Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry S
I have just been reading the latest Australian Muscle Car Mag (issue#104) and very pleased to see that Luke West in his Editorial Column is very much in agreement with me on querying what has happened to race day programmes.
I quote from his opening:
"What ever happened to a good old fashioned day at the races, I ask you?
I'm talking a Sunday when you parked your butt trackside to enjoy a quick-fire program of 15-18 sprints . .. You would set up shop where you could see a goodly proportion of the track and settle in for the day".
He goes on to bemoan many of the things I detest such as pitstops, delays between races, failure to see much of the action at street circuits etc. etc.
In the old days a day at the races was entertainment. It is generally agreed that the most exciting part of any race is the start, so the more races the better.
Just looking at three random Oran Park programmes for race days I attended for the number of races there were on Sunday. In November 1965 it was 17, in July 1966 it was 19, and in May 1967 it was 18.
West finishes with" While other sports are moving to improving facilities for crowds, motorsport has made visiting a circuit less enticing".
I commend this article for your reading.
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Terry,
Obviously you have not been to SMSP the last few years where the ARDC has run a number of rounds of the CAMS State MRC with Qualifying and Races on Saturday being in the high teens with similar numbers for Sunday.
In some cases a category will have qual and 3 or 4 races on the Saturday and Supercarts would do likewise on Sunday.
Usually great racing right through the programme however it is up to the drivers to provide that -sometimes no matter the number of entrants in a particular race it can be a procession yet sometimes a small field will put on sensational dicing.
Supercars can field 26 cars yet processions regularly occur unfortunately.