RACING FROM THE START.. A SMALL RANT -Comments welcomed! One day Ill look at what goes on in racing today, in Australia. But when I started, depending on the bike you had, you could have up to 12 races in a day [as a D grader]. Which I did. Thered be D, C, B, & A grade races [some places wouldnt let you race in A grade as a novice], plus Production & Open [and smaller classes], so wed get lots of races in. On top of that, although costly, as you needed to either be rich or rope some mates in for a trip interstate, the Endurance Races meant youd get a few support races, plus the Endurance race. Which meant you got to ride the track with others, in anger for a couple of hours, with 2-3 days of racing and practice before. So in ONE [1] trip to Sydney from Brisbane, we could do more race laps than what those people racing today would do in a year.. So it had a lot of benefits. As for titles, they came in the form of Club, State and National. If you entered the A.R.R.C. championship, youd get $750 up front from the Governing body. If you committed to the W.A. round, after that one, you got another $750. But.. Just to get down to Tassie for the round there, that trip alone cost me nearly $4,000 in fuel and travel costs [$1,600 each way for me & my mate - the car / trailer] and a shitty bed on the FERRY over the rough seas.. Of course, this $750 from the governing body was of course given back to them easily in your entry fees, so a fat lot of good it did. Then there was a matter of Insurances. Ill cite my example which I can at least recall. I could get 12 months income protection at the rate of 75% of my $20,000 PA, for the tiny sum of $1760 per year. PER STATE THAT I RACED IN.. So with rounds in 6 states, itd cost me $10,560PA to get $400 per week IF I was totally disabled during that period. Doesnt take much of a brain to work out that the insurance wasnt really worth it, seeing as at that point Id raced an entire season and not had a single off track excursion nor accident. If theyd covered you for like 10 years of so, then it might have been worth it. but not for up to 12 mths. SO - I wonder how much it has changed for those starting out today? How much track time they get and what the entry costs are? Whats the prize money like etc.. However.. again, things have changed SO much. when I went racing, Id only been riding bikes with an engine for what was a year or so. Today, these kids grew up on things far in advance of the Yamaha peewee 50s which came out and so they, like MM#93 and the others havent known anything else. When I first hit the track, I was against guys whod been racing 4 or 5 times longer than Id even owned a motorbike. let alone race one. So maybe I was one of the odd ones out, like my late mate Jimmy Budd, who hopped onto the track and in no time at all was matching it with the fastest of the Willing family, the Murray Sayle and co family, Gregg Hansford an others. Late starters.. Well, if youve read all that, now you have a snap-shot to go with the articles and news about the state of affairs in the race scene today. Can Peter Doyle really turn things around? Will we get ONE [1] top tier series? Will the controlling body actually control things in a way which help the clubs? Will the clubs help themselves? What about circuit owners? Heres a really radical idea which just came to mind. If the racers cannot afford to race because they arent getting paid.. What if the governing body gave them a sort of retainer once they got to a certain level. BUT.. they also got a small stake in the earnings of the riders. like the managers do. Say, 5%. Imagine if they helped out a Casey Stoner or a Jack Miller and then in time to come, got 5% of their earnings back? I do know that a couple of managers, with the right connections, got a whopping 20% to 30% of the earnings of a few racers who got good rides due to the introductions made by a couple of famous peoples.. Well, rant over. If it gets crap and abuse, Ill delete it if it isnt already done so by someone else..
Posted on: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 01:55:32 +0000
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