does still happen, outlets such as Boots, Woolworths and K-Mart etc would not offer a service if they didn’t, but even so.

I have not updated on here for a while, simply because there has not been anything to report.  The restrictions in South Australia, where I live did not really constitute the type of lockdown in other states but even, so everything stopped and/or is cancelled.  The Royal Adelaide Show in early September, the International Horse Trials in November even.  And yet (here) the spread of Covid-19 has been as good as stopped, as I write this there has only been one recorded case in the last 17 days (and even that was a very random one)  Cases across the whole country are very low and there have been under 100 deaths, many of which are attributed to a cruise ship cluster which triggered others in care homes.  As such restrictions are being eased bit by bit here, although each State in Australia is taking a different approach, but across the country any arrivals from overseas have had to be in mandatory state supplied isolation for 14 days for many weeks now and with state borders closed in the most part, Covid-19 has been well contained in the country.  New Zealand achieved similar results, albeit via a far stricter national lockdown.  But whatever, international travel to and from Australia – with the probable exception of New Zealand in due course – is off the table.  That is, of course a tough one considering I was planning on the trip to the UK in July and then hoped for September but equally accept that it can and will wait for another time.

It would appear that most sports here in Australia will resume, behind closed doors in a few weeks’ time. The spectator side of said sports some way off yet.  And note that is here where the curve was long since flattened.  The Speedway/oval race season was reaching its conclusion in most parts when the restrictions hit, but it did still mean that some big dates were lost and season long series were concluded early.  Whether by the time things get going again in October time we here can watch “normally” remains to be seen.  Obviously in the UK and Europe the 2020 season had only just started and for many venues and classes had not started at all.   Despite hopes and dreams to the contrary the summer season probably looks to be lost.  September looks genuinely the best bet and Belgium and the Netherlands I note are actively working towards that on what will surely just be some consolidation meetings ahead of a full season in 2021. 

Running race meetings behind closed doors with limited personnel and streamed via a pay-per-view service is an option, but not one as straight forward as some might think.  They are far more set up for this in the United States (as indeed is Australia) and I am of the belief that the few meetings that have gone down this route since the lockdowns were eased in the US have not really seen the uptake in viewers that was hoped for, given that such a service already exists and would have been in place for most if not all of these meetings anyway.

And above all else, would the drivers and their sponsors (now) have the funds to attend these meetings anyway?  Would there be sufficient medical cover to satisfy the insurance – which would still be required whether it be a meeting for a live streaming audience or otherwise?  And would some of the venues even be able to provide a suitable live stream given that at some even getting a mobile phone signal can be an issue.  Obviously, some venues will be better kitted for this than others and yes, there is talk that some of these will be the venues that see racing first and it is taken from there.  But even so, there are more questions than answers.  Nobody has a crystal ball. We all wish we did.  Patience and acceptance will have to be what it is to come out the other side of this crisis.  Whoever we are and wherever we are.

April 25

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Roger Venison.  Back in the early times of the arrival of the internet onto the home computer, back in the dial-up days, Roger was one of the first – if not the first – to start up a website concentrating on the oval racing scene in the UK.  Known at first as “Rogers Oval Racing Page” it later became “UK Oval Racing” it featured same day, or next day results, race reports and photographs.  Something that was all so new to everyone (that had the internet)  Until such times, for BriSCA phoning the premium rate Stoxline was your best hope, for Hot Rods anything ‘Motorsport News’ had to offer (which was plentiful then, and also featured many other forms of oval racing, myself amongst the contributors) or for Spedeworth getting a round-up in Jim Gregory’s Spedeweek programme the following week.   The internet had arrived, and Roger was the visionary that built a site and embraced a new and important service.

It is all too easy to overlook those who play a part in your life, no matter how significant and I have been left reflecting on that in the past couple of days.  As well as ‘MN’ I had already been a regular contributor to ‘Wheelspin’, ‘Short Circuit’ and ‘Unloaded’ by this time, as well as having a regular commentary gig at Ringwood Raceway. But without doubt, having a weekly ‘blog’ on Roger’s site at a time when folk were new to the wide world web helped as a springboard to my future career in the media, particularly that within oval racing. 

