Australian Supertruck Championship - Rd 4, Mallala, South Australia

[philwillmedia]

Greetings all,

I've been a bit busy over the last week so haven't had a chance to get these up.

Here's a few pics from the the Last Blast - the final ever truck race meeting at Mallala

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3628/4077113047_5731f5bb09_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2761/4082673102_72de3b7dbf_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2518/4082673476_e921ec309f_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3495/4082673582_d943748443_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2710/4082673762_96647ab9d4_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2718/4082673378_c68fe62daa_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2427/4082672822_4b28cf0955_o.jpg

See the rest on my website.

[300Daz]

Nice pics Phil. Why wont they be running trucks at Mallala any more?

Daz

[philwillmedia]

Couple of reasons Daz.
The main one being that they supposedly do too much damage to the track.
It's probably true to a point.
There's been a few other issues with them too.
My take on it though is that the crowds haven't been that great over the last few truck meetings and so the track owner hasn't been getting great gate receipts.
If there had been half decent crowd numbers it might be a different story.

[300Daz]

^Well I guess if the support ain't there, the dollars dry up. All good things come to an end as they say.

This should probably be in the 'Discuss motorsport' section but I will go on anyway...As a huge motorsport fan, who spent much of his childhood watching touring car racing at AIR and Mallala then seeing this revolution of V8 Supercars turn into a booming commercial juggernaut, I wonder if it's success has detracted from other categories.

A lot of categories like Sports Sedans used to be crowd pullers in their own right but like many others seem to have dwindled into almost non-existence.

Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of the V8 Supercars and I think it is a winning formula, but has it hurt the smaller end of the paddock?

Thanks Phil.

Daz

[philwillmedia]

Nah - I don't reckon.
There's some pretty strong fields in other categories.
Historics, especially the old Group N cars as well as Group C and the early Group A's are having a massive resurgence - have a look at Historic Sandown last week and Musclecar Masters at Eastern Creek - both good crowd pullers and big entry fields. And the Phillip Island Classic in about February pulls massive numbers of competitors as well as spectators.
The Shannons Nationals fields have all been pretty good too this year - some good numbers in fields for the meeting at Sandown in a couple of weeks time - 15 or so F3's, 20 something Saloon Cars and about 12-15 in the the new Touring Car Class for old V8 Supercars, not eligible for Level 1 or the Fujitsus and that will only increase next year as well.
There's some pretty strong fields with classes at state level also - things HQ's, FVee's and Improved Prods, FFords etc.
The classes that have struggled probably would have anyway.
What the V8's have done though is bring some new sponsors into motorsport that aren't the traditional type of motorsport sponsors and this has filtered down to the lower classes.
That's my take on it anyway.

[duxbar]

Wreck between those trucks must be pretty brutal.

[DaleP]

Having raced Formula Vees at a truck race meet, I can tell you racing after they've had a run is an experience, especially in the wet! The oils and diesel they dump on the track make staying on the track tricky.

Nice shots. I do enjoy watching the big rigs drifting around the corners.

[300Daz]

Nah - I don't reckon.
There's some pretty strong fields in other categories.
Historics, especially the old Group N cars as well as Group C and the early Group A's are having a massive resurgence - have a look at Historic Sandown last week and Musclecar Masters at Eastern Creek - both good crowd pullers and big entry fields. And the Phillip Island Classic in about Feruary pulls massive numbers of competitors as well as spectators.
The Shannons Nationals fields have all been pretty good too this year - some good numbers in fields for the meeting at Sandown in a couple of weeks time - 15 or so F3's, 20 something Saloon Cars and about 12-15 in the the new Touring Car Class for old V8 Supercars, not eligible for Level 1 or the Fujitsus and that will only increase next year as well.
There's some pretty strong fields with classes at state level also - things HQ's, FVee's and Improved Prods, FFords etc.
The classes that have struggled probably would have anyway.
What the V8's have done though is bring some new sponsors into motorsport that aren't the traditional type of motorsport sponsors and this has filtered down to the lower classes.
That's my take on it anyway.

Well your probably right and you get to more meets and venues than me which puts you in a better position to offer your comments. (Which is kinda why I asked in the first place).

Thanks for the discussion.

Daz