Summit Set To Go Out With A Bang.

By Mark Humphrey

Adelaide, South Australia, 23rd march 2018. After a Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series that has taken racers from the top end of Australia, across to the west and southern Australia, we have finally reached the pinnacle of the sport with the Summit Racing Equipment Grand Final at Adelaide International Raceway.

Over a ten round series, the title of Australian Champion will be contested through 10 individual brackets of sportsman racing. Every bracket has multiple entrants going for the title with Junior Dragster, Top Sportsman, Super Sedan, Modified Bike and Supercharged Outlaws packed with possible scenarios adding to the intrigue and excitement. To say there’s a buzz around the complex would be understating the fact. As I’m writing this the familiar sound of a blown outlaw warming up in the pits echoes around the complex. Drivers and crew are putting the final touches on their package in readiness for 2 qualifying runs today and a further run tomorrow morning before eliminations start to shape our next batch of Australian champions.

The standout in Junior Dragster has been Brad Bishop who reached the 300 points cap early in the season. All brackets have a points cap of 300 to even out the competition and prevent wealthy teams who can afford to travel of having a distinct advantage. Bishop leads a pack of 7 racers who have a mathematical chance of winning the series. Just tucked in behind Bishop on 270 points is Tommy Turic who has had a standout season. Turic is in a unique position to be part of a father son combination with dad Vlado in the mix in Top Sportsman. Ballie Ponton sits back on 260 with West Aussie Brodie Zappia on 240. The Perri boys follow with Jackson on 230 and Samuel on 200. Young Jakey Berias also sits on 200 points and is in the mix with 100 points on offer for a win this weekend. There is no doubt Bishop is in the box seat and has been outstanding all season and will be hard to beat this weekend based on past performances.

Super Gas has 2 guys in the running with Graeme Spencer capped on 300 points with a challenge coming from Warren Bull who sits on 220 points. Spencer was runner up in the championship last season and is in good shape to go one better this year. With a limited field this weekend Spencer just needs to go rounds to wrap up the title and snuff out any chance Bull has of becoming the new champ.

Super Street has 3 guys in the mix with the ever consistent Harry Harris sitting on 250 points. Harris has been at the pointy end of the championship for the past 3 years and this may well be his year. 2 obstacles stand in his way with one of the most decorated sportsman racers in Graeme Cooper sitting 30 points back on 220. Champion Super Sedan racer John Kapiris rolled out a Super Street machine for this series and sits back on 190 points. Kapiris has done an unbelievable job this season running 2 cars with a very limited crew making his feat even more remarkable. A John Storm trophy (most points over the season) is definitely in the mix for this celebrated racer. Personally I think it’s a race between 2 with the outcome too hard to pick.

Super Sedan has 6 racers in the mix with Peter Tzokas sitting on 300 points. Tzokas reached the points cap very early in the season and has had an unbelievable year and is in a perfect position to become the new champ. Sitting behind Tzokas is that man John Kapiris on 290 points. Kapiris has won 4 Australian titles and a runner-up in the past 5 years and will be there at the pointy end come tomorrow night. With massive fields every round, the winner of Super Sedan has to earn his or her win so Kapiris’ effort over the last 5 years has been simply outstanding. 10 points further back on 280 points is the current Australian champion in George Tipoukidis who has worked hard to get to this point in the championship. Alex Gkriodis has had a wonderful year and finds himself right in the mix sitting on 260. Ned Karanovic sits on 210 points with another crow eater in Leon Davies sitting on 200 points. Both Ned and Leon are in the mix mathematically but the brackets heavy hitters sit above them and it would be unusual to see the heavy hitters falter early. Based on the season consistency, it would be hard to tip against the top 2.

In Modified Bike, the moving man Gordon Crawford leads the way sitting on 300 points along with Johnny Ireland and current Australian champ Bryan Finn. Both Crawford and Ireland reached the points cap early in the season with Finn having to win the last round in Perth to reach the cap. Sitting just behind the trio on 270 is new comer Dan Dycer and Danny Rickard. Dycer has come over from the sand drag scene and has provided plenty of highlights throughout the season. His acceptance speech in Mildura was memorable. Rickard is on the ex-Nicky Zac Harley and is more than capable of taking out the series. Just behind the pair is another Harley charger in Shane Walker. Walker sits on 220 points and is a chance but like other brackets, will need everything to stack up in his favour. Gav Dohnt was also in contention but has nominated in Comp bike to help make the field for that bracket. Dohnt made the decision to enter Comp Bike to help out mate Tony Frost who is in line for the series. This bracket is way too hard to call, but if you go on the last round then Bryan Finn is looking good to make it 3 National titles in a row.

