Firko, what are the traditions of dirt track that will be lost forever out of all this???
Where do I start Elsie! Let's go with tracks. The simple concept of dirt track has always been 'speedway with a right hand turn'. By increasing the number of corners, the length of the races and standardizing the sufaces we are taking away the unique
Australian developed experience that dirt track currently is and turning into a hodge podge combination of American TT racing, European motard with a touch of motocross thrown in (
if the bizarre rumour that a jump is to be included on some tracks is true!). The uniqueness of the Aussie dirt track and the machines that compete on it are being shuffled onto the good ship Obsolete.
the sliders will be getting a class of there own from 2010...
And hearin lies the whole bunfight that's about to erupt.
Tradition in Aussie dirt track is the slider. With the proposed changes the slider will become dormant and unusable on the proposed "technical" tracks with their multiple turns. What a patronising joke it is to announce that sliders will have their own class in 2010. If the proposed rules are anything like the rubbish Penrith club are schlepping out at their meetings where sliders aren't permitted to race against motocross based bikes "
for safety reasons" where the rocket scientists at that club have decreed that all of a sudden there is a safety "problem" that has materialised over the last 12 months. One of the unique features of Aussie dirt track since the Hagon style slider first appeared in the early sixties have been the competition between the two types of machines on the same track at the same time trying to achieve the same result....i.e. win the bloody race. The differing cornering styles has produced competition different to any other form of motorsport. Penrith club (
and I presume MNSW and MA) in their illconcieved attempt to "make the sport safer" now plonk
all sliders into the one class. This stupid decision sees an AT1 125 Yamaha powered slider in the same race as a fire breathing Godden or GM. Now if that isn't an infinitely more dangerous situation than running similar capacity "chookies" and sliders together I'll bare my arse on National TV!
Now we have an MA and MNSW that appear to have folded under the pressure from outside lobbyists to push the slider into the sad role of being a laughing stock by 1: putting all capacities in together and 2: putting them on tracks to which they are totally unsuited.
the current state of dirt track discourages new growth into the sport in the modern bikes, eg a competitive 450 needs to have 55HP, it has become an expensive sport and in return competitor numbers are suffering.
How are these proposed changes going to prevent people modifying their bikes? The whole
tradition of dirt track harks back to the immediate post war when very few could afford new competition machines so, using home grown bush engineering they modified what they had to produce horsepower figures that the original manufacturers would never have envisioned.
The home modified bike combined with methanol and a lot of individual chassis surgery produced very fast and efficient race machines. That hot up tradition has always been a part of our sport, going from the highly modified iron barrelled Beezas producing nearly 50hp in the 50's right through to Shawn Giles 90hp CR500 in the 80's to the trick CR/YZ450s of the present day. Modifying dirt track bikes is an integral part of the sport. How are the modifications going to be scrutinised? Whata shitfight it'll become if they start to limit engine or chassis mods. The cheats will have a ball finding new ways of beating the system and spectators will miss out on the sight and sound of of a full house race engine, to be replace by soullless proddy machines. You're never going to stop 15k XR80s or anyone spending infinite amounts of moolah on their bikes. If the rules change, they'll find new ways of beating the system, trust me on that! In all forms of racing, restricting machine development with the rulebook has alway failed in the end. What ever happened to 'proddy' road racing or series production touring cars? Gone as major clases because the rules couldn't be enforced. In a nutshell, restricting machinery in an attempt to control spending has eventually failed on most levels.
I fully agree that there should be moves to draw new blood into dirt track. Let's face it, without the vintage movement the sport would be in the shit in many areas. However, much of the blame on dirt tracks downfall can be thrown at our sports administrators who for years have treated dirt track as the second class laughing stock of motorcycle racing. Go back to the seventies and eighties when events like the CIG series saw International fields, the legendary Nepean 6 hour race and other huge promotions. Now there's nothing remotely like that on the calendar. I fully understand that MA is belatedly now trying to do something to revive the sport but by throwing away fifty years of traditions to follow Mr Caslick and Mr Gardners concepts of where the sport should head is an insult to the people who created dirt tracks traditions.