It came about from a chance meeting with Roger at Arena Essex in 1998.  I just happened to stand next to where he was sitting, ahead of an F2 race alongside my good friends John and Pat Abbot from Ipswich.  He noticed that John and I were avidly taking the numbers, grids and results down.  (A very “British” thing to do, as my Australian and Dutch friends have reminded me on numerous occasion!)  He asked us if we would be interested in supplying results for his website – and it then twigged who he was, and vice versa.  I said that I would be happy to.  Supplying mere results became writing reports which very quickly, under Roger’s instruction and guidance a ‘blog’ giving news and opinion from various meetings and disciplines.  This was long before ‘blogging’ became something that was regularly seen.  We obviously did it right, because whilst yes, it was at a time when home internet was blossoming as the new thing, as the years went on my page alone was getting thousands of hits a week.  His site overall was getting thousands of hits a day.  Considering at the turn of the century only 30% of the population had internet access, that was a big number.

My page continued for a few years and even included blogs from my overseas trips to not only the many I took to Belgium and the Netherlands but also Australia and New Zealand too.  At the end of 2004 when I was approached to become the editor of Unloaded 7.3 magazine, I had to make the decision to reluctantly give writing the blog.  In a way it would be a step-back, returning to writing (and editing other) reports that would not see the light of day for weeks, having become used to same day publication and often instant reaction.  But, editing the F2 and Saloon magazine was not something I was going to decline.

I saw Roger only a few times in recent years, mostly on his annual holiday to the southwest and when I was working at Northampton, he would often come into Race Control to say hello.  His website continued for several years after I departed, still supplying the same service but the near universal arrival and use of what we know as social media in the last decade changed the dynamics once again.  Roger had done his part though and deserves to be well remembered for his little place in history in getting the sport on to a managed site on the internet at a time when it was in its infancy.  And I thank him for letting me be a part of it.

He was active on various Facebook groups until his passing, and his knowledge, history and understanding of the sport and the man himself will be very much missed. I send my sincere condolences to his wife Julie and his family at this especially difficult time.

April 2

Despite not really doing anything much, other than a daily walk for the past couple of weeks, in which I’m hardly alone, I haven’t found the enthusiasm to write anything in this time.  My mind is a whirl with all sorts and yet nothing. Like many millions of others across the globe I have lost all of my work here in Australia and whilst I am financially secure enough to not have the need to join those in the queue at Centrelink (aka Job Centre for UK readers) suffice to say this will not be the case forever.  Even if the governments all decided to write the restrictions in place off in the next few weeks or even couple of months, things cannot and will not return to “normal” that quickly for a multitude of reasons.  Just think how long it takes to knock or cut anything down compared to how long it takes to build or grow it.

After my previous blog update I did receive some negativity from a couple of readers at the time – all feedback is good feedback – where I suggested (even though I didn’t, scroll down) that events which I had planned to travel to be at in the northern hemisphere summer would likely not take place.  Yes, maybe that did seem a bit far out three weeks ago, with the British government on a different track back then, but now?  I really hope that they do take place! I haven’t cancelled my trip, yet. I will merely get a voucher for the flights rather than a full return which I would have to use within a time frame.  So, a September trip perhaps?  All overseas travel is currently and indefinitely banned for Australian residents, and there are no longer any international flights to or from my home city of Adelaide. I am not going to make any predictions but with events like the Glastonbury music festival, Wimbledon Tennis and Goodwood Festival of Speed cancelled there must be realistic and serious doubt, even if everyone involved has the will to proceed.  It could get to a stage where the entire 2020 season could be put to bed ahead of a fresh start, if it can, in 2021.  Speedway are already looking at this, having given themselves a deadline of mid-late June to decide whether it would be worthwhile proceeding.  Obviously, the car racing is slightly different, a mini-series or two, some “non-championship” meetings maybe but all a bit pie in the sky presently as nobody knows what is going to happen next week let alone next month.   As for Formula One Grand Prix?  It will take a long, long time for truly global travel to return to what it was at the turn of the year.  Not unless miracles happen or huge U-turns from governments and therefore the chances of that form of the sport running at all this year have to be practically zero.