Modified has a couple of options with Matt Czerny the standout on 300 points. Czerny, like Finn, picked up the win in Perth last round and is in prime form to take out the series. Sitting back on 270 points is Serge Bonetti. Bonetti picked up 230 of those points in the NT swing and needs to find that form again to be a chance. Jess Turner is back on 220 points which normally would be a hard task for any racer to take out the title but Jess is more than capable of winning the round and becoming the Aussie champ. For me the title will be a show down between Czerny and Turner.

Comp Bike has a number of scenarios but with the top 2 point scorers not entering the round Warrnambool racer Tony Frost has the only other chance of becoming the new Australian Champion. Sitting on 110 points and 75 back from Phill Paton, Frost needs to make the final to become the new champ. As noted, Gav Dohnt and a couple of others have entered the bracket to make sure the round counts ultimately giving Frost the opportunity of becoming the champ. A fantastic gesture by the racers to support Frost. Rob Cassar will debut his new Suzuki in race trim which promises to be exciting. I would love to see Tony win the whole show and if he’s good enough on the day that will happen.

Competition is the same as Comp Bike with the leader not contesting the event. That leaves Shane Baxter leading the charge on 125 points with Craig Geddes back on 100 points. Under normal circumstances this would be a shootout between the pair but due to a lack of numbers in the bracket, comp is mixed in with Super Stock. There are plenty of hard chargers in Super Stock so both Geddes and Baxter will have to navigate some hot Super Stock guys. Geddes is capable and has beaten them all before but with a limited racing season in comp this season will find it that much tougher this weekend. I still have to go with Geddes on this one.

Super Stock is led by Jim Ioannidis who has taken all before him this season and although he has picked his rounds, is a standout in the bracket. He still has a bit up his sleeve with the index and will be tough to roll. Sitting 40 points back on 260 is big Tommy Dimitropoulos who is capable of taking out the series. The only other contender is Alex Panagiotidis who sits back on 210 points and will find it tough to overtake Ioannidis. Ioannidis is my pick for this bracket.

Top Sportsman presents up with a number of options with Jason Arbery leading the charge capped on 300 points. Arbery has had a fantastic year with consistency both in the series and club rounds at South Coast Raceway his trademark.  Arbery shares the 300 points cap with no less than 4 other racers making this outcome unbelievable. Vlado Turic, like Arbery has recently stepped up from Super Sedan and has had an amazing debut season. Both Arbery and Turic tasted success early in the season with the top end swing and have continued on with that form. Another consistent runner for the entire season has been Greg Damiani who will be right in the mix come finals time. Chris Theo took the gamble and travelled over to Perth last round searching for points. Theo, who was sitting on 200 points going into Perth, won the round to join the leaders on 300 points. A massive gamble that paid off for the Camaro runner. The 5^th racer on 300 points is Darren Nichele who picked up enough points in Perth to cap out on 300. Nichele normally top qualifies and when he’s on is very hard to beat. I would love to see my mate Vlado Turic pick up the championship but I think the race will come down to Arbery and Nichele. Too hard to pick on paper but I have a hunch on Nichele.

