Is Phiilip Island a safe race track??

[Denosaur]

Originally Posted by NewsStalker

Re the Herald Sun article - does anyone else find Cameron's remarks a little at odds with reality given that for (how many years?) he was a co-owner of the track and none of these 'safety improvements' were considered or mentioned during that time?

That aside - no matter what improvements or changes are made to the track (any track for that matter) cars and drivers will always try and drive/race on what isn't really there. For example drivers will ***** about a corner 'not being wide enough' so the track owner widens the track by, say, a metre. Give it 12 months and drivers will again start to complain the corner isn't right 'for their cars' so the owner is, again, forced to make further changes. This has happened at numerous circuits and will, no doubt, happen no matter what the Fox's do at the Island.

Back when he was a co-owner they were in it for the money. Property prices down there for that sort of sized land have gone through the roof over the last 8 years. The previous owners sold up at the right time and did what they set out to achieve in the first place, make a decent profit from there investment. Before Linfox bought the place, they would be lucky to break even for a Supertaxi round down there. After it got sold, VE$A tried to pull the wool over the new owners and had no luck, hence why VE$A promote and run the weekend.

If it wasn't for the purchase of the place by Linfox, then the facilities would have gone down hill, and things like the concrete wall wouldn't have happened. I don't think the previous owners wanted to spend the money, unlike Linfox who have established a plan to improve the place over time and get it up to a higher standard. Then again I could be wrong about the previous owners.

[Denosaur]

Originally Posted by NewsStalker

Re the Herald Sun article - does anyone else find Cameron's remarks a little at odds with reality given that for (how many years?) he was a co-owner of the track and none of these 'safety improvements' were considered or mentioned during that time?

That aside - no matter what improvements or changes are made to the track (any track for that matter) cars and drivers will always try and drive/race on what isn't really there. For example drivers will ***** about a corner 'not being wide enough' so the track owner widens the track by, say, a metre. Give it 12 months and drivers will again start to complain the corner isn't right 'for their cars' so the owner is, again, forced to make further changes. This has happened at numerous circuits and will, no doubt, happen no matter what the Fox's do at the Island.

Back when he was a co-owner they were in it for the money. Property prices down there for that sort of sized land have gone through the roof over the last 8 years. The previous owners sold up at the right time and did what they set out to achieve in the first place, make a decent profit from there investment. Before Linfox bought the place, they would be lucky to break even for a Supertaxi round down there. After it got sold, VE$A tried to pull the wool over the new owners and had no luck, hence why VE$A promote and run the weekend.

If it wasn't for the purchase of the place by Linfox, then the facilities would have gone down hill, and things like the concrete wall wouldn't have happened. I don't think the previous owners wanted to spend the money, unlike Linfox who have established a plan to improve the place over time and get it up to a higher standard. Then again I could be wrong about the previous owners.

[NewsStalker]

This is a business though - and this definately isn't the forum to start airing political views.

[PVDA]

Linfox came in and upped the hire rate for the complex (that is what you pay to use the place) and they've done to it what they've had to do to keep it's licence.

The motel & golf course they are trying to build next door is going to be the main money spinner for Linfox but they keep getting political hurdles thrown in front of them which is stopping them from proceeding.

The other thing to remember is Lindsay Fox is a cars man, just look at his car collection in Docklands, and his support of the Geelong Speed Trials certainly kept that event going a lot long than it probably would've.

[MPA]

No PVDA I don't think I missed your point. Both of us know what can happen when a car hits a tyre wall at speed on a slight angle. You've noticed the concrete wall opposite pit lane.......How much more high speed, slight angle can you get?

Originally Posted by PVDA

I noticed with interest that a short section of the wall opposite the pit lane has only just been replaced by concrete and wonder when the rest of the circuit will be done and why they bothered to replace just that small section in the first place.

As for the rest of the track, I guess we'll have to wait and see. But most of the improvements I mentioned were done before the place was sold to Fox, so Big Trev's Liberal remarks can be discounted.

But for me, its that tyre wall driver's left on the entry to turn one. What does it do apart from protect the CCTV pole and the occasional recovery vehicle. Mate I'd flatten that and put a small but better wall down near point 3 to cover the back of Post 3 and the access road to the southern loop.

[Troy]

This is why tyre filled earth banks need to be removed from racetracks - just ask Terry Finnigan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghAUR...eature=related

[Trevor]

No matter what they do with stuff for driver safety down there, they (V8SC's) are going to continue to struggle to get fans to go there.

They pinched the 500 off Sandown to try to improve the fan numbers, but alas their plan wasn't too succuesful. hahahahaha

[NewsStalker]

They didn't 'pinch' the 500 off Sandown, Sandown lost it because it couldn't keep up with the 21st century - plain and simple - look back towards its former promoter and you will understand why.

[Trevor]

Oh yes they did!

They wanted "their" (V8SC's) event to succeed at any cost and what they did was take a successful event from Sandown and 'relocated' it to the Island to prop up their own numbers and it didn't work.

The numbers of fans at Sandown over the last few years were quite significant, I mean in the 30,000 to 40,000 range for Sunday, there was no way that there were that many down at the Island for all 3 days put together.

My theory is "if it ain't broken, don't try to fix it", V8SC's tried and failed - a great bit LOL to them.

[MPA]

Trev....The 500 at Sandown was "their" (V8SC) event.... Davo has not promoted the event in years.

So why move it to Phillip Island in a pinch?

[Woolley]

The problem is, you can't predict the impact.

If you're going in at 45deg, then a concrete wall is good, and tyres probably not so.

Head on? Anything's better than concrete. Except trees, of course (rally boys will understand.

At 25deg, I'll take tyres with earth, because empty ones will probably throw you back onto the track in front of the traffic and concrete will cause a nasty twist injury on the neck...

So what I really want is lots of distance between the track and the wall. Unless I'm a marshal, because now I'm at more risk than the drivers.

Not easy, is it? Any improvement in one area tends to have an opposite effect on another.

[champcarman]

I think PI is now a lot safer than Bathurst.

What improvements have been made to Bathurst since the sad events of 2006?

At least at PI they have done something which is a lot more than the people at the "sacred site" have done.

[MPA]

Fair comment Champcarman.

A track like Bathurst will punish more small driver errors than PI.

[275 GTB-4]

Originally Posted by MPA

Fair comment Champcarman.

A track like Bathurst will punish more small driver errors than PI.

I think its unfair to single out the likes of Bargs, the Rat and say Denyer....the track demands precise steering and peddling...errors are punished...no matter who is behind the wheel or whether they are sitting on a woopeee cushion.

[MPA]

275 GTB-4, when I said "Small" Driver error, I was not talking about the nominal seated height of the carbon based ballast................




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