I do not claim to be a health expert, I have my own opinions on what we are currently faced with, which are not as ‘bad’ in Australia as in other parts of the world.  Confusing (here) yes, as the federal government announces a set of ‘rules’ only for the state jurisdictions to produce their own version of them.  I can still go for a walk, or even a swim at the beach here in South Australia for example whereas in New South Wales and Victoria, metropolitan beaches are closed off. The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison announced that playgrounds and skate parks would be out of bounds yet there were kids happily playing at/on both when I went for my daily walk yesterday.  Social distancing? I think we are all trying but difficult to do that when scurrying for bread in the supermarket.  That said the supermarkets in the second half of this week have returned to something resemembling normaility with stock on the shelves.  Except for toilet rolls which are now kept out the back in some sorts and can be supplied in a fours if asked in a number of stores now. And whilst about supermarkets here in Australia, some changes have been brought in that I will say will likely stay in regardless.  The social distancing footsteps at checkouts and counters are a good thing in my opinion, we all got annoyed at the person stood too close in the queue, or worse wanting to push in.  Surely it must be worse or will be for countries and civilisation that do not understand the concept of standing in a queue.  At least in the Anglosphere, we do a little bit more.  And, here packing your own bag at the checkout.  Now, unless help is/was specifically asked for, the assistant packing your bag for you disappeared in the 1980’s in much of the rest of the world (I do not remember it ever being the case) but was still done here until a few weeks ago.  You could not pack your own shopping bag at a manned checkout even if you wanted to.  As an observation at the time it added to the enormous queues when the panic buying was taking place ahead of these restrictions and lockdowns.  But now that has been stopped.  The checkouts here in Woolworths and Coles have suddenly started to resemble those of Sainsbury’s and Tesco this week, complete with a Perspex screen between cashier and customer.  Surely, hardly a short-term move.

I never really thought I’d be rambling in a blog about supermarket check outs.  These really are unprecedented times…. “We are all in this together” is not a new phrase by any stretch.  It was used during the financial crisis when it was not actually true.  But, with the whole world in restrictions and various stages od lockdown we really are now. 

Just stay safe, everyone.  Do as you are asked, or told, wherever you are.  The sooner we do, whilst it may sound simplistic the sooner things can return to whatever the new normal will be or become.

March 13

Friday the 13^th comes to be.

Decisions, decisions.  It will be a word that will be used an awful lot in the coming days and weeks and whilst I was about to say months, I genuinely hope not.  But the chances?  None of us know what is around the corner in life and fair to say that even as recently as a fortnight ago the Covet-19 virus was something that was happening in far off China and wouldn’t affect the rest of us.  Wrong of course.  As I write this the Australian Grand Prix has been cancelled.  I do not have great sympathy for the F1 top brass though as there were signs that it really ought to be ahead of most of the freight and crews being flown out to Melbourne.  Who I do have sympathy for though is the fans who purchased tickets, which are needless to say not cheap and are unlikely to be refunded (I do not have a ticket in question to read the small print) and also the many sub-contracting business that are/were involved in the event and are set to take a massive hit from it.  Caterers, promotions companies, security companies etc.  And not just those than own and run them but the casual staff that they employ.  Many of these thinking they had weekend work at the weekend rate now will not have anything, unless their employer does pay them (not all will or can) Many will not be paid beyond the shift they presented themselves for today (as per Australian fair work law)  Not just the Grand Prix of course but the many other events that are either cancelled or “running behind closed doors” which means that a lot of such staff will not be required at these either.  The federal government here do not seem to have much of an idea about their casual work force, despite it making up a very high percentage of the total. 

