QLD EVENT IDEAS 2013 and beyond?

[Towmaster]

As has been previously noted here before........
Lakeside is a spectacular, historic track that saw Ken Miles race a Cobra around in 1963. It is however, very unforgiving and if you crash not only do you have to repair your car but you also pay to repair any armco etc that you damage.
Queensland Raceway is a big wide race track that favours horsepower. It is basically a Nascar Oval with squarer corners.... Not very exciting... The back straight, however, is probably the fastest of all the tracks around here.
Morgan Park at Warwick would be the best place to hold something. They have something like 26 variants of the track and apparently you can run 3 events on the track at the same time. There is a proper 1/8th mile Drag Strip right next door and plenty of accomm available in Warwick.
The problem I see is participation.... It would need to be a 2 day event because I don't think people would travel for a 1 day event. Maybe they might have a 'practice' day the day before which would allow possibly for 3 days.
the other thing is maybe some would like to come to the Shannons Muscle car shootout this year. Friday practice on the 'V8 supercar' Big track then Sat and Sun. Problem is we only get about 5 or 6 20 minute sessions on Sat and Sun.... Great atmosphere tho and a pretty cool event.

[schipps]

When I was building my Cobra, I noted with great interest that the QLD club ran quite a few track days. As I built, i thought how great that was going to be, to be able to circle a track with the other club members once I had finished the build.
Since I finished last year there have been no track days. The only option is to go straight to the Sprint series at morgan park, but ideally it would be good to sort the car out and see what the track days are like prior to jumping in to that. Same goes for the Shannons muscle car event. Be nice to get on a track without thousands of people seeing you spin or off into the sand traps...

So I vote for some track days. I also put my hand up to help out on the day

Mick

[Mrs flatchat]

Why we'd be happy to help out
I'd suggest Easter time at Morgan Park -- we need positive interest and we need to book the facilities now !
Check this at GT40s Aussie GT40 Get together - GT40s.com

Note to Schipps and the like -- no point in waiting for all the ducks to line up with perfect conditions --JUST DO IT !
There's plenty of us oldies around that have done all these events and gained valuable experiences that are available for coaching and mentoring
(SE Qlders) Morgan Park is available for practice every Wednesday www.morganparkraceway.com.au/index.html

Paul Stokell (recommended) runs plenty of training events http://drivingevents.com.au/

[spookypt]

Thanks to everyones comments thus far....some good input...

Some potential ideas...

1. Expand the opportunity/involvement in the Shannons Musclecar event to really develop our part of the event further with Cobras and GT40's. Its a great event in that if you like the track you can run in that or if you like the show and shine they have a HUGE dispay on the Sunday with trophies etc. We could even go all out and theme it like the 60's and you dress in period costume or something. Dunno..just a thought! But its an awesome event to attract all commers both racers and waxers... I like this idea as alot of the major issues with track booking/marshalling etc is already done... And helpers in events like this can be a scarce commodity. Perhaps a group of people could pull together on behalf of the Qld Club based on Wazzas and the committee's OK and we could try and expand the event in co-ordination with Shannons and QR... We'd need an outline as to exactly what we want to achieve but its an idea.

2. An event with the Flatchats at MP is also worthy of further discussion. being event specific it will require more organising and effort to make it a success but if that's what people want then fair enough.... (Chris we need to
thrash out ideas...)

3. Schipps, I understand your comments and I'd suggest there are a few guys who potentially feel the same way with dipping their toes into track days. I'm sure the guys are watching the topic with interest and picking up on ideas and suggestions.

4. Paul Stokell is a very approachable guy and he's been helping me get my head around this racing caper. If I can get the interest and its OK with the club I'd like to see if he will come and do an hour chat with anyone who's keen post a Sunday breaky or any other time suitable to discuss what we do, and how to do it well and how to do it safely... I think it'd be an hour well spent for all levels of car enthusiast and I'm sure he'd be keen to do it. He knows cobras pretty well and to quote him..... "they scare him"! LOL
I've spoken to him already about doing a club day in his Lotus track cars as well which would be great if we got the numbers and people were keen and had the $'s to throw at it? The little Lotus's are nothing like cobras but any seat time around a race track is good seat time imo...

5. Thanks Craig from Absolute Pace for your pre-committment. With a bit of work I can see about a dozen potential sponsors being prepared to chuck in a trophy or two...

6. LJ.. It'd be great to have you and Ross Millar and co up here for June 22. The event is built so please come.. I've been harrasiing Ross for years about thsi so he has no excuses. We'll even make sure its sunny for you! Best to chat to the event co-ordinator about it to get the specifics... I'm not sure who that is this year as I haven;t seen any correspondence to date but I'd say its Pete Chunky Hancock...Tuff427 on the forum.


At the end of the day a club and its committee can only do so much and all clubs rely on their members to actively launch and create ideas and then help its committee implement them. They are only human and running a club is a full time job on top of their already full time jobs and families etc. With enthusiasm some great events/ideas can happen.


Spookypt