The last bracket to be decided this weekend is my favourite in Supercharged Outlaws. Once again Justin Russell has had an outstanding year and like last year comes into the final round as red hot favourite. Joining Russell on 300 points are Tim Stewart, Alan Mahnkoph and Jason Keily with 2 times and defending Australian champ Adam Murrihy 10 points back on 290. Shane Kramer sits a further 10 points back on 280 with last year’s series runner up in Mark Hunt still a mathematical chance on 200 points. Not sure about my good mate Mark Hunt as he needs to win the whole show but it’s definitely not beyond him. Hunt made the remark that he’s putting Russell on the trailer first and then working through the field. What an unbelievable championship ending that awaits us. Working from the lower end of the table we have Shane Kramer who is running on his home track. Shane has won on this track previously and has had a very consistent season without the massive highlights although a runner up in the top end swing was a highlight. Adam Murrihy can win at any track and is always on the money. That’s why he is the current back to back Australian Champion. I think he can definitely win the show. Alan Mahnkoph like Murrihy is a very hard charger and can win on his day.  Jason Keily has had an excellent season and stepped up big time in the 34 Ford. I can still remember his first ever win back in the day at South Coast Raceway. The car is hooked up these days which is testament to his season performances and the reason why he is in the mix to become champ. Justin Russell as noted has had another stellar season winning both Summit and club titles this season. Russell came into last year’s final as the outstanding competitor of the bracket and faltered at the last hurdle to walk away with nothing. I honestly think he is the better for that and will be the one to beat this weekend. Tim Stewart has stepped up into Supercharged Outlaws this year and taken all before him with numerous wins also. The team had to do an engine change at the start of the year giving him only one chance to test before this weekend’s finale. The test was down at South Coast Raceway and that consistency that Stewart has shown throughout the series was once again there. Stewart is a big chance to knock off Russell this weekend and become the Australian Supercharged Outlaw Champion. So my pick for the final is Russell v Stewart but anything goes in this bracket and the more you look at it the more it gets confusing.

So by 10pm Saturday night we will crown our latest Australian Champions some quite possibly for the first time. What a fantastic season it has been starting with the Top End Track way back in July of last year. The season has been full of highlights with no doubt more to play out this weekend. Good luck to all race teams and stay safe,

Adelaide DragRace Promotions Street Meet Gallery

A small collection of images from Adelaide DragRace Promotions Street Meet conducted at AIR Friday 2nd of February 2018. 

Over 140 entries with a good crowd on hand to watch the racing backs up the last Street Meet held at Adelaide. The Friday night format looks to be a winner judging by the turnout and looks favourable to a massive turnout next month when the 400T hits town along with the ANDRA Summit Racing Equipment Sportsman Series for their series ending Grand Final. Lots of people in contention in all brackets waiting to be crowned the new 2017/18 ANDRA Australian Champions. 

Judging by Friday nights turnout, the upcoming Grand Final should be huge.

Why We Need To Move Away From 400 Thunder

By Mark Humphrey

Well, where do we start with 400 Thunder? Plenty of fronts we could question including the recent series round reversal at Calder Park Raceway, but we won’t.

From my point of view and it is exactly that, I would like to demonstrate why we don’t need 400Thunder at any of our ANDRA sanctioned tracks and just so everybody is clear on the subject, I don’t care if 400 Thunder are still around in 10 years’ time, just not on our tracks.

Personally, I don’t think the emergence of 400 Thunder has improved the sport in any shape or form outside of normal progression. Yes, Top Fuel has gone 4.40 and the Top Doorslammer bracket is as tough as ever, but this surely is just a progression of the sport and race teams. You can’t tell me that Top Fuel hasn’t been trying to develop their tune-ups to go 4.40 and please don’t tell me that Zappia dipped into the 60’s as a result of 400 Thunder. Not on your life. They are race drivers and race teams that just want to go faster regardless of who is the sanctioning body.

After 2 ½ years, the organisation still does not have a “Naming Rights Sponsor” or even a major sponsor. Where is all this support and sponsorship that 400 Thunder boasted about in their initial video promo? They even said they recruited the best PR media people in the land to get the message out. Well, it has only been in recent times that the media has got on par with what’s expected of a major sporting organisation/competition. Quite frankly, the media coverage was a joke for the first year or so.

One thing they have got right is the live streaming provided by OVO. Fantastic product that is showcasing the sport now entirely free of charge. So OVO provides some sort of sponsorship by providing the live stream but that’s it. We have seen stars like Victor Bray secure good sponsorship deals through Gulf Western Oils which has flowed on to other racers and to naming rights of individual events but still no naming rights partner for the series or the organisation.

On the other side of the coin, ANDRA has just secured a sponsorship extension for its sportsman series with Summit Racing Equipment inking a multiyear extension. I have it on good authority that there are some US sponsors that may be interested in becoming a naming rights sponsor for ANDRA if and when all this rubbish is put to bed over here.

So, when we run a championship round we have the ANDRA and Summit branding strategically placed all around the venue which all contributes towards branding the product and organisation. When we allow 400 Thunder to run a round on an ANDRA sanctioned track we lose that identity which is like 2 steps forward and 1 step back although in this case we are also giving 400 Thunder full access to further brand their product.