There is talk that this health crisis could last months, surely, we hope that this is not the case as it will have a devastating effect on the sporting fixtures and life in general. Obvious sounding I know. We can only hope it is not and events like the Ipswich Speedweekend and Skegness UK Speedweek, although months off yet can go ahead as planned. There currently is NO talk at all that they will not so please do not misread what I have written but the reason I have noted these two is because I plan to be at both.  I had contact a few weeks back with Paul at Skegness and with Spedeworth to join the teams for the events, and I also hope to be taking in both an Arlington date and Smeatharpe too on what will alas be a short trip. The flights are booked, and I even have a deal to borrow my mum’s car! But, again, I would hardly be unique with travel plans going forward now up in the air, with no pun intended.

Unprecedented times.  But without wishing to sound like “Scotty From Marketing”, we’ll get through them and come out stronger.

February 4

It is the height of the season heading towards the business end here in Australia.  The big titles have either taken place or are about to, season-long series are heading towards their conclusions all proving something that we all already know; times goes quickly.  February already.  Despite the worldwide news coverage of the heat, drought and the fires which were all very real and will have a continued effect on everyone’s lives in the country one way or another, some a lot more than others naturally for some time to come, the weather here has actually been very much up and down in the past few weeks.  This has influenced some would-be race nights, none more so than Saturday just gone when no less that four meetings had to be canned in the south-east of the country due to heavy rain.  The rain was very welcome, but the irony of it coming on a Friday/Saturday….

Thankfully for me, “my” race meeting at the Timmis Speedway Mildura did go ahead and as forecast the rain did not quite get to the area.  However, it was a bit of a nervous four and a half hour journey, much of it through heavy rain in South Australia’s Riverland region as to whether it really was the case.  It was my second trip in a week to Sunraysia, on the mic at Timmis, a job which I never really expected but have embraced and enjoyed and such a great and professional team to work alongside too.  Mildura is synonymous with Speedway worldwide, the solo bikes especially but the Sidecar racing is just as big here.  There was a time when the two sports shared the same venue in Mildura, but that has long since changed with the cars racing at Timmis at the western side of the city and the bikes and sidecars at Olympic Park.  Just to put the bike side of things and links to the UK into perspective names such as Phil Crump, Leigh Adams, Mark Lemon, Jason Lyons and Travis McGowan to name just a handful are Mildura natives and yes, ok, Jason Crump too although he was actually born in Bristol in England, he is still a Mildura boy really.   It might be a rural city in what feels like the middle of nowhere, and is, a bit of an oasis in the desert on the banks of the mighty Murray River but has forged such a name for itself globally.  I was recently asked by a friend in the UK, fully aware of Mildura but never been as to what it is like.  My answer was the first description that came into my head; “a cross between Las Vegas and Kings Lynn”.  Bizarre, but I think I will stick with that.

Prior to my two most recent trips to Mildura I headed to the south-east of South Australia and to the oh so near English climate of Mount Gambier.  A five-hour drive from Adelaide for a rarity here and that was a bit of racing on a school night.  When I was a young child, Thursday night WAS race night as I would sit at Primary School almost daydreaming about what I would see that same night at the old Aldershot Stadium.  Sadly, but also understandably the midweek meetings are nowhere near what they were in the UK and in Australia only concentrate around the big Sprint Car dates at the very sharp end of the season and that is the World Series dates and also the week leading into the famous Warnambool Classic – an almost de facto Australian Open Championship – that sees drivers from the USA join Australia’s best in an 100+ entry.  Due to my commitment at Timmis, I was never going to the Classic this year, but I did decide to do the Thursday road trip to the Borderline Speedway the night before the start of the Classic.  It rained all night the previous – a weather front that washed out the feature races at Avalon (near Melbourne) the previous evening and again it was a case as to whether I was wasting time and fuel.  I stopped in each town en route checking the social media pages, but no, the rain had passed and racing was going ahead.  Passing motorhomes and caravans with Sprint Car and Speedway stickers on gives that great road trip feeling, and arriving in the motel at Mount Gambier, which is a large but otherwise regional rural town and the owner says “everyone is here for the Speedway” is/was a great feeling 😊

