MOTORING SOUTH WEST
by Dave Roberts
The raucous, uneven sound of V8s
tuned for power has come and gone for some time
as the competitors make those final adjustments.
The crowd has been well behaved, it is a family
day after all, and every one seems content to sit
around. Given the closeness of the event, only the
organisers seem to be showing any anticipation at
all.
| The first of the big engines
gets a bootload, and the crowd rises as one
and flows to the barriers. Burnouts are motorsport
at their most visceral, and least intellectual.
Shredding tyres for the pleasure of the onlookers,
producing clouds of smoke while going nowhere
all sounds just a bit silly really. Suppose
it does until you're there, and the total
sensory experience hits you. When the cars
arc up you smell clutch and tyres, you hear
the unbelievable noise of a motor at the edge,
the view is perfect, the reverberations can
be felt all the way through your chest, all
that's left is the taste of rubber and high
octane. The brew certainly worked for more
than 2000 spectators at Collie's Motoring
South West Complex last month, and the quality
of the competitors put paid to the "local
hoons" idea. Although there was no jostling
for position at the first corner, it's still
true that "when the flag drops, the bullsh**
stops".
Motoring South West has been quietly positioning
itself to be the state's foremost motorsport
and driver training venue for some time
now, and developing a string of
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| successful events and projects
in both sport, promotions and the vital driver
training area. |
Situated to the east of Collie, occupying
a disused mining lease which appears to have run
it's life as a mine, the complex has literally kilometres
of paved and gravel roads, allowing an extraordinary
variation of uses in both driver training and sport.
The long wide haul roads allow for advanced training
in heavy vehicles, and even for youth driver training
the opportunity to experience gravel under controlled
conditions is likely to save lives.
At the high end of the driver training
spectrum, the blue overalls of police driver training
have become almost a regular sight stopping in Collie
for fuel and food.
The track is taking shape. As the
only venue in Western Australia with both CAMS and
ANDRA accreditation it's certainly a place to see
a wide range of the sport, and visits by some of
motor sport's big names show that as capacity increases,
they'll be eager to come back and use it to the
full. Drivers from the V8 supercars series have
done promotional duties at the track and compare
it's facilities favourably with some big name circuits
in the east.
At present there are plenty of club
days utilising the track. Many people who are car
club members have taken the opportunity to come
down and spend the day getting the most out of their
vehicles. The time trials system allows the closest
thing to racing, with multiple cars all trying for
their own best time around the circuit together.
Motoring South West is a not for profit
association, so as the complex develops itself it
will truly be a venue owned by all of us in the
community. The work of the volunteers who make the
thing happen at both an operational level and at
management is turning out a quality venue. Manager
of the Complex, Gordon Smyth has worked himself
nearly into the ground at some points of the past
year, but the outcome that he's seen for all of
this is a truly top quality venue.
Motorsport can be a great family day.
From club events through drags and burnouts, to
the opportunity to take your own vehicle through
it's paces, this is an opportunity you don't get
just anywhere. The final round of the state speed
event, with enough points to make it live round
in a number of classes takes place on November 11.
This sprint event on the transformed sprint track
represents the best of speed in the state in CAMS
motorsport.
Follow the link to see what else is
coming up, and how you might get to be involved:
www.motoringsouthwest.org.au
November 2001
