The State of NZ Motorsport.

[screwdriver]

Understand all that Richard, but you cannot deny that if tier 1 is promoted as the pinnacle of motorsport, then surely it is far better to maintain two or three well supported classes only and fill the remainder of the meeting from local competitors and decent grids. It doesn't have to be the same old, same old format at every round.

Concentrating on just two makes is a massive step backwards and as the majority of youngsters don't even support either of them, why are we surprised when they would rather watch smokey drifters using cars they identify with?

It is very telling when you go a to BBQ and the lady of the house says how much she enjoyed her first ever visit to a race track (Hampton Downs in this case), but was surprised that all the people were so friendly. When asked why she was surprised, she said that she expected a load of foul mouthed bearded bogans.

If that is the perception of a mature Kiwi lady, then we have more of an image problem than we realise - and not just amongst the youngsters.

To encourage youngsters, we have to do what was suggested at a recent meeting in Auckland, and get out to the high schools to sell the sport and also the opportunities for helpers. As was also stated, the schools recognise excellence on the rugby field, but those involved in any motorsport no matter how successful, rarely get a mention. Ditto the press coverage.

We all know that after soccer, worldwide, Motorsport is the most watched sport of all, but you wouldn't know it in NZ as the non specialist press can't see beyond rugby in the winter and cricket in the summer. Even the NZV8s get just about zero coverage and they certainly won't even get a mention on TV1!

[Racer Rog]

ScrewDriver, the lady must have lead a very sheltered life, thank your lucky stars she has never meet me, and the Lord only knows what she would have thought if she had visited a race meeting in the early 70's, meetings these days are rather tame compared with what went on way back then, on another subject, level entry single seaters, why do we still have an old nail of a engine, which some people have spent vast amounts of money on, I have been quoted figures of $20k, no wonder grids are empty, the SCCA has addressed this, and called this class Formula F, and they use two engines, the Kent, and the Honda Fit engine, and a package from Honda Proformace is about US$15k, or you can supply your own engine and get the add ons from them, yes its EFI, has a restrictor, but that the extent of any mods to the engine it self ( other than the dry sump, ECU and gearbox adaptor) you can not touch the engine parts, they must remain standard, so there is not the great expense of making a engine that was designed to give 68HP make 112HP, plus being a Honda, you don't need to pull it down every meeting, they are starting to get very good fields in this class, with a lot of old racers coming back and converting their Kent powered cars to Honda.
Roger

[jim short]

About two yrs. ago the idea was to follow the AUSSIES, There Form. Ford use a Focus unbreakable motor they buy and dyno batch of five or ten?when you need a motor it costs $12.000 and you buy it of the FFclub,but doing this will not keep engine builders happy in NZ

[richard lester]

Understand all that Richard, but you cannot deny that if tier 1 is promoted as the pinnacle of motorsport, then surely it is far better to maintain two or three well supported classes only and fill the remainder of the meeting from local competitors and decent grids. It doesn't have to be the same old, same old format at every round.

Concentrating on just two makes is a massive step backwards and as the majority of youngsters don't even support either of them, why are we surprised when they would rather watch smokey drifters using cars they identify with?

It is very telling when you go a to BBQ and the lady of the house says how much she enjoyed her first ever visit to a race track (Hampton Downs in this case), but was surprised that all the people were so friendly. When asked why she was surprised, she said that she expected a load of foul mouthed bearded bogans.

If that is the perception of a mature Kiwi lady, then we have more of an image problem than we realise - and not just amongst the youngsters.

To encourage youngsters, we have to do what was suggested at a recent meeting in Auckland, and get out to the high schools to sell the sport and also the opportunities for helpers. As was also stated, the schools recognise excellence on the rugby field, but those involved in any motorsport no matter how successful, rarely get a mention. Ditto the press coverage.

We all know that after soccer, worldwide, Motorsport is the most watched sport of all, but you wouldn't know it in NZ as the non specialist press can't see beyond rugby in the winter and cricket in the summer. Even the NZV8s get just about zero coverage and they certainly won't even get a mention on TV1!

hey screwdriver we are mixing issues with issues here.my post was about the lack of numbers and young guys in some of the tier 1 classes.it was not a rant against MNZ or what is best or most popular or what 'one' lady thinks of motorsports image.
I agree totally with you that Tier 1 needs a few core classes bulked up by a regular selection of the vast number of good register categories that we are fortunate to have.My understanding is that there are some significant program changes afoot for next season.
on press coverage--well nothing new here,i grew up with manfeild and my father battled constantly with the dominion as it was then and even our own manawatu evening standard for coverage--In short you make your own press coverage.the best example i could give would be my own son--google Jono lester sometime and see what you can achieve for yourself by using your smart's......

[Lurker]

--In short you make your own press coverage.the best example i could give would be my own son--google Jono lester sometime and see what you can achieve for yourself by using your smart's......

I did just that and well done, Richard, you have certainly used the web and social media to very good effect. All this exposure at zero cost other than an investment of time.