Having a wander around the pits before a meeting is a privilege and not a right in Australia.  Restricted pit access is something that WILL come to the UK and Europe have no doubts.  I am happy to pay the little bit extra to have a look around at Murray Bridge for example, it is what it is, but it was great that for an hour in the afternoon at Mount Gambier there was open pit access.  Despite a chilly afternoon where the weather really did make me feel I was at Smeatharpe (complete with greenery!) it was a nice relaxed atmosphere with the big stars of the show such as Shane Stewart, Carson Macedo, Brooke Tatnell, James McFadden et al happily chatting to fans and none bigger than Kyle Larson stood to the edge of the trailer.  Fresh from winning Chillibowl, he was on a quick trip down under which was not to be a great success by his standards but great to see such a huge name in any case. Look out for future big name Sprint Car stars, the next generation such as Kalib Henry and Michael ‘Buddy’ Kofoid too who were present too.  The downside to the meeting was that it was a restricted entry of 48 and these were given on a first come first served basis which meant than even McKenna Haase and the then Australian Champion Andrew Scheuerle missed out.  But, if that was decided so be it.  Highly amusing to read on the social media and hear at the track of some of the Sprint Car fans bemoaning that “old things” (i.e. Vintage Sprint Cars) and worse still Junior Sedans were on the program “taking up pit space and time”.   The comparisons to certain BriSCA F1 die hards was uncanny but the truth was I very much doubt the supporting formulae had anything to do with the whys and how’s of the restricted entry.  The postscript of the night though was the inclement weather.  After a chilly but sunny evening until it went down, the rain was not forecast to return but did.  The kind of British rain, misty drizzle where it does not feel too much but you are actually getting soaked.  Eventually this got to the clay track and the meeting was called just ahead of the feature races which was a great shame and thus the Kings Challenge was won by ‘Mother Nature’ for the second time in a row and fourth time in total.

Finally, a big well done to my brother Matt and his small team for the superb presentation of his new KMR BriSCA F2 tarmac chassis for the new season.  Seen at the Autosport show, BriSCA F2 Awards evening and most recently the MWA where it was judged to be the best in show and with it the Colin North Memorial Trophy.  It is fair to say that we are all still coming to terms with the loss of Colin both as a person and all what he brought to the sport of Speedway on two and four wheels and he will be forever missed.  Do look at the steering wheel of the 464 car if and when you get the chance.

January 17

It is a much cooler, and in some places wetter Australia as I write this.  No rain where I am in Adelaide however.  The fires that have dominated the world news are largely under control thanks to the great work of the (mostly volunteer) fire fighters but it has been a tough time for sure.  The double edged sword of it all of course is that it has a trickle down effect (no pun) on sporting events that fall foul to the change in the weather and in Sydney this weekend, Paramatta to some, Valvoline Raceway to be precise there was to be a big Sprint Car double header over Friday and Saturday with a host of USA stars in the house, but one day has already been canned and the second day is (alas, I would say) unlikely.  But it is what it is.  Hopefully the weather down in the far south of Victoria this time next week, at Warnambool which has a climate not too far removed from that of Cornwall, for the Classic – Australia’s answer to Knoxville – will not have any such issues.  I will be on mic duty for a club show at Mildura over the same weekend so will have to give it a miss this year, but I do plan to go to the Kings Challenge on Thursday at Mount Gambier, just over the border in my home state of SA (but still a five hour drive away) where the entry had to be closed at 48 and a highly impressive one at that. 