When it’s a 400 Thunder round what do ANDRA sportsman get out of it? Initially, a lot higher entry fee to cover the cost of the GP1 circus, a race schedule that is usually altered several times on the day to accommodate GP1 and a complete ignorance of sportsman racers in general by the 400 Thunder officials. I think we have gone past the presentation scenario where ANDRA was banished to the pits, but not by much. On a positive, 400 Thunder attract a crowd which could be argued that an ANDRA GP1 Series would do the same. And of course, 400 Thunder has the OVO live stream.

I made a comment today with regards to product branding. As mentioned above, when we allow 400 Thunder to run on an ANDRA sanctioned track, we are effectively supporting the branding of that organisation. To give an example of how absurd it is, it would be like Coca-Cola letting Pepsi run events on Coca-Cola land with all branding/advertising/promotion going Pepsi’s way. It just sounds too unrealistic to be true and in the example given, it would never eventuate, but for some reason our, as in ANDRA representatives deem this to be ok. What sort of decision makers have we got if this is anything to go on. I dare anyone to nominate 2 rival organisations and play out this scenario. I can tell you now, I don’t think it would happen anywhere in the world so why is it happening with ANDRA?

The next issue I see is with the 7Mate deal that 400 Thunder has paid for. That’s right, they have to pay for it. No big deal, ANDRA could do exactly the same for our sportsman racers and put them up on nearly prime time tv. Gee, I could even organise a 7Mate deal in conjunction with the Sporting Scribe Muscle live stream but where would I recoup the cost from. The way 400 Thunder recoup the cost of providing 7Mate vision is to slug the promoter or track. I believe Nitro Up North had to shell out more than 50k and I do know first hand that Alice Springs Inland Dragway had to cough up $40,000 if they wanted a 400 Thunder event. Calder, Perth and the AIR will also be required to pay the tv levy if they want 400 Thunder at their events. So where does the promoter recoup the tv levy? (starting to sound familiar). Either he/they slug the fans coming through the gate as part of the entry fee although that could be a bit hard considering the Nationals was $40 to get in on finals day last year, or they slug the sportsman racer with a fee absorbed within their entry fee. No way would the GP1 teams be slugged the tv levy which brings me to the next issue. The recent East Coast Nationals had the 7Mate coverage and although weather intervened they only aired GP1. There was plenty of qualifying done by the sportsman classes and some of the brackets got to the 2^nd round of eliminations but still no vision. So, the scenario could look like this, sportsman racers may subsidise vision that covered GP 1 racing without a single second of sportsman vision. How’s that for having 400 Thunder at our tracks?

ANDRA ran a GP1 Series for years with lots of success. The Winternationals had their highest ever competitor entry lists in roughly 2013 & 2015 and I believe record crowds at the time whilst still under ANDRA. The Nitro Up North shattered all records the first time out under an ANDRA banner and I’m quite sure that if ANDRA was still running GP1 that we may have seen a stack of special moments and landmarks in the sport.

There are plenty of other issues with hosting 400Thunder at our tracks but for me, the main issues are the ones listed above.

We don’t want to stop 400 Thunder or any GP1 racers who want to support the organisation, we just want exclusive access to the tracks we have sanctioned and assisted over years and years of blood, sweat and tears. Right now, there are people lined up to take a cheap shot at ANDRA for the most minuscule of issues. What about we put it to the ANDRA board and management, that we the members want to take back control of our organisation and sport and make the changes necessary to rebuild the culture around ANDRA Championship Drag Racing and an organisation that is prepared to sit down and listen to its members. We don't want to re-invent the wheel, we just want our own identity again, one that we can nurtcher and build with our own resources and time.

It starts right now with our Divisional Councils representing the members and instructing the DD’s to take the message to the board that we want our identity back so we can start over again without any form of alliance or partnership with 400 Thunder. Come on DC’s, it all starts at ground level.

Time To Sever All Cooperation With 400 Thunder

The announcement by 400 Thunder that they were withdrawing their GP1 round namely the Australian Nationals from Calder Park is a prime example of why we need to cut all cooperation with this organisation. This organisation made a commitment to the Victorian public to bring their GP1 series to Melbourne by including Calder Park as a round of their National Championship. Based on their recent announcement the Victorian drag racing community has been screwed over once again by an organisation that from the outside seems only interested in developing their own brand in lieu of the sport.

400 Thunder made this announcement.

 “Following concerns regarding the racing surface at Calder Park Raceway raised by 400 Thunder Professional competitor groups, today 400 Thunder has announced that these categories will not race at the Australian Nationals event in January 2018.

