PRO: Garden Island Motorsport Complex | $25m

[crawf]

This protest will most likely backfire on the Adelaide Motorplex Consurtium, just like what happened to the Keith Hospital protesters yesterday.

Traffic throughout Adelaide is beyond terrible at the moment due to countless road closures for the Clipsal, with some residents in the eastern suburbs taking up to an hour to travel just a few kilometres. So to add protesters in the mix, is going to annoy alot of people.

BTW this rival bidder sounds promising.

[jk1237]

I rode my bike in today so I was fine, and felt quite smug riding past everyone in their stationary cars. However yesterday it took 4 missed buses to get from Payneham Rd into town for work, caus all the Clipsal bogans were clogging up the buses and were driving past full. Atleast they're taking PT I suppose, but it took ages to get in

[Nathan]

This protest will most likely backfire on the Adelaide Motorplex Consurtium, just like what happened to the Keith Hospital protesters yesterday.

Traffic throughout Adelaide is beyond terrible at the moment due to countless road closures for the Clipsal, with some residents in the eastern suburbs taking up to an hour to travel just a few kilometres. So to add protesters in the mix, is going to annoy alot of people.

BTW this rival bidder sounds promising.

\

An hour for a few kilometres. I think you might be exaggerating there just a tad. Like jk1237, I ride in to town passing all the cars. Yes Payneham Rd, Magill Rd and North Tce (Kent Town) are busier than normal, but it's far from "beyond terrible".

[crawf]

That is what some motorists said on the news earlier this week.

The Keith/Country SA Protest caused alot of dramas for people travelling along many roads on Thursday (including the CBD), made worse by the closure of many major roads for the Clipsal 500.

P.S I'm not against the Clipsal.

[rhino]

Did Clipsal tickets include public transport to and from the event?

[crawf]

Proposed locations revealed - Tailem Bend and the Riverland

Drivers' formula for a better V8 race
Miles Kemp From: AdelaideNow March 21, 2011 12:00am 39 comments
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/how-to-ma ... 6025044389

V8 SUPERCAR drivers want the race back on Adelaide's famed Grand Prix circuit.

Asked by The Advertiser what Clipsal 500 organisers could do to make Adelaide's event even better after 13 successful years, drivers also nominated twilight racing, more grandstands on track turns, and better facilities for fans.

Yesterday, there were 81,500 fans at the rain-affected event, taking the total over the four days to 270,800. This was down on last year's total of 277,800 and the 2008 record of 291,400.

Holden fans were jubilant as TeamVodafone's Jamie Whincup yesterday won the second of two 250km races, following from the Saturday's first race win of Toll Holden Racing Team's Garth Tander.

Whincup was the overall winner of the round after placing second on Saturday.

Second yesterday was another Holden driver, Jack Daniel's Racing's Rick Kelly, followed by Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom.

Adelaide abandoned the 3.78km Grand Prix circuit in favour of a 3.12km track when the V8 race was established in 1999. This cut out a fan-favourite section that extended north, further along East Tce, turning into Rundle Rd and then on to Dequetteville Tce with a near 1km-long straight.

Fans were upset when the V8 race eliminated the section of the track because it took the off-track attention away from the Rundle St entertainment precinct.

"The long, old circuit - I think the original F1 circuit would be great," Holden Racing Team driver James Courtney said.

He was joined by team-mate Garth Tander and Fair Dinkum Sheds Racing's Karl Reindler.

The biggest barriers to a return to the longer circuit would be the increased traffic restrictions in the city and longer lap times, meaning longer for fans to wait before the cars circulated past their positions.

In the drivers poll, advocates of twilight races at Clipsal were Team BOC's Jason Bright, team-mate Jason Bargwanna, and Triple F Racing's Dean Fiore.

"I think it looks spectacular and there's no reason why we couldn't get more of a party atmosphere here with a race that finishes at 8pm. Fantastic," Bargwanna said.

Drivers, including Irwin Racing's Alex Davison, Jim Beam Racing's Steven Johnson and Reindler, also advocated better facilities for fans, especially children, to create a more family-friendly atmosphere.

Some drivers were critical of the ageing road surface and said it should be re-surfaced. Advocates of re-surfacing work included Tander, Wilson Security Racing's Tony D'Alberto and Stone Brothers Racing's Tim Slade, who grew up in Adelaide.

Meanwhile, a motor race track and drag strip at Tailem Bend has emerged as the State Government's preferred option over a similar concept at Gillman.

Motor Sport Minister Kevin Foley on Friday announced an unnamed rival to the Gillman proposal, which he opposes because of the noise it would create for constituents in his Port Adelaide electorate.

He would not say if the Government favoured the rival bid, or a third that can now be identified as being in the Riverland, but the Gillman project has faced strong opposition from Mr Foley and has a hostile relationship with the State Government.

Coorong District Council Mayor Roger Strother confirmed backers of the project, on land the council owns, were seeking "in kind" and operational support from the State Government.

"We have been very proactive developing the site and it would happen more quickly than you could set up an operation in Port Adelaide," he said.

Mr Foley yesterday confirmed he had a heated confrontation with Port Adelaide Enfield Mayor Gary Johanson at the State Government Clipsal race track corporate suite on Friday but denied there was any physical altercation.

"I told the mayor of Port Adelaide he was crazy to support a drag strip in the middle of his local area which would deafen local residents," Mr Foley said.

Mr Johanson said Mr Foley had offered him his hand to shake. But he claimed that when he responded, Mr Foley gripped his hand and pulled him away to yell at him, that he had undermined him among his supporters in Port Adelaide.

He also claimed Mr Foley threatened to attack the council using parliamentary privilege.

Mr Johanson said he continued to be a supporter of Mr Foley and the State Government but had to seek the support of a race chaplain because he had been "shaken up" by the incident.

Mr Johanson said tonight on Seven News, that "you wouldn't put the new RAH in Tailem Bend, so why would you put a Motorplex there". Yes he said that.

[made in heaven]

I would just like to clarify a rew things about Tailem Bend we do not have just a couple of servos we have four actually, two hotels, a motel and caravan park which has just installed new cabins, six churches is that's your thing, decent foodland, news agency, two bakery's, fruit and veg and a butcher, threee takeaways, so next time you drive through actually call into the town instead of just asuming there only a couple of servos and a bonus we are only 45 minutes up the freeway and on the beautiful Murray River

[Wayno]

i just caught something briefly on the TV about a drag strip near port adelaide - presumably this garden island proposal? apparently discussions with the govt have been progressing reasonably well. 'Noise testing' will soon be done to ascertain impact on nearby residential areas.

[Wayno]

figured this is the best thread for this post.

from adelaidenow:

There is a push to extend Virginia's Adelaide International Raceway to attract pro drag racing to SA

VIRGINIA'S Adelaide International Raceway is considering extending its track to bring national drag racing events to Adelaide.

Local drag racer Rino D'Alfonso said he had approached raceway owner Rodney Jane about the idea.

D'Alfonso said Mr Jane was keen on the track extension, but the plan was still at a very early stage.

D'Alfonso said the track would need to be extended by 68m to cater for higher horsepower cars and meet Australian National Drag Racing Association standards.

"We can move the start but we would still be a few metres short," D'Alfonso said.

"The track needs to be that little longer so we can run all quarter mile races."

D'Alfonso said Adelaide International Raceway was the perfect venue for pro drag racing.

"The best thing about Adelaide is that we are at sea level.

"This means the cars that come here will do the fastest times.

"There is more oxygen at sea level, which means more power in your engine."

D'Alfonso brought drag racing back to Adelaide International Raceway last November after a decade's hiatus.

He said a longer track would help attract bigger races.

"Adelaide is the home of motorsport but we don't have enough variety here," he said.

D'Alfonso said he had sacrificed a lot so his home town could experience his passion for drag racing.

"I used the money I had from my sponsors to get it back here.

"I sacrificed my year of racing for Adelaide."

Playford Cr Dino Musolino said race promoters and levels of government should work together to expand the track.

"It would see a surge of people in the area and bring money back to the township," Cr Musolino said.

"It would also give us a track that is equal to the other states."

He said special "street meets" for non-professional drivers would reduce incidents of illegal drag racing on public roads.

"I think you need to have somewhere like that," he said.

Mr Jane, who is based in Melbourne, was unavailable for comment.