Whether the Barrabool or Broadford facility is better (or worse) than each other is irrelevant, the issue was raised to get an insight as too how the facility degraded to what was witnessed last weekend given that reports of no or very litle rain precipitated in the days leading up to the event. If indeed it rained for days leading up to the event then it is a moot point, but that appears to not be the case.
Via a press release from the state based management committee, it went to great lengths to tell the industry and its supporters how good the Broadford facility would be for the upcoming MX round at Broadford. Specific points were made of;
- A new more efficient irrigation system was installed allowing for greater control of water management aimed at minimising wastage
- A lot of preparation was done to get it ready for the event
- Developing a track of this standard is geared around future-proofing the facility.
- The motocross track is in the best condition it has ever been and that a lot of hard work has gone into bringing the track up to a world-class standard
The industry and to a certain degree the riders will say (publically) that the track was “challenging” (or) “it rewarded individuals with skill & setup” (or) “preparation was the key to a good result”, the reality is that it was disappointing to see a national level facility deliver a racing surface that from what we have been told needn’t have been.
This is not the first time that Broadford has been subjected to such scrutiny in both the lead up to (&) post an event. I can remember a HBBB where the track was flooded to a point where the overflow of the irrigated water coming off the track flooded the camping area. If my memory serves me correct a Vintage Motocross Nationals a few years back suffered the same fate.
Social media channels, dependent of time zones and media editing, can publish to the world media sites video & still images in many cases before we get to see it here in Australia. You can only image what the majority of international fans of motocross thought when they clicked on the Racer-X link to watch highlights of a round of the Australian MX championships. They were probably thinking that it was a round of a local hare scramble in the outback somewhere.
Someone within the state based management committee needs to investigate this issue to identify what occurred during lead up to the event, and more specifically what occurred on the weekend itself. There should be some lessons learnt from this, as there should have been from previous events looking towards process and planning to ensure that there is not a repeat of this in the future.
At the end of the day MV made some very bold statements in their press release and the reality of the weekend is far removed from those statements, not withstanding that if the weather played a significant role in the result then it would been out of their control. I need to believe that Andrew Weiss & Paul Bray are at least a little bit embarrassed and disappointed as to the final outcome of the third Round of the 2013 Monster Energy MX Nationals.
