We really need to talk it up and promote it.
And therin lies the secret of a well supported meeting.......the big sell. The first challenge, one that I touched on earlier is to get the motocross population to come out and give it a go. I'm always surprised when I speak to guys who'll travel all over to ride a motocross event but have never tried dirt track. I come from an era when we raced everything we could, there might be a motocross at Amaroo one week and a dirt track at Nepean the following weekend and we didn't think twice about it. All it took was a tyre swap, some gearing changes and we were ready. The scene started to change when long travel suspension came in making the bikes a bit more specialised. In reality though, a stock height Evo or pre 90 bike can still be a formidable dirt tracker. In the 80's bikes were radically lowered and fitted with road race suspension and tyres but with oiled, hardpack tracks all but gone from the scene, the stock set up works fine. Try it, you'll probably like it.
The other challenge is to get the vibe happening. Talk it up on the forums, making the event out to be the best thing you can do on two wheels. The days of putting on a race meeting and expecting riders to show up without any enticement are long gone. In the 21st century we've got too many activities in our lives so dirt track needs to sell itself to those punters who are sitting on the fence. We also need to somehow get the traditional classes up and running again. Wayne Gardner and Paul Caslick with help from MANSW and MA did their best to get rid of the sliders from our sport so if we want to bring 'em back we have to chase their owners down, find out why they no longer race their sliders and see what can be done to bring them back out. It's no good talking about it on forums, we have to physically approach these guys and lure them back.
As much as we need to maintain and encourage the traditional categories like sliders and sidecars, we also need to encourage the introduction of newer classes such as American style "framer" short trackers and big 750cc flat trackers. There are a surprising number of these bikes sitting in sheds all over Oz because there's no real place for them to race each other. Build a class for them and they'll come (
with the same human interaction called for to get the sliders back). I can think of at least fifteen of these bikes owned by forum members alone.
All over NSW and elsewhere there are a large number of great dirt track venues that are maintained by enthusiastic clubs. I'd bet that there's more dirt track than motocross venues in bush NSW. The changes in Nepean since the new crew have taken over are nothing short of amazing. These people do it to make our racing experience as safe and enjoyable as possible so we need to support the effort they put into the tracks or otherwise they will eventually walk away because they think they've done it all for nothing.