Both the Pro Stock Association and the Australian Top Doorslammer Association members have raised concerns about the ability of the Calder Park racing surface to deliver safe and competitive racing for the 400 Thunder Series.

After consultation with the Competitors, the sanctioning body ANDRA and the event Promotor Peter Pisalidis the 400 Thunder Board has made the difficult decision to withdraw the 400 Thunder round scheduled for Victoria.”

Ok let’s have a look at the decision. 400 Thunder state that the 400 Thunder Professional Racers Group raised the concerns.

Back before this year’s Nitro Up North, promoters Peter Pisalidis and Scott Maclean summoned up the GP1 racer groups to discuss a single Australian GP1 series which as we now know was the 400 Thunder national series. ANDRA was not a part of these discussions and in fact was not invited to take part. What transpired out of that meeting was the recognition of a single series run by 400 Thunder. Obviously, ANDRA had to agree to walk away from running their own series and allow 400 Thunder to operate their series on ANDRA sanctioned tracks around the country. ANDRA generously offered up $50 licences to the GP1 teams that were not currently licenced ANDRA members so they could run the Nitro Up North event. I know that was a commercial decision but it’s a slap in the face for our sportsman racers who pay way more that $50 to hold an ANDRA licence.

400 Thunder then proceeded to construct a series calendar that included Calder Park Raceway as one of their rounds. 400 Thunder boast how that have the Racer groups involved at board level to help make decisions on the sport. So, what went wrong? The racer groups were the first to sign on to a national series that included Calder Park, 400 Thunder included Calder Park Raceway into their National series only to come out and do a backflip some 6 weeks out from the event. What has changed with the track condition at Calder Park Raceway between the dates of releasing the calendar on the 2^nd of August (http://www.400thunder.com.au/10593-2/) and last weekend? On the 2^nd of August, 400 Thunder made the decision to race in Victoria, today they are not.

Yes, the racing surface at Calder Park Raceway is below par when it compares to Sydney, Willowbank and the Motorplex, but lets just look at some of the numbers from last year’s Nationals. Although GP1 raced over 1000ft at Calder, a multiplication by 1.2 will give you a close ¼ time. The Rapisarda Top Fuel cars twice posted 4.90’s while Morgan was around the 5.03 mark. The #8 qualifier at the East Coast Nationals was slower than the Rapisarda passes. Don’t forget that Top Fuel was only tuned for demonstration runs. Top Doorslammer had Zappia around the high 5.80’s all weekend, Belleri and the Brays in the 6.10’s to 6.20’s. Cannuli bested a 6.09. Only the top 8 Doorslammers qualified better than Cannuli with Zappia one of them. Pro Stock only had 4 cars at the Nationals but Bektash’s 7.18 in the final would have been the 5^th quickest time in the East Coast Pro Stock qualifying. Aaron Tremayne had a best in Sydney of 7.001. John Cannuli ran an equivalent 5.76 in Top Alcohol at the Nationals, a time that would stack up in any round of Top Alcohol. So, I say again, what’s changed so dramatically that 400 Thunder had to cancel the Calder Park Raceway round?

 I’m not sure if people picked it up but many race teams and fans were referring to the recent East Coast Nationals as the “Nationals”. ANDRA has the “Nationals” and know one else, but you can see how easy people fall into the trap of thinking an event is the Nationals. This is why we need to act on this now and walk away from 400 Thunder.

Why on earth would the ANDRA board roll over and hand over GP1 competition rights to this organisation? I have heard numerous reasons/excuses why the decision was made to sell our arse and let me tell you, none of them stack up. There were stories going around that GP1 teams suggested they would only support one series being the 400 Thunder series and then there was the line that ANDRA couldn’t afford to run the series and so on.

