Amateur hour! Or why we need a major new event to focus attention on our best local (Tier 2) categories

Yes, well, as we hit the traditional mad run-up to Easter contemplating a third week of self-isolating all I can say is thank goodness for the odd bit of levity injected in my day by friends on Facebook.

“Haven’t had to open my wallet at all this week,” said one.

‘Time for a coffee and catch-up…. next year!” dead-panned another.

With plenty of ‘proper job’ work to do – albeit with no real guarantee, like most Kiwis I guess, that that proper job will still be there once the COVID-19 thing is contained, time is definitely not dragging.

That said it’s certainly felt kind of strange these past three weeks not to be chasing up entry lists, putting out press releases and generally preparing to report on KartSport New Zealand’s annual National Sprint championships, which this year were to be held in Christchurch.

2020 would, after-all, have been my 20th year doing that particular job, a significant milestone in anyone’s life, working or otherwise.

No use dwelling on it though, or anything else COVID-19 related for that matter.

For those of you who worked their way to the end of my Talk Motorsport column last week (and yes, I know some of them can get  a bit long and drawn-out, which I must try and do something about) you might recall a promise I made – after laying out my ‘dream Tier 1 scenario’ – that this week I would reveal a similarly ‘cunning’ plan to breathe new life into Tier 2.

That plan revolves around the creation of what I suppose you could call a ‘gala multi-day marquee event’ where the ultimate National ‘bragging rights’ for each invited class are contested and decided.

What our local motor racing ‘scene’ is going to look like later this and early next year is – of course – a bit of a moot point.

Many of us are, whether we like it or not, going to have to focus ALL of our attention on actually ‘making money to eat and pay the mortgage’ rather than ‘spending more than we’d like to admit’ on ‘goin’ rac’n.’

Yet therein lies the ultimate truth of our local scene……. we’re all amateurs, no matter how we much money we put into presenting ourselves as professionals.

So….my argument goes, let’s be 100 % honest with ourselves here, and split our racing into Pro and Am ranks…. like the rest of the world.

The ‘Pro’ I’ve already proffered my opinion on – that was the subject of last week’s column.

Now, (drum roll please!) here’s what I think (and why!!) the ‘Am’ side of things should look like.

At the absolute core of this concept is club racing; you know where most of us started and some are happy to stay. These days, of course, clubs don’t need a bricks ‘n mortar ‘clubrooms either.

The one I belong to, the Historic Racing Club (HRC), offers me -virtually (in both meanings and senses of the word ) – everything I need ; from a calendar chock full of meetings (or at least it did before the current COVID-19 crisis forced it, like the rest of us, into lockdown), plus a link to MotorSport NZ for access to a competition licence and car log book.

Nowadays MotorSport NZ is not the only event permitting and sanctioning body in town either. The various LeMons endurance events and now Targa now do theirs via the Australasian Auto-Sport Alliance.

The reason I raise clubs and club events, however, is that they are primarily organised by club members for club members and the only spectators are usually family members and friends of friends.

Though these days I usually only drag my old Skyline out of the shed for grass roots drift days, I really enjoyed the low-key atmosphere and casual, friendly, camaraderie of the HRC and Auckland Car Club club race days I did for a couple of seasons before I discovered drifting.

Therefore I think that more effort needs to go into ‘selling them’ to competitors rather than the ‘dream’ of the series-based ‘regional’ Tier 2 meetings where sponsors are sought, events advertised and spectators encouraged to come along and see ‘racing at its best.’

Super Six

The problem here, is that most of the time at typical regional meetings (those say, which might have Formula First, Honda Cup, the Mazda Racing Series and Pre-65/NZ Six classes on the menu) ‘racing at its best’ will be the last thing you will see.

You will see a lot of cars, running around and around, but the cut-and-thrust of heart-in-your-mouth ‘racing?’

Not so much.

Because?

Because most of these classes are one-make ‘car-builder’ rather than ‘car racer’ categories, with the rules so tightly written that where you qualify is usually where you finish.

Despite appearances – shiny paint with lots of ‘sponsors’ logos plastered all over their cars – budgets would appear as tight as the way the rules are written. And each class appears to have some sort of ‘driving standards’ policeman as well; meaning contact is actively discouraged and if you ‘rock the boat’ by playing a little car-on-car pinball you will be encouraged to ‘take your toy and play with it elsewhere.’