Meanwhile in the UK, I have obviously been following the goings on at Birmingham Wheels with the closure of the facility and then the city council vote earlier this week to keep it closed.  It is easy to think that is the end, but Philip Bond, the former promoter of the oval racing at Wheels and still heavily involved with the facility and heading up the campaign to save it pointed out fairly quickly, it is not the end of the end just yet.  I mentioned the Sydney Speedway in the previous paragraph, as that too is set to close at the end of the 20-21 season with the New South Wales state government having taken the lease on the land (“owned” by “the crown”) to build a siding to house trains for a new light railway development to boost public transport in Sydney’s sprawling suburbs.  Nobody could really argue that the city there didn’t need the railway and it is unfortunaate that the site chosen is that of the Sydney Speedway, but it was the underhand way in which it was carried out. They totally blind sided  the Speedway owners/current tenants on the land was wrong.  There was a very public campaign to save the venue, recognition was raised and although the state government had already promised to supply an alternative venue, the campaign doubtless pushed them into properly doing so, and quickly.  A new venue will begin construction at Sydney Motorsports Park soon so that it can be in operation for the start of the 2021-2022 season.  What the NSW government did at the time when all of this came to light in October time seemed fairly outrageous but Birmingham City Council’s underhandedness have taken things to a whole new level by closing a facility they own claiming rent arrears by a trust they are in charge of.  You couldn’t make it up. Did they really think the small business’ that operate from Wheels were just going to say “never mind” ?  Sadly, as reported this week at the council meeting, they voted to press on with their plans but it is not that simple (thankfully) and those, such as the Bond family who are well switched on have eluded to various avenues that can be followed in the weeks ahead.  One of them is, in a similar fashion to Sydney, because it is the council closing a council owned sporting facilities they have to provide a replacement/s.  There is also some confusion as to whether Sport England are on the side of oval motor sport or not.  They provided no assistance at all with the closure of Wimbledon Stadium and, I believe much the same with the under-threat Belle Vue.  But, Philip Bond has confirmed that they are on board with Birmingham Wheels and are offering assistance.  So, the fight has to go on.  Use social media, the press, write letters to the local press, sign the petition if you haven’t already done so and generally make yourself, ourselves heard.

Many this week have been sharing their memories of Wheels. I have been thinking of mine and there are so many from going as a spectator, in what will be looked back on as glory days of F2 racing there in the 00’s and then in latter years until I moved to Australia as commentator and presenter when Deane, Paul and Adam invited me to be part of the bigger meetings staged there such as the majority of the BriSCA events, BWS for National Bangers and so on.  The Saturday night racing, with the city skyline in the background gave the place an electric and unique feeling, a throw back to days that even I do not really recall.  Whilst the actual track surface does raise questions to some re tyre wear, the wide open bends and straights make it a generally ‘driver friendly’ venue and with it being located centrally in England accessible from most parts of the United Kingdom.  Indeed, in many different formulae there it would almost be taken for granted for drivers from as far apart as Cornwall and Scotland to be lining up alongside each other.  Birmingham is a corner pin for BriSCA F1, F2 (especially) and National Hot Rods, their fixtures will be far poorer for the venues loss and then there are the local formulae which are stronger than many give credit to, and will lose a lot of their racing and it will filter down to a lot of small business’ across the region and across the country who could, or would ultimately lose custom and revenue.  It is a vicious circle. 

Situated where it is, and irrespective of what happens in the next few weeks, Wheels Park is going to close in its current form one day.  We must be realistic. The HS2 rail line is fabled to go through what is/was the car park (I believe) and inner city venues for motorsports, at least those that make a lot of noise and require a large pit area are no longer viable for a host of reasons, no matter what hemisphere you live in.   But, if and when it is to close its gates the place should do so with dignity and respect and this needs to be shown from Birmingham City Council and at this stage it is not. We need to stick together to make sure it is.

** UPDATE ** Minutes after I published this, news broke that Philip and Mark Bond and the rest of the campaign group to save the venue from (imminent) closure had done so.  Great news.  More details are to come of its future but for the 2020 oval racing season at the very least, it is back to business and all systems go.

January 5

A very happy new year to you!  It has been pointed out by several in the past few days that we are now as close to 2050, which sounds like something from the space age, as we are to 1990.  So if listening to “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice is your thing and Bert Finnikin winning the BriSCA F1 World title and Allister King bringing the F2 gold home at Cowdenbeath – or for my Australian readers – Garry Rush being National Sprint Car Champion - seems like yesterday to you then it is a scary thought…

