THE THIRD BIKE IS NOW READY PICS OF MY HELPER AS WELL

[jimg1au]

[bazza]

 How cools that!!! enjoy him while you still have him

[firko]

Good work Jim. I see you got your Champion tank back. I've gotta love your foam bar pad! What front wheel are you running?
It's good to see the old fella out in the shed with you. He might not show it but he'd be loving every minute. I must get my old mum into the shed to give me a hand!

[Freakshow]

pic 2 reminds me of a photo bomb.....
or in our office we call it prarie doggin.
leave now .  see you there jim

[matcho mick]

vans loaded,2 working bycicles ,late lunch& i'm gone,safe trip everyone,
ps can see where Jimbo gets his smiley face from

[Freakshow]

ont forget me bike and remeber look after the rear guard or take it off !!!

see you trackside ol timer

[Curly3]

It'll go like the clappers now Jim, bin fettled by one of the best.
Safe trip to everyone, see you there.

[Grasy 6]

Good to see ya bikes Jim,hope the ol fella enjoyed the mateship. See ya on Sat .We are loaded ready to go will be there about 2.00 pm Friday. Got about 25 Grifffith dudes coming for a campfire party.The Don will be threre to with the concrete shoe mould .

[supersenior 50]

Safe riding and travelling to all. Cant be there but wish you all good luck 

[Curly3]

Been run & won Col, we missed you.

[52]

Yep sorry I missed you Col, love to put the Championship back the way it was, we miss the younger guns and their enthusiasium at our Dirt Track Championship. Can it happen? It did not work with the MX and funnily enough no Club wants to run the later, ie post 1978 classes, as a Championship either.
Very simply the idea of a seperate championship is no good for Dirt Track, somebody changed it, can they put it back and save our younger lads ( post '78 riders) from burning their bikes and leaving the Classic movement forever. Peter Lee 52.

[firko]

Yep sorry I missed you Col, love to put the Championship back the way it was, we miss the younger guns and their enthusiasium at our Dirt Track Championship. Can it happen? It did not work with the MX and funnily enough no Club wants to run the later, ie post 1978 classes, as a Championship either.
Very simply the idea of a seperate championship is no good for Dirt Track, somebody changed it, can they put it back and save our younger lads ( post '78 riders) from burning their bikes and leaving the Classic movement forever. Peter Lee 52.

Pete, one of the big misconceptions here is that clubs have to observe the split. It's entirely up to the promoting club as to which classes and format are used. The split was introduced to enable a club to fit all of the classes at the vintage motocross Nats. That event had grown to the point that it was becoming very difficult to fit every class from pre 60 through to pre 90 into the one weekend. The only reason there was a problem with the split in the motocross side was the odd decision to race the inaugural Post Classic Nats in geographically undesirable Tasmania. The Classic Nats for pre 78 and earlier in Queensland was an outstanding success and if the Post Classic Nats had been held on the mainland I have no doubt that it would have been equally as successful. To say that "it did not work with the MX" is not quite right.

I've been told that the Canberra club wanted to run the full gamut of classes but MA presented them with an extra $2000 permit fee to run both divisions together. Faced with an expense they didn't want the club opted to run the event only for pre 78 and earlier...Classics. It's a bit unfair to blame the instigators of the split when the actual villain was a permit fee double dipping MA. Col Metcher and the Commission are well aware the splitting of the Nats is not yet necessary for the dirt track side of our sport yet that message seems to have been lost in the beaurocracy.

Having said that, the "split" had little, in anything to do with the piss poor entry roll up in a number of classes. For the previously well supported pre 70/250 class to be cancelled for lack of entries, for pre 65 to only be able to rustle up two or three entries, for only two sliders and three sidecars to enter and a number of other classes poorly supported one would have to look deeper into just why the racers stayed away. My mate and I did a mental tally and came up with almost fifteen racers who hadn't entered the pre '65 and pre'70 classes alone. That the meeting was a success despite the weather, low entries and split problem was a credit to the Canberra club and the dedicated officials who made it happen.

Let's hope the glitches can be fixed before next years event.

[52]

How do we fix it, I have been involved with the promotion of the Nats, I can't see how to do it.
Our club alone would have had another 5-10 riders attend if they had the opportunity to contest an Australian Championship.
Our guys are pretty annoyed they have spent big bucks to develope a bike to compete and then the goal posts move.
I understand ACT not shelling out the monies and going with the strongest period, but we will lose the next crowd if it is not correctted, and when our generation pass on so will Classic Dirt Track.
The shame of it is it is not so far away.
Classic Dirt Track is not Classic MX, far from it.
Numbers wise I thought the meet was all that could be exspected, run well and great fun.
Congratulations to the Canberra Club.

[firko]

How do we fix it, I have been involved with the promotion of the Nats, I can't see how to do it.

First up, get MA to pull their fee structure back to an affordable level. Charging clubs double the permit fee to run all classes is greedy and detrimental to the future of any big meetings promoted by small clubs. The simple solution is for the permit fee to be $3000 for all classes from pre 60 to pre 85 inclusive. If for some reason the event is split the fee should be $2000 per event because of reduced entry potential.
The next situation to remedy is to find out why the entries in certain classes were down at Canberra when compared to previous years. Perhaps the promotion wasn't as well planned as it was in previous events in Queensland, Griffith and even as far back as Wagga. For there to be only two sliders and three sidecars in attendance, almost bugger all pre 70/250 entries, a dismal three pre 65 entries and other classes to be under subscribed something has gone wrong somewhere. The reasons for the lack of entries needs to be found and a plan undertaken to fix whatever it was that caused it. The Classic Dirt Track Nats must remain unsplit to encourage, as Pete said the next generation of racers to get involved.

The promoting club for next years Nats needs to go all out with promotion on social media and forums as well as the traditional 'free plugs' and paid ads in the moto press, they'll need to keep the Nats in everyones mind, all the time. They'll have to make their event attractive for racers to want to be a part of the experience. Promote it like a club day and you'll get a club day response. Promote it like it's to be the biggest and best Nats ever and you'll get 'em there. The classes that suffered at Canberra need to be singled out for extra focus. We all know that there are shitloads of pre '70/250 and pre '65 bikes out there so their owners have to be convinced to attend.

Frankly, I don't think the event is broken. If both divisions are included in the one event we'll see the growth return. The ball's in MA's court. They created the problem and it's up to them to fix it.

[Curly3]

We need to make some serious noise.
Lobby your club to send a submission to MA to change their ruling, Classic DT is still a few steps behind Classic MX, as much as I hate to admit it.
It needs to be a concerted effort from all clubs not just a few.
Spread the word.