Which, in a roundabout way is one of the (many) reasons for the proliferation of classes, categories and series blighting our sport at the moment.

Contrast the current ‘processional’ nature of racing at one of these meetings with the ‘blink-and-you’ll miss it’ action in similarly restrictive, effectively one-make, KartSport classes at the moment, and, like me probably, you’ll wonder why some of these blokes and blokesses bother……

But I digress.

Let’s say that ‘MotorSport NZ’ or (to really throw a cat amongst the pigeons, the AASA) decided to create a new regional series Tier 2 ‘super-meeting,’ which we will call the…Valvoline New Zealand Championship Runoffs presented in association with…Kumho, Hankook etc.

Entry for this five-day (Wed-Sun) meeting would be by invitation-only…with the guiding principle the size and quality of the fields and the amount of mullah a category could bring to the table.

Danny Whiting Porsche 911

That’s right, because there’d be no pussyfooting around the commercial viability of my premier Tier 2 meeting. It would be pay’n play…. or piss-off.

If I had my way, it would be a competitor-only event, however seeing how events from other spheres of the motoring/motorsport universe seem to attract ‘folks’ out of nowhere (Repco Beach Hop at Whangamata being one, Americarna New Plymouth another, plus the many and varied Drift Matsuri meetings I’ve attended at Taupo’s Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park) I think that in this case I’d make an exception.

Timewise ‘now-ish’ would be good. Though I’d be loath to load the annual Easter weekend with yet another event.  Also having already completed a full class or category title season, budgets might not allow everyone a ‘final (particularly multi-day) fling.’

That said, we’re talking hypotheticals at the moment so let’s pencil in a ‘long-weekend’ in late March….

The reason we are doing this, remember, is to provide a showcase for all the many and varied classes still running championship series.

While I wouldn’t discount the use of one of our successful ‘classic’ Muscle Car classes as a headliner one year my idea here is really to challenge the current contemporary categories to up their game.

To put their money where their mouths are, in other words,

For the idea to really work I’m adamant that it needs to be multi-day and it needs some sort of active trade show/car display/seminar programme/merchandise component as well.

It has, in other words, to be an ‘event’ rather than just another race meeting…. because we have already got too many of those!

Imagine for instance the anticipation you would feel (as a competitor, team member, person in the trade, category tragic  or plain, simple old fan) if and when you first saw tickets going on sale for a season-ending, five-day bender of an event at – you’d probably want to run the first one at Taupo because of the allies accommodation, food and drink and other entertainment options – where every one of your ‘did-I-have-a-great-time-or-what’ receptors was triggered.

Sure, it would take a massive effort, not to mention show of faith, from the person or persons who took the idea and ran with it. But when I did a quick count-up of people involved in classes I think would be perfect (starting, say, with a full field of those awesome GTR NZ class cars, then working through with the likes of a combined ITM New Zealand Formula Ford and South Island F1600 championships series field then including the 2KCup and BMW E30 Series in both islands, the North Island-only BNT V8s, SsangYong Ute Racing series, Ryco 24/7 NZ V8 Utes series, Pirelli Porsche Championship, Hi-Q Components NZ Formula First championship, Motul Honda Cup, Nexen Tyres Mazda Racing Series, Kumho Tyres Pre-65s, Super Sixes etc, I came up with a starting list of over 350 possibles, and another 100-or so ‘probables’ if you expanded your horizons to  include one of the retro-style muscle car classes.

SIFF Race 1 start, Wigram Cup Nov 2019 Photo: Terry Marshall/Euan Cameron Photography

I’m not finishing either. Imagine if, having seen for themselves how good the first Valvoline ‘event’ was members of the South Island Formula Ford Association asked if they could run their own Brands Hatch-style NZ Formula 1600 Festival at the next one.

Of course, my answer, as he bloke behind it, would be ‘what a fantastic idea, let’s do it….and this is what it is going to cost!

So please, I’d like your comments, ideas and feedback whether you agree with my basic premise or not.

Once I have read, analysed and thought them through I’m going to launch into the third (and hopefully final) part of my trilogy on sorting our sport’s ills – how to put the ‘classic’ back into ‘classic racing.’

Until then, again, stay safe, stay strong and soon this whole COVID-19 Coronavirus will be behind us.

Ross MacKay is an award-winning journalist, author and publicist with first-hand experience of motorsport from a lifetime competing on two and four wheels. He currently combines contract media work with weekend Mountain Bike missions and trips to grassroots drift days.

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