The National Association of Speedway Racing (NASR) is proud to announce a new scheme offering $15,000 in grants for venues to improve safety and risk management.

The QBE Risk Management Grant Scheme, (in conjunction with the NASR Public Liability Insurance Scheme) is giving five NASR insured tracks the chance to receive a financial grant worth a total of $3,000 each. QBE Insurance has a very strong commitment to assisting NASR and the sport of speedway to improve the standard of venues around the country.

This is an opportunity for clubs and track promoters to submit a grant application outlining how it wishes to improve the safety and risk management standards of its venue. Consideration will be given to track improvements such as enhancing safety fences, improving the safety of spectator areas, safety signage, flood lighting, installation of racing lights, upgrading fire safety equipment and other risk management improvements.

Projects planned for which grants are being requested must be measurable and must directly relate to risk management improvements of your speedway venue. Grants will not be given for general maintenance costs such as refilling extinguishers, replacing globes in light towers, repairing vehicles etc.

Grants will cover material costs only and therefore any labour costs are not applicable to the grant scheme.

Your grant application must address:

•    The specific purpose of the proposed project
•    The total cost of materials for the project (quotations and supplier details)
•    The benefits of the project
•    The start/end dates of the project


Applications must be addressed to the Competition Manager at the NASR National Office and received no later than 13 October 2008.

This is another exciting example of NASR providing professional development, unity, leadership, direction and growth as the recognised peak body of speedway racing in Australia.

The Importance Of Track Shape For Safe And Exciting Racing
N A S R National Office posted Tuesday September 30, 2008.

At the recent NASR National Safety Conