Tailem Bend Making a Return? I'll beleive it when I see it

[xbrules]

Just read this on the SADvertiser site and don't know quite what to think, but it sure seams more promising than Bob Jane's empty promises about AIR.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/s...006301,00.html

[PALE ALE]

Doubt they will allow drag racing there. The rumours i've heard is that the sporting car club and motorcycling Australia are already fighting each other over who's running the show, and which direction they will go.

[AndrewR_AUII]

Media release attached... have a read.

[xalent]

I still believe Tailem Bend would be a much a better site than Gillman, and not just because its closer for me. Its in an area less likely to be encroached by housing, it has easy access for everybody , including interstaters, and weather conditions are usually more consistent out that way. Less rain, maybe a little bit more wind. I can see that it would hurt the consortium's plan for an industrial estate to be located next to the track, but is it about racing or them making money back?

[bbcoupe]

CAMS...Sporting Car club...MSA...!

If were talking drag racing here, there's no future at tailem for us now!

Doesn't help the consortiums negotiations(or lack of) with the gvmt.

[pottery beige]

Something from the left field to confuse the situation.. Notice no mention of ANDRA in the sadvertiser article, methinks it would be hard to see roundy, roundy's sympathetic to our cause of straighty straighty's..

[xbrules]

well if they are talking about opening as early as the new year, about the only thing that will useable will be the strip. ah well lets just hope that they don't just ignore the strip or turn it into the main straight of a circuit. it would be a real shame if they destroyed the strip for a circuit.

[bbcoupe]

ANDRA & CAMS just sit on their hands and occationally show concern or support for lobby groups wIthout ever having to loby for anything themselves. Once an organisation is succesful in securing an event, venue, etc, they dive in to sell their memberships, licenses, insurance and politics.

Not that there is anything wrong with free enterprise, but why don't they ever seem to take the lead when there is a shortfall of facilities? Wouldn't have anything to do with them being run by the same type of people running the government ( polititions/burecrats )???



Will wait with interest for full details and plans for Tailem and hope that IF they do open the track it won't be closed shop like their events at Collingrove and Mallala.

[PALE ALE]

Could this have just torpedoed the motorplex at Gilman? This may have just killed any chance of a stand alone 1/4 mile drag strip in S.A. if the sporting car club/ motor cycle club dont build one. Using the main straight of a race circuit as a drag strip wont work (eastern creek)

I agree bbcoupe, ANDRA need to be more proactive in getting a track up and running in this state. They should hedge their bets, and enter into talks with the parties involved with Tailem Bend,as well as supporting the Gillman proposal or there could be a risk of having nothing at all.

I think ANDRA/DRAG LTD, are concerned that a track at Tailem Bend wont be a viable option. Maybe they think that people wont drive out to Tailem Bend and it will be hard to attract corporate sponsors. I think it will work at Tailem Bend. For people that live in the southern suburbs, the time it takes to drive to Gilman (stop/start traffic lights), compared to the time it takes to drive to Tailem Bend wouldnt be much difference. Then you have people from Victor Harbor who would go, people from Mt Gambier/ sth east who would drive up, Mt Barker, Murray Bridge and local areas.half the states population lives south of ANZAC HWY. I think they would get a big crowd for a group 1 event.

[xalent]

You're thinking what I'm thinking Pale Ale. The argument became tainted when the 'the track will get the hoons off the street' entered the debate. 1/4 mile drag racing is about experiencing top fuellers, doorslammers rails, prostockers etc. I feel the consortium missed the boat and should have pushed for Tailem as their #1. I'm sure the town would have got behind them. Its far enough out of town to limit the d'head factor, people who would have gone there would be serious about it, and its quite a nice drive there, once you get up the hill. In speeches made at the protest rallies, the 'if its not twenty minutes from the city, no one will go' argument was used a fair bit. I say BS, people drive all over this country to do things they love doing

:

[bbcoupe]

Who ever started the association between hoons and race tracks sure made it hard to ever get a common sense debate about why SA needs new motorsport facilities. Bad decision to have used this issue to gain support for a badly needed new race track. :

I have my concerns about Tailem being operated by MSA/SCCSA. As I do not know how the business plan of the MSA/SCCSA will work I can only guess that it would operate similar to their events at Collingrove or Mallala. Such as... having to be a member of their club or a sanctioned/affiliated club, have a CAMS license (day/full/etc) and then know what the supp regs are for the event, and then comply with the directions of the marshalls event director, etc, etc...then there's the issue of them not knowing anything about drag racing which brings me back to a previous issue about CAMS/ANDRA taking the lead on anything, is there any common ground that these two organisations cover? (Re: Pale Ales mention of past attempts at combining different forms of racing on the same circuits).

One positive about the possible MSA/SCCSA use of Tailem Bend is that it will be a facility (whatever it ends up as) run by motorsport enthusiasts for motorsport enthusiasts.

Due to the lack of information and transparency of the "Consortium" the potential to have had greater (public/car club/motorsport club) support has never been realised and is slowly disipating. From what info was mentioned at the 2 public rallies and gossip heard on the streets I still don't have a clear understanding of what the Consortium really are trying to achieve. "What do we want?" Adelaide Motor plex "When do we want it?" Now! Well as I understand things, until land is secured we won't be seeing any concrete information about an Adeliade Motorplex. How come their web site doesn't have any information about where they want to build, or what the proposed complex might look like, a time line showing what they hope to have operating as building progresses, past and current press releases, the consortiums identites and specialities. Even if some of this is confidential there is nothing. And something has been bugging me about Gary Johanson saying (twice) is, that as Mayor of Pt. Adelaide/Enfield he supports the Motorplex but the Council has had no aplication from the Consortium to build a Motorplex, WT?. When asked by a non-motorsport person "what is this Motorplex thing about" all I can say is its a race track proposal by some guys with some money who want it built in the middle of Adelaide.

We now have two opposing motorsport facility proposals with one having the upperhand of land available. Your average voter will not give a sh#t about the struggling proposal and it will split motorsport enthusiast depending on their motorsport preference. :

Happy for anyone to fill me in on any of the above if it is out of line or incorrect. Actually happy to get some black and white info to kill all of the speculation and rumours! :

[COUPE 72]

Well race fans here we go again, as many people know that read these associated threads ive long been beetin the drum over Tailem Bend and its benefits for quite some time now and have a good knwledge of what the facility is like at T.B. Its all well and good for these guys to come out and say that they will have drag racing at Tailem Bend but the storey in the Advertiser said there had to be a feasibilitystudy will be the next step and some events like motorkarna etc next year, so i dont think youll see drag racing for aleast 2-3 years.
circuit racers and drag racers dont have a great history of cooperation like the events in sydney at eastern creek, and i cant see these guys buildin up the drag strip first and the circuit track later and if there is in fighting already what chance do a bunch of drag racers have in trying to have any say on what goes on there, unless the drag racing community are allowed to run the drag strip in their own way i can only see disaster on the horizon. i do think that two drag strips could co-exist but not with both as grade 1 facilities. the sport neads some leadership and not just everyone for themselves.
To be successful Tailem Bend drag strip would have to be run seperately from the other codes but in co-operation with the other racing codes.....did that make sense, anyway, but i can see fighting over dates and funding being a big issue.


I do hope that there can be drag racing at full international grade at T.B. as good as track would be at Gilman i dont think it will work with the noise polution. The government could squash the gilman project in an instant by helping fund Tailem Bend but that will mean that Mike Rann will have to back pedal and we all know that wont happen.

[jf100]

You guys are really making a lot of sense with your commentry, i think you will find gillman site will be history, with these two clubs involved at tailem bend. I think we will only find out their commitment to drag racing in time, they need drag racing or the perception of running drag racing for their feasability/business plan, because of drag racings easy to involve the wider populations interest it turns big dollars at all levels, they will only have to present the impact papers from willowbank and western sydney to get full support/funding. As for their commitment to drag racing i don't think it will be there but will have to wait and see, could end up like eastern creek with the circuit boys having control at drag racings expense, though in the end it led to a drag racer controlled, drag strip being built (govt. funded). So now i think i'll dust off the m.g. and head to the track,chaps, tally-ho.

[loosey]

I heard earlier that the Gillman land has been sold off to Delfin. The story is plausible, media mike would have got the Tailem Bend one printed to get everyone lobbying for the motorplex starry eyed over the potential drag strip hundreds of km away.
In my opinion if we do get one at Tailem Bend that will be all we get and it will make absolutely no difference to 'street hoons', why drive that far if you can race up and down ANZAC highway*? The other issue is if they're having street meets you're going to have to trailer your car there in case something breaks or else you'll have to drive back to Adelaide, get a trailer and another car and then go back and pick your car up (potentially a 400km round trip),
If Tailem bend does in fact open and then later on we end up getting a strip in Adelaide the Tailem Bend one will be a ghost town.