Well let’s look at both of these points. Firstly, the GP1 teams sole purpose of existence is to race. Yes, some individual teams may have used that threatening line but so what. Let them run SD and Willowbank. No individual team should be bigger than the sport and if it meant that some teams parked up then so be it. ANDRA has to realise that they are providing a complete sport for our spectators not just Top Alcohol, Pro Stock or Top Fuel. Luckily for ANDRA there have been Top Fuel teams that have supported ANDRA events over the past few years. We have seen Top Doorslammer along with a minority group of Pro Stock, Fuel Bike and Alcohol also support ANDRA events so why were we in such a hurry to sell our arse to 400 Thunder? As the leading organisation in Australian Drag Racing, why would you give away any of the assets you hold in the organisation to a rival and destructive competitor? This amounts to business suicide if it’s left to go on unchecked. I have heard first hand on numerous occasions by people in positions of importance within the industry that they are just waiting for 400 Thunder to screw it up all by themselves so ANDRA can reclaim the sport while 400 Thunder simply goes away. That is one of the most absurd comments I have heard in this whole saga. So, what this affectively means is that the peak body of the sport is prepared to give their destructive business opponents all the tools to succeed hoping that they will make a mess of it and hand back the sport. Fantastic business sense right there, don’t you think? Please name one professional Australian business that would adopt that same practice and if you can find one, I would like to know how it panned out. So, who made this decision, not the members, that’s for sure.

The other comment that has been flown around is that ANDRA couldn’t afford it. My understanding is that the tracks are responsible for covering the costs of GP1 brackets racing at their venues. Yes, ANDRA may assist from time to time but the responsibility of covering GP1 racing rests squarely on the shoulders of the track or promoter. We have seen ANDRA GP1 Championships over the last few years and we have also seen on several occasions where promoters have paid in a bracket namely Top Fuel, so how is this an ANDRA issue? Promoters pay in Top Fuel to boost the attendances and ultimately nett profit. If Top Fuel became financially unviable, do you think promoters would continue to buy in a show? And just on that, if you talk to Jim Walton or even Graham Cowin, they will tell you that back in the day they were part of a buy in show. Tracks complimented their normal drag racing meeting with a buy in show much the same as promoters have done with Top Fuel over the past number of years. Calder Park, AIR, Alice Springs and Hidden Valley come to mind. So, where’s ANDRA’s financial commitment required?

Once again, I just can’t justify what logical reason/reasons ANDRA had to hand over the top echelon of the sport to 400 Thunder. Every single time a spectator looks at a 400 Thunder banner it helps brand the organisation and ANDRA is currently providing them the platform all over the country. Spectators don’t walk away from a GP1 event saying “that was a cool ANDRA track sanctioned event”. Branding is everything in business and ANDRA is providing their destructive competitor the platform to build theirs. And another glaring issue with this dumb decision, is how on earth will ANDRA attract a naming rights sponsor when they don’t even have a series? I do understand that securing a major sponsor for the sport is proving extremely difficult, but under the present situation, ANDRA have nothing to offer with regards to securing a major sponsor, so have they given up on the idea of having a major corporation back the sport?

ANDRA employs Jennifer Harrison as their Business Development Manager and part of her portfolio is to secure sponsorship for ANDRA series racing. No doubt Jennifer was instrumental in obtaining the recent Summit Racing Equipment sponsorship extension, but how can she secure a GP1 Series (Major sponsor) if we don’t have a series? That’s like the AFL giving over the competition to the WAFL and asking their Business Development Manager to secure a major sponsor for the AFL.  It’s just stupid. What needs to happen is that we take back the sport of drag racing and in no shape or form continue to support an organisation that has been and will continue to be destructive against our own organisation. Today, we have no GP1 racing in Victoria unless the promoter Peter Pisalidis pays in a show. Hang on, hasn’t this been the scenario since 2013 at Calder Park Raceway including the past Australian Nationals? Wake up ANDRA, we don’t need 400 Thunder.

Some people will say, look at the television rights 400 Thunder have. Yeah, anybody can pay 7Mate to come out and televise a series. Word is that Yak couldn’t afford the $40,000 tv levy that 400 Thunder had imposed on Alice Springs to host the 400 Thunder. Actually, what track could afford the tv levy given the recent declining fan base? So what alternative does a track have with covering the tv levy? Pay it from profits generated through the gate or simply pass the levy onto the sportsman racers? Sound familiar? Do the sportsman classes even get coverage on 7Mate? Funny if the sportsman racers had to pay a tv levy so Australian drag racing fans could watch GP1 on tv.

Right now, every track in Australia is sanctioned by ANDRA with the exception of Sydney, Willowbank, Springmount and Warwick. This clearly puts ANDRA is a position of authority. Add to this the new tracks of Swan Hill and Tailem Bend coming on line within the next 12 months and it’s easy to see that ANDRA holds all the keys to building once again a successful GP1 championship. It’s time right now to move on this poor business decision of giving over the GP1 rights to an organisation that seeks out racers on a daily basis to give up their ANDRA licences in preference to an American licencing organisation. Oh, just in case people have forgotten, 400 Thunder have boasted previously how they have converted in excess of a 1000 racer over to IHRA just to rub salt into the wounds. This further demonstrates the lack of business sense our board had in supporting 400 Thunder. I just can’t for the life of me think of any logical reasons why ANDRA would think that this decision would benefit them.

So now is the time we say goodbye to any cross assistance with 400 Thunder cancelling out any future cooperation with the organisation. Let them run SD, Willowbank and Springmount while we promote our 2018/19 GP1 series headlining the exciting Tailem Bend on the back of Hidden Valley, Alice Springs, Perth Motorplex, AIR, Calder and sometime in the future Swan Hill. This is the only smart business decision ANDRA can make on this subject moving forward. If Thunder 400 can make a go of it on 3 tracks, good luck to them, but they will not use our tracks to promote their American licence backed racing.

So, based on the above, the current board and management needs to be held accountable for what was clearly a poor business decision and one that looks to have been made because it was the easier option. Peter Pisalidis or Scott Maclean would have bought in a GP1 show if it was still run under an ANDRA banner otherwise why would they be in the sport as promoters?

Furthermore, it seems that the power of the ordinary member has long gone which poses another issue considering ANDRA is a member based organisation. The DC was set up so members elected to the various councils could make decisions about their sport on behalf of the members they represent, and have them forwarded onto the board via the DD’s.  There are plenty of rumblings going on within the drag racing community that this procedure has long gone and the DC is now seemingly powerless. Surely if the 6 Divisional Councils are unanimous in their opinion on a subject, then that opinion should stand as accepted by the board. The Divisional Directors should be delivering policy to the board directly from the Councils knowing that the policy/ruling/amendment stand as law. Only in exceptional circumstances or a hung vote, should the board be in a position to override a recommendation from the Divisional Councils. The members certainly need to feel that they are the organisation, as set out in the constitution. The board is in place to represent the members not rule the members. Either the existing rules on the functionality of the board need to be policed, or changed in the constitution to reflect the ordinary member as an integral part of ANDRA. I wonder what the decision would have been if the Board sent back to the DC the option of handing over controlling rights of Australian GP1 sport to 400 Thunder? Maybe the Board structure needs to change or even be reduced. Something has to change in either the way the board is structured or how it conducts business.

On a positive note the Board has been pro-active in putting together a series to accommodate our Queensland members but has failed to look after what was once an integral part of ANDRA namely NSW. Yes, Queensland has purpose built racetracks which unfortunately NSW doesn’t, but has the board sat down with representatives from the Dubbo and Tamworth Drag Racing clubs to nut out a QLD style championship between the two tracks. It’s not the ideal situation for some classes but a NSW Championship of some sort would cater for some of our loyal members who want to remain under an ANDRA licencing system. Sydney and IHRA collectively, have taken over plenty of ANDRA subscriptions with the knowledge that some will never return to ANDRA whilst Sydney is under the IHRA licencing system, but what about the former members that would prefer to remain under the ANDRA banner? What reason have we given them to tough it out. What about the thought of offering a 50% discount rate on entry fees for any event they participate in outside of Queensland and NSW? Obviously track promoters and regional clubs would need to get on board, but ½ an entry fee from a NSW or QLD racer is better than nothing and I’m quite confident that all ANDRA members would see this as a positive move in the interim. Anything to been seen as genuinely trying to assist our QLD & NSW members will be a step forward.

ANDRA has lost a lot of revenue which has recently been well documented, primarily through the introduction of an American licencing body namely the IHRA thanks solely to the 400 Thunder organisation. Grant Goodall as CEO, obviously worked tirelessly in his effort to get ANDRA financially viable and then resigned from his paid position by making it redundant to save ANDRA some more overheads. I believe plenty of cost-cutting measures were put in place to ensure ANDRA remain viable well into the foreseeable future with regards to overheads but there are still plenty of financial decisions yet to be made

Both the Board and ANDRA management need to come clean on their decision making over the past year with satisfactory answers that address all the points raised. Not sure what the answer is, but getting rid of our ties with 4oo Thunder is a start. Our DC’s from around Australia can get the ball rolling by demanding that ANDRA sever all ties with 400 Thunder. What about it, DC’s?