2011 Kerrick National Sports Sedan Series

[Mopar358]

Bathurst is a black hole only for the Supercar meeting. With lobbying I'm confident that Phil and his band of renown could get the category on the program at the 12 hour event. Supercar support events are never stand alone categories. All support categories do a minimum of 2 meetings and most like utes and TCM do 6 or more. The desire to go to the supposed Holy Grail of Australian motorsport in some Walter Mitty experience I find a little bizzare. It is the most dangerous circuit in Australia, sport sedans are the fastest, lightest and in some cases not the best engineered cars. If everyone is so keen for Bathurst then put your money where your mouth is . All those who really want to go, post a refundable bond of 2k conditional on them entering and completing one race over the meetings duration.? Thirty five cars entered and 15 finishing is not what promotors want. They want close racing and as few yellow flags. I'm not being doom and gloom just pragmatic! Support those that support the category, Clem is a legend and his passion and wealth has kept motor racing alive in Adelaide since the demise of AIR. Please discuss!!!

[Phast Phil]

Mopar you must have been typeing your post at the same time as me.

You seem to have a firm grip on the situation, you comments are sound.

Yes I could probably arrange a round at Bathurst if the promoter plays ball but I would want to see the $3,058 individual entry fee in our bank account by end of June 2011. This entry fee will also cover entry at one other 2012 round in addition to Bathurst that must be attended, so one off runners need not apply. Why so early, because they need a substantial deposit or surity in advance.

On July 1 I will report the entry list. Entry fee by direct bank account credit only (I do not want bounced cheques) to NASSA Inc St george bank BSB 114879 account 141731552.

[MrBoost]

wow, having an opinion seems to be a bad thing. Having a discussion about how to help the series seems bad too.
Maybe we should just continue without discussion in a positive sense and end up where we were 3 years ago.... oh hang on we are where we were 3 years ago....
mallala 2011 - 9 entries to date, 2010 - 14 entries, 2009 - 12 entries 2008 - 10 entries. Does this not paint a picture?
Guys please dont take this discussion the wrong way, im not having a go at the series, im CERTAINLY not putting the organisers down or incinuating they arent doing there job. You guys do a fantastic job and i know you have trouble getting good feedback from the category and its supporters via email etc. I just want to open up a discussion as to where or how things can improve, what people WOULD like to go to CONSISTENTLY. Im not pushing for people to come to breakaway meetings im pushing for the KERRICK SERIES to attract more regulars by going to POSSIBLE better or accomodating places.
The bathurst thing was just an EXAMPLE!!!!! and also the bathurst thing from my understanding was just under $1000 entry fee. WITH tv coverage. that doesnt sound blown out to me? or budget blowing? Sure its a 'dangerous' track, which one isnt?
Surely sports sedans have broken away from the stereotype of 35 starting and 15 finishing. Your idea of making them run 2 rounds is one way of keeping away 1 timers which is a great idea, the other i have talked about with people is making it mandatory that they have run in the car in say the last 12 months (except cars on debut). This also would keep away the cars with 10 years of dust that are waiting to break down.
But again i say bathurst is just an EXAMPLE of a possibility.
Sure i completely understand if an event cant give the series what it needs its a no go. I think the forum could help the organisers if they used it a little better. The forum is one of the best things that has happened to the category in a while it is getting all us competitiors talking and in touch with one another. y not use it to get ideas or input from people as to what they do and dont like. Yes im putting my hand up to can mallala(its only my opinion). I think we should move the mallala round somewhere else. Where? i dont know, how about a discussion from everyone as to where they and the series sponsor thinks best? 9 entries doesnt say to me that the competitiors like the mallala option.
Phil and others who organise the series you have lives and cars to manage of your own i dont see how or why you should be expected to do all the research or come up with all the ideas on your own, you dont have time and if you do your super hero's. I started this to get peoples input. One of my biggest goals in life is to win the kerrick series. I am young and building my life around me to get into the position to be able to afford to run at the front and to win the series. I want it to be there when im at that stage in my life, i want it to be running fantastically strong. So all im doing is trying to help that, not upset everyone with a 'thought'
Am i understood or am i still seen as a dickhead with no idea?

[Mopar358]

I know that most of your comments pertain to Phils response but I dissagree that the days of unreliable sport sedans are gone. They are better but still not in the same level as TCM cars or Utes which both run on similar budgets to a competitive Sport Sedan. Phil makes very cogent points and those are that Kerrick is the only game in town. V8 supercars arnt going to drop the price for us, and there not going to give us exposure to "Their " audience. I've just read that SS are on the program at the Muscle car Masters on the Fathers day weekend at Eastern Creek. This is the best opportunity to play in front of a big crowd, we can connect with an enourmous audience with phenomenal press coverage. With both current and historic cars running over the weekend there will give a unique opportunity to get more competitors and supporters for these amazing cars. Discuss

[MrBoost]

that was the event i was talking about, its out now so may as well talk about it. (not promote it) We have been invited and have accepted. Thoughts were to use it as the best exposure chance for sports sedans in god knows how many years. The best thing about it is that KERRICK and any other sponsors like air technology (for the nsw state guys) are fine to have there banners on the cars at the round. KERRICK can gain massive exposure from this, along with the NATIONAL series. we want to promote sports sedans all over australia including and most importantly our national series. The entry fee is not large at all. No budgets will be blown by going to this meeting. there are 4 races and qualifying. it is no where near any other national or nsw round (havent looked at other states). I have no idea what the deal is but if it could be secured for the following year as perhaps a national round, wouldnt that be awesome? The crowd last year was something like 40,000??? And it is our PERFECT target audiance. People who love race cars, people who remember sports sedans from there glory days. No one wants it thought of as a tear away meeting. It should be thought of as a perfect way to promote ourselves as sports sedans as a whole. People like kerrick and air technology wont even need to put money to it to gain a massive amount of exposure. If someone argues this is a bad thing im going to go mental.