*I in no way participate or condone racing on the street.

[Barry_v]

until we hear that motorsport at the port is DEAD, our best option is still gillman. tailem bend is the ugly friend you have a crack at after you fail with the hot chick.

[COUPE 72]

Originally Posted by Barry_v

until we hear that motorsport at the port is DEAD, our best option is still gillman. tailem bend is the ugly friend you have a crack at after you fail with the hot chick.

Better than floggin the dead horse that is A.I.R.
Gilman would be awesome in principal but dont think it will work because of the noise, to make motorplex viable it would have to run a major event every weekend of the year and while with multiple codes it could be acheived the ammount of fladk we will get from the toffy pratts that spent a mil on their overpriced box appartments at the port will spit the chewy after the first meeting. I would love nothing more than their project to be successful and ive been to their rallies and supported them, after all it will only take me ten minutes to get there instead of an hour and a half to Tailem Bend. Some of the meetings at A.I.R. suffered at the hands of the eleven a'clock curfew that was inposed out there after oil downs delayed the meetings and some finals couldnt be run and if you run the meetings over two days you will find they wont make much money the qualifing day for a national open meeting.

[PALE ALE]

NOVEMBER 11, is when the consortium meets with minister Pat Conlon over the Gilman sight. It's hard to see it getting a favourable decision. As bbcoupe said, there is no model /plan. How can you go and ask the government for land with no model/plan? I only hope that they do have a model/plan and havent made it public or else Conlon is going to laugh at them and tell them to --ck off

As for this "getting hoons off the street" BS, WTF does drag racing have to do with kids hooning on the street? Scott Ferguson goes to these consortium meetings, and I have had many a argument/debate with him about this. "street racing is not drag racing" is the cry from drag racers, who are trying to get the message across to the broader community, that drag racing is a legitimate motorsport, that is done on a race track, under a sanctioning body, with rules and regulations. Yet, here is the consortium ( with ANDRA's support!) saying a drag strip will get hoons off the street. Good Grief

[COUPE 72]

Has anyone heard any more on Tailem Bend? the suspence is killin me. We seem to have one anouncement, a couple of days talk on the forum and then it goes dead.... I could here a pin drop on this thread lol.

[Qwik6]

Yeah me too. Wonder what kind've time frame it is.

[pottery beige]

I'm starting to build a solar panelled electric drag car.. By the time we get a track.. Fossil fuel's will be exhausted the earth will be an over heated ball of dusty gas.. But i will be ready to take out the big trophy at some drag racing track somewhere in S.A... Haha.. :

[COUPE 72]

Maybe we should start a sand drag strip lol, at least it would be cheap, saw an article in street machine even had fuel dragsters....insane, but would be good to watch!

[Walkinshaw]

Interesting reading ANDRA's comments regarding meeting with VIC government in looking to get an ANDRA strip in Melb. Noted its generaly 7yrs from initial government contact before any likely outcome will be reached. Got to love red tape.

[COUPE 72]

Thats how long it took for wsid i think but we have been at it for ten years allready, and if ya count the consortiums effort they've been at it for two years at least. Dont know how long it would be if the gov gave em the land today, but as far as i know they havent drawn up any plans yet.

[blueoval]

Originally Posted by COUPE 72

Maybe we should start a sand drag strip lol, at least it would be cheap, saw an article in street machine even had fuel dragsters....insane, but would be good to watch!

I like that idea. Plenty of sandy places for this to be held. But unless there is something in it for the government, nothing or little will be done.

[COUPE 72]

Did ya see the article in SM they had every car u would see at the drags, altereds rails sedans all with big paddles on em even fuel cars and alky dragsters leaving huge rooster tails as they leave the line. Could be some nasty accidents if they get outa shape but it looked like fun, the yanks are mad bastards lol.

[blueoval]

wouldnt be any worse than a bitumen drag strip. Would the terminal speeds be less?

[COUPE 72]

Originally Posted by blueoval

wouldnt be any worse than a bitumen drag strip. Would the terminal speeds be less?

Cant remember figures but know they were pretty stout in ET.