Wherever you are in the world you will not have escaped the news of the bushfires that have affected Australia in the past few weeks.  I appreciate those that have sent me messages and I am safe, if that is the correct word, where I live in the far southern suburbs of Adelaide but there have been devastating fires not too far away.  Areas of the Adelaide Hills an hour in the car from me just before Christmas ruined homes, livelihoods, property and wildlife and only two days ago as I write this, and actually geographically closer in Kangaroo Island, a terrible fire that has decimated parts of what is an important island for South Australia’s tourism, ecology and agriculture. These are without those over on the east coast which have been the primary source of the world media coverage where almost whole towns have been raised and evacuations have had to take place.  Bush fires are, ever so sadly, a part of summer life in Australia but it goes without saying that these are unprecedented.  I am not going to go down the blame game route but, hopefully there will be thoughts going forward as to what can be done and fingers crossed that the remainder of the summer here can pass without too much more catastrophe. 

Racing wise for me here, I was honoured to be asked to be part of the Timmis Speedway team at Mildura once again over the Christmas period, where I joined Daniel Kirby, the voice of the Australian Allstars Sprint Car series and called the supporting races on the programme, some of which can be found on the Timmis Speedway YouTube channel.  Prior to this I was part of the huge crowd at Murray Bridge on Boxing Day for the opening round of the World Series.  It is not what it once was, the World Series, and the Boxing Day date in particular is one that many clubs and promotions want as a big pay day.  There were big Sprint Car meetings on the particular date in Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, Avalon (west of Melbourne) as well as the one in Murray Bridge all featuring big prize money and entrants from the United States such as Donny Schatz (in Brisbane), Shane Stewart (in Perth), Carson Mecedo and McKenna Haase (in Sydney) and Cory Eliason and Lucas Wolfe (Murray Bridge) to name but a few, joining the likes of USA domiciled Aussies Kerry Madsen and Brooke Tatnell as well as those known in the US and beyond such as James McFadden, Jamie Veal and Marcus Dumesny, again to name but a few.  This article http://www.theracetorque.com/2019/12/comment-boxing-day-speedway-should-be-bigger/ is by respected writer and commentator Richard Craill and he hits the nail on the head on so many things. Easy for me to write that I couldn’t have out it better myself, but what he writes will also resonate with many of those in other parts of the world whose sport, or the version thereof faces the same.  We know it is great but why don’t so many others and we are continually frustrated by many who will gladly tell you that they “used to go but have stopped” and then cannot really tell you why or what they now do instead. Alas I really cannot see Sprint Cars coming together for a big Boxing Day bash simply because, as Richard eludes to the venues are run by clubs and/or promotors whose venues need that revenue on that day for onward survival.  I do think that Speedway Australia could do more to “promote” the sport though through various means that are available (to them).  Yes, they are the governing body and thus legislators and insurers, in much the same way as the ORCi is in northern Europe.  But unlike in England (for example) it IS recognised as a sport here which makes a big difference and they do receive access to government fund packages that can be passed on to clubs around the country, if requested through the correct channels. They do employ full time salaried Development Officers (x 2) and a Youth Officer who could all be more visible than they appear to be, unless I am missing something obvious.

Also, there is more to the sport than just Sprint Car racing of course just as there is more than BriSCA F1 in Europe. Without the grass roots the system fails.  With no bottom rung there cannot be a top.  I have attended ‘club’ shows this season at Murray Bridge, where despite reasonable car counts I have been able to sit on the bank and actually count the heads in the crowd and this is just an observation rather than any kind of criticism of the venue itself, who when it comes to the promotion and social media DO do everything correctly.  But it needs the big pay days to survive but cannot just survive on the big pay days.  It is a vicious circle.  Yet are there enough “new” people coming to watch the club shows and get involved?  Here, just as in the UK and (maybe to a lesser extent) the Netherlands (as examples) those present appear to be there because they went as kids with their parents and in many cases their parents went as young with their parents.  There are too many classes/divisions many of which are simply too similar, but how can you cull some of these without risking upsetting those involved who may then turn their back on the sport and not to return.  It is probably up to those involved to take a good look at what happens next going forward.

There are more questions than answers.  Just as with many things in life.  We need to enjoy what we have but to do that we need to preserve it first.