[MrBoost]

no we arent the MOST reliable category in oz, but we certainly are better than we used to be. I never said kerrick wasnt the only game in town, nor did i want another game in town. i want kerrick just to be better than it is. Nor do i want to run with v8 supercars ever again!

[Phast Phil]

I know that Dean Randle was keen to get SS on the Muscle Car programme but it never happened. I am unaware of SS participation at this years (or any years) programme so this comes as a surprise to me. Maybe it is only a demonstration thing or a one off event maybe organised by ASSA NSW????? I am keen to know as maybe some of our members would like to enter.

So we are all on the same page in that we all want the Kerrick series to succeed, prosper and grow....glad to hear that. Yes we can easily pinpoint the faults (there are several) however finding the solution to overcome the problem is the difficult part.

The solution that I have is for more teams to become a bit more serious. It has been 6 months since our last round at Sandown. Some teams have not performed routine maintenence so they are not ready, some people have business or money issues, some people are too lazy to get off their arse, some have been stuffed around by suppliers and are still awaiting parts but in the main most have not responded because they obviously could not be bothered or don't want to spend the money to race.

Given that I am a hands on sports sedan researcher with an honours in business mathmatics from my past business life I reckon I could do a probable analysis or two to determine the outcome. The fact is that not one regular participating team has said to me that we are not going to Mallala because it is at Mallala. We would have had round 1 at Wakefield however the ASSA NSW would not support that date or adopt it as a state round as they had another close date at Wakefield already so I had no other option.

The solution does not completely lie at the feet of the series organisation, it mainly lies at the feet of the teams that are not serious enough to participate. They say if the student is ready the teacher is always available and that is definitely the case with the Kerrick Sports sedan Series. We [the KSSS] are very available and as Mopar 358 says, we are the only game in town, it is just many students must not be ready and they would not have been ready wherever we went.

Feel free to discuss this and offer solutions, I do listen however some solutions may not be suitable to all the stakeholders and regs that have to be satisfied.

[Phast Phil]

If the MCM was negotiated early enough it could have and would have been considered for inclusion to the 2011 Kerrick series.

If you want it included in the 2012 series then someone needs to talk to me seriously before the end of September 2011 as that is when we start putting the show together for the following year and liase with sponsors and CAMS.

Lets hope whoever goes put on a good show so it does not become a one off.

I also expect full NSW participation at Eastern Creek in the joint state/nationals round in July.

[MrBoost]

dont worry you surely will get full nsw participation! i can guarantee that. my missus has even offered my birthday present be the entry fee! (im not supposed to be racing this year due to getting married fees!) phil you have a pm from me regarding the event (mcm).

I can see your pain in not having regular teams go to every round. this is unfortunate and something you cant control. The only thing you can do is hope for the 10 or more regulars and go to places where people who do only do 2 or so rounds a year will turn up to make the show a good one and worth while. Hopefully this builds from there.
What other events can people name that might be good for us and that you with a car WILL or be MUCH MORE likely to turn up to?
i can name (not that i know these are available or can work)
phillip island magic
the bathurst round
best of all muscle car masters

t

[2002 turbo]

Some valid points from both sides of the argument however this discussion arises everytime there is a race at Mallala because of the following reasons:

- The number of cars running is always much lower compared to any other rounds. Might be attributed to the distance to travel for interstate teams (its a hell of a long drive!) or the circuit not being such a favourite among some competitors.

- There is never decent support from any South Australian based cars, we're lucky if we get one or two local cars running. Not wanting to be a dickhead but really SA guys if you can't support an event at your home track in my opinion you don't really deserve to have one. Its been no different in the past, the only SA cars that I can recall rocking up were the Monterosso Escort and Lee Nicol's Torana. And yes I understand SA has a small competitor base but surely if there is enough notice of the race being on some local entries can be drummed up?

- What always allows these two issues to slide is the great effort that Clem Smith puts in which I absolutely appreciate and applaud. As Phast Phil mentioned he is the only promoter to put his hand in his pocket to help our class out which has to be commended.

- What I ask is to get this event to attract more numbers could the money Clem puts up be distributed differently to get more cars to do the trip over e.g tow/travel money?



As for the the Muscle Car Masters a few facts will give people the full story:
- Its was an 11th hour deal, Formula 5000 dropped out and this made room on the program for another class to run

- ASSA NSW got offered a spot by the ARDC on the proviso "we need an answer within 30 minutes"

- The opportunity to race in front of a big crowd for the first time in years was too good to knock back! The last big event our class ran at was with the V8 Taxi- Cars or Race of a 1000 years. A fair while back, how do i know? Well I was in my early 20s back then, haha I am hitting the 30 at the end of this year!!

This event will be a massive chance for the whole sport sedan category to get back on the motorsport fan''s radar. It will also be good exposure for our commercial partners such as Kerrick and Air Technology Australia and anyone else who wants to tip in some $.Who knows it may enthuse people to get involved and build new cars or buy existing ones!
So I suggest for the common good we all get behind this!
Discuss!