A PLACE TO RACE

By Pete McNae

Wednesday's decision to run a speedway meeting behind closed doors at the Milestone Homes Top of the South Speedway was made with the competitors in mind.

Faced with the possibility of further cancellations under the red light setting in the current Omicron outbreak, the Nelson Speedway Association committee instead made the call to run on March 5, but without spectators. The meeting will be livestreamed by Rob Palmer from RJPTV for those who want to buy in.

Association president Wayne Martin said there were three options facing the committee; another cancelled meeting (the likes of Gisborne Speedway has been forced to pull the plug on a major meeting this week), race with small pods of spectators in segregated areas creating major admin issues or option C, run a meeting for the racers.

“People have cars sitting in sheds, lots of money tied up, and if they can't use them, they might be thinking of selling up and doing something else,” Martin said.  “This decision was 100 per cent about giving people the chance to race.

“We don't stand to make anything out of the meeting but we want to show good faith with the competitors.”

It's a fluid programme at this point. There could be a couple of club championships on offer, and a stockcar hit to pass, while the South Island Superstock Classic, presented by Cando Fishing, is still on the schedule at this stage. The Classic was created as a replacement for the South Island champs which were held over by Speedway New Zealand earlier in the season. With Woodford Glen willing to release their superstocks from the State of Origin streetstock teams meeting on the same night, a handful of C cars could be enticed north.

“We will look at confirming classes on the Monday before the meeting,” Martin said. “There are curveballs coming at us from every angle so it's hard to make plans, everyone out there will know how that feels ... you think you have a handle on things and it shifts.

“Basically we are going to give this meeting a go to see how it works and then take each future meeting as it comes. This is a decision for this March 5th meeting only.”

Palmer's RJP TV operation had been committed to a War of the Wings meeting down south but that was pulled and he was able to take on the Nelson date. The stream will be available for $30 with Martin saying the feed just gives fans an option.

“It wasn't something we could deliver for free, given our up-front costs to put on a race meeting, but people might want to have a group around and share the cost.

“There's an option to watch the meeting at the Glen too so we don't expect the stream to be the major focus but Rob (Palmer) was willing to help us out and give our Nelson fans a choice to watch Nelson racing when they can't be on-site.

“The focus of this meeting is the competitors and making sure they feel like there's a point in staying connected with speedway. As soon as we can get some clarity around our public, we would love to open up and race without restrictions but that's a week-to-week thing,” he said.

Photo: Rebecca Connor Maling, BM Photography

Article added: Thursday 17 February 2022