25 November 2018

Speedway: Canberra’s forgotten sport

| Tim Gavel
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Fairbairn Park following upgrades by volunteers. Photo: National Capital Motorsports Club.

Fairbairn Park. Photos: National Capital Motorsports Club.

At 10 pm on the night of 22 September this year, spirits were high among Canberra’s speedway fraternity after a successful meet under the lights at Fairbairn Park.

It was, after all, the first nigh-time speedway racing at the venue in over two decades. The response was overwhelming with 2,000 people turning out, quite possibly the biggest crowd ever for the sport at the Park.

The National Capital Motorsports Club, which operates the speedway, estimates that 150,000 dollars has been spent on the circuit with large dirt mounds for noise mitigation and light towers to enable night-time racing. It was a far cry from several years ago when the site had no running water or electricity. The best description is that it was a goat track before hundreds of hours of volunteering and thousands of dollars were put into the project.

At 10 pm on 22 September, it appeared to be money well spent.

Two months down the track, to suggest things have turned sour is an understatement.

Noise testing carried out on the night at a designated testing point two kilometres from the track revealed the noise levels to be over the specified limit of 45 decibels.

The maximum reading came back at 54.7 decibels, which indicated that during part of the meeting the noise levels had been exceeded.

There were also five complaints from the closest residents at the Ridgeway and Oaks Estate.

The noise testing results and complaints were effectively the death-knell for speedway in Canberra, at least in the short term, with apparently no room for negotiation.

Completion of works at Fairbairn Park, Photo: National Capital Motorsports Club.

Fairbairn Park following noise reduction work.

Day-time racing is not an option because it fails to attract enough travelling entrants, and spectators prefer night-time racing.

ACT Speedway cancelled their last meeting because it was going to be staged during the day.

The ambitions of the Motorsports Club don’t appear unreasonable. They are keen to run eight night-time meetings a year, with the maximum noise level lasting for one hour, twenty minutes at each race night.

Motorsport has, at times, had an unsettled relationship with the ACT Government. The Canberra 400 V8 Super Car race was launched in a blaze of glory in 2000 with the track winding through the Parliamentary Triangle.

The race lasted just three years into the five-year contract with cost overruns cited as the reason, with the argument that the money would be better spent elsewhere.

Then there was the money put aside for the proposed motorsport facility at Majura.

The money was last seen in consolidated revenue.

So what is the future for motorsport in Canberra? It would appear as though the sport has been placed in the ‘too hard basket’.

The September 22nd event could go down in history as the last night-time speedway race at Fairbairn Park.

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renaissance870110:47 am 01 Dec 18

Need someone with a large rural property to partition part of their land and pay a cover charge, events planner, food truckers – registrations of vehicle owners and make it an event! – the “the molly/speakeasy” equivalent, away from residents and on private property, bam

house_husband11:45 am 29 Nov 18

Yet it seems every few months Parkes Way gets shut down for half a day for a cycling or running event, traffic gets diverted through suburban streets and adds 20-30 minutes to trip times.

That annoys me a lot more than a bit of noise would but I have no say to stop those type of events. So why don’t the government just admit that they don’t like motorsport and are quite happy to make it as difficult as possible for it to operate in the ACT.

@house_husband: even worse when you do not live in Canberra and are not familiar with the back routes!

Great to see the ACT government is protecting the ears of Oakes Estate residents from the loud noise of race cars (and ACTION bus services).

Tounge firmly in cheek.

Firstly thank you to the Riot ACT and to Tim Gavel for the support and the exposure you have both given our plight to achieve night events.
The Fairburn Park cluster as it is know is home to Canberra’s Go-kart, Hillclimb, Motorcycle clubs and of course the Speedway with some of the clubs granted noise credits allowing club’s to run events over the nominated DB level on weekends between 10am – 5pm. Clubs work together to host events on the same weekends to minimize weekends that the cluster is used and in fact for the next calendar year the cluster have very few weekends booked. We have over many years engaged with the residents of the Ridgeway informing them of our plans and we are extremely disappointed that a minority of people has so much say on the our future.
As outlined we are looking to run eight events during daylight saving months between 6 – 10 pm and over that time we will make noise for about 1 hour 20 minutes. The trial meeting attracted over Two thousand people with a large number of those travelling, staying and visiting local attractions either before or following the event.
We are community based with a strong business case for the future and all the work carried out at our venue over years being completed by our members and volunteers.
I compare our plight and venue to Manuka oval, when Manuka oval applied for night events they came up against very strong opposition from local residents, but with input from the chief minister where granted night events. I do feel the Manuka oval decision set a precedent for what we are asking for and we will be asking to meet with the chief minister to discuss our plight.
Regards
Murray Johnson
NCMSC

Rob Chalmers7:16 pm 28 Nov 18

With more publicity more people would have attended. ACT Labor has failed do do anything for motorsports.

It must be time for the motorsport enthusiasts to band together and challenge the Labor fun police at the next election. The motorist Party only just missed out with their last go. Motorsport gets almost no representation through either party in Canberra.

I live in Oaks Estate and I heard the event – my house is 1,920m south of the speedway. I was not bothered in the slightest and I told the Canberra Times journo that. My view: a handful of whingers ruined this.

The noise stopped around 10pm, so no different than a (responsible) house party a few doors down. The noise 3.99km away at the airport EVERY DAY at 1130pm or 5am as aircraft roar their jet engines before take-off is waaaayy more annoying to me.

As an Oaks Estate resident, I’m more concerned by the screams of victims being bashed in the street, or drunk/high/speeding hoon drivers smashing into fences and trees as they race stolen cars and practice their drift “skills”. And yet for all of those frequent little inconveniences, the ACT Govt DOES NOTHING WHATSOEVER.

I don’t think those dB readings sound that bad overall to be honest. Can’t see when its only a handful of times a year how that can’t be acceptable.

But the decision to cull the V8s was the correct one. It was an absolute waste of money, as shown by the Auditor-General’s report on it, which delivered only a fraction of the promised benefits, at vast cost.

Used to pit crew there occasionally for a mate who raced when it was Fraser Park Raceway.
The track and the events were there LONG before houses were put nearby. This kind of thing is just ridiculous. No different to people who buy cheap real estate under a low flight path and complain about the noise.

If anything, the ACT Government should be stepping in and telling people complaining to suck it up for 8 nights a year. Catering to serial whingers just keeps stopping more and more events.

I personally have little to no interest in motorsport but do agree that there is a need for support to a similar level that others get. In Adelaide they support the number of race courses for both, road and off-road, which gives those who want to have a go at going hard an appropriate place to do this safely and reduced the number of the idiots doing stupid stuff out on the roads (where they use to regularly kill themselves and others).

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