In the 1993 movie Groundhog Day, US comedian Bill Murray plays Phil Connor, a TV weatherman, who – having been caught in a time loop while on assignment, finds himself re-living the same day for 10 years.
As someone whose job it is (or at least as someone who has a number of ‘jobs,’ one of which is to 1) cover the local motorsport scene, and 2) try and make sense out of it for the average fan, believe me, I know how Phil the weatherman must have felt!
Before I explain why though, let me first explain what I do, and why?
My main job (my ‘proper’ job if you like) is editing NZ4WD magazine. While my Ross MacKay/Fast Company by-line might well appear in magazines and on motorsport news and/or feature sites all over the world, I’ve never been able to make more than chump change from covering motorsport events here.
In fact, if I relied on the likes – as a lot of people obviously think I do – of magazines, newspapers, radio, TV etc to pay me for what I produce I’d would have starved to death many years ago.
I well remember, in fact some idiot functionary (seriously!!) offering me $20 a week for a syndicated motorcycle news column I had costed out at $150 per week if – and only if, mind – I could get four papers interested.
Yes there was a (little) bit of my reply which was printable (I asked the bugger if he knew what ‘a pound of butter’ cost, and though I can’t remember the exact response I can remember him getting it – well – wrong!).
So, no, I work for clients (like KartSport NZ, the Ultimate Rally Group (Targa and the Silver Fern rally), and the NZ F5000 & Historic Touring Car Associations) who have a story to tell but who are largely ‘locked out’ of mainstream media because……look there’s no nice way of putting this……because of the mainstream media’s long-time and on-going head-in-the-sand bias to stick ‘n ball and Olympic-type ‘athletic-endeavour’ sports.
You’d think, particularly with the 100th anniversary of New Zealand’s first major motorsport event – the dash along Auckland’s Muriwai Beach for the NZ Motor Cup won by Howard Nattrass on Saturday March 05 1921 – the jock straps whose job it is to ‘cover sport in all its riches’ would have worked it out by now.
But sadly, even 99 years later we are fobbed off by idiots claiming that ‘rugby sells newspapers not motor racing’ and that we should be happy with the odd snippet tucked away with the golf or bloody bowls results.
The silly thing is, is that newspaper readership and TV viewing figures are by and large plummeting, as consumers (that’s you and I) abandon old-skool ‘broadcast’ mediums for new-look ‘narrowcast’ platforms like websites and – more and more – YouTube.
I know in my family I am the only member left who relies on ‘The Herald’ for a general update of the state Kiwi sport; be it rugby (the All Blacks, the Highlanders and the great maroon ‘n golds (Southland!!), the Breakers (Basketball), the ‘Nix (soccer) and just recently, the Tuataras (Baseballl!!!).
I’d love to add – say – F1, Supercars, Formula E and even TRS to that mix but, bar the sterling work their part-time correspondent Eric Thompson puts in, the Herald has – of late particularly – become a motorsport-free zone.
It’s not just the smudgy, inky old print edition that suffers either. I have The Herald’s website as the home page on my laptop and mobile phone (out of habit) yet I can’t remember the last time a motorsport story made it onto high-rotate (OK I lie, I can, it was late last year and a cynical ‘beat-up’ after Scottie Mac won Bathurst and the Herald tried to earn some click-bait kudos by jumping on the ‘Fabian-gate’ band wagon).
That – in a nutshell – is the environment I work in. So is it any wonder I focus my press release pushes to dedicated motorsport news websites like Talk Motorsport & Velocity News here and sites like Historic Motor Racing News (out of Switzerland), and the UK’s Classic and Competition Car.
That said, in a lot of ways we don’t help ourselves; this past weekend was, in fact, a classic case in point.
Who, for instance, was the ‘Brainiac’ who decided it was a good idea to let two different promotors at two circuits on the SAME South Island run their biggest annual meetings ON THE SAME BLOODY WEEKEND?
Way back when I was planning my summer travel schedule I was actually so excited that D1NZ had done a deal to join the Speed Works summer tour at selected rounds I thought seriously of paying my way all the way to Teretonga just to be there as the country’s top drifters tried to come to terms with what I just knew would be one of the best ultra-high speed drift sections they had ever seen.
It was only when I was talking with Stephen Grellet from the Historic Touring Car (NZ) Association that I realised that the South Canterbury Car Club were planning their own Trust Aoraki Thunder Down Under meeting at Levels Raceway the same weekend as the Speed Works’ ‘National’ one at Teretonga.
“But isn’t the Timaru ‘classic’ meeting usually held the weekend BETWEEN Skope (Feb 1 & 2 this year) and the Southland club’s Classic Speedfest (Feb 15 & 16 this year),” I asked.
Stephen wasn’t sure but when I checked the club’s calendar, that was indeed the case.
As it turned out the Thunder Down Under was what I’ve always known as Timaru’s ‘Truck meeting’ and it suited the Historic Touring Car guys better this year because it gave most a chance to ‘get their eye in’ and cars dialled in ahead of the 30th annual Skope Classic, plus gave them an extra weekend to sort any issues out ahead of their final round at the much anticipated George Begg Classic Speedfest.
As late as mid-January I was still trying to get to both meetings, but in the end decided that it would compromise my ability to do justice to a paying client (The HTC (NZ) Assoc) if I – say – flew in to Q-town or Ingill and spent Saturday watching the Valvoline D1NZ drifters at Teretonga then drove the five or so hours to Timaru later that night or early the next morning for the ‘Thunder meeting.
As it turned out I stayed home, covering the Archibald’s Historic Touring Car Series with the help of a great new photographer – Andrew Daniel – my old mate Euan Cameron had recommended, and really enjoying the ‘live’ Sky TV coverage of the drifting.
Again, it was by no means perfect – the event and the coverage of same – but it certainly made great TV.
On which point I’d like to pat the odd head and kick any number of arses.
Let’s start with the head pats.
To Brendon White of D1NZ and Geoff Short of Speed Works, your decision to join forces for the Teretonga and Pukekohe rounds of what is effectively the ‘national summer motor racing series’ was – from this TV viewers’ perspective anyway – a master stroke.
It’s just a pity that MotorSport NZ allowed the South Canterbury club to run what effectively was a ‘spoiler meeting’ – literally – just up the road.
Sure, it was ‘disguised’ as the club’s long-standing annual ‘Truck meeting. But with both Muscle Car categories (the successful Australasian ‘Central’ and increasingly popular local ‘Mainland’ versions) as well as Historic Touring Cars, and grid-busting South Island 2K Cup categories on the support roster it was a meeting your typical South Island fan wouldn’t want to miss.
Because of this I shudder to think what the ‘gate’ would have looked like at Teretonga had not all the curious Millennials rocked up in their Rangers, Colorados and Mitsi Triton utes to finally see D1-level Pro drifting ‘in the flesh.’
Speaking of millennials did anyone (other than me?) notice the absolute gulf in terms of personality and camera-friendliness between the drifters and the ‘future champions’ of the Castrol Toyota Racing Series?
Pick a drifter – any drifter – and he came across as someone happy in his work.
Never mind that the field was a tad light – so a good solid arse-kicking should be administered to any of the North Islanders who decided not to make the trip because ‘it was too far,’ or was going to cost ‘too much to get there and back.’ It’s a ‘national’ series after-all, not a bloody ‘Auckland’ one.
Also, and this arse-kick goes right to the top, to round winner Cole Armstrong. If you are building a killer ‘new’ car, make sure it is ready for the opening round……
We all love your old 4-door R34 Skyline, Cole, but mate it looked like a missile (not in a good way, either) out there. If you’re going to ‘represent’ your new sponsor you need to do it in your new car, not your practise one.
While I’m on the subject of ‘representing’ our sport a word or two needs to be whispered in the ear of the producer of the Sky Sport ‘live stream.’
Mate you really deserve a solid kick up the arse for all those lazy pan shots of the crowd lining the drift section you obviously thought went with the drifting (but not the Castrol TRS or Best Bars 86 class action).
You know, the ones of all the young blokes and blokesses in their singlets, rugby shorts and jandals, smoke (or vape thingy) in one hand, stubbie in the other….
I’m sure there were plenty of other things to pan across when there were no drift cars to focus on.
Finally, to the Castrol TRS now and what a serious (nah boring!) bunch the leading group of drivers made when they were lined up for a ‘to-camera’ interview session I stumbled upon while waiting for the drifting coverage to start.
Without commentator (and fellow Talk Motorsport columnist) Jonathan Green to coax some life out of them they all seemed the antithesis of the assertive, confident young stars they are with their helmets on.
Fortunately for us we have Liam ‘Awesome’ Lawson in the field. Though every so often he, too, seems to succumb to the ‘he hit me’ school of press conference and press release petulance, which is frankly unbecoming in one so young, so talented and with such an amazing future in front of him.
Finally, to whoever is responsible for coordinating MotorSport NZ’s competition calendar, I say this;
You’ve done it before, I know because I used to fly to and from Christchurch then ride a motorcycle to Invercargill one weekend, Timaru the next.
So, do it again. Levels if you remember, hosted the first round of the TRS and like Mike Pero Motorsport Park just up the road in Christchurch, could – indeed should – host more, even if it is on a year-on/year-off basis.
That way I – and I would imagine a lot of plain simple old motor racing enthusiasts – will be able to plan with some certainty which meetings to attend without having to toss a coin – or check out the lawn for Groundhog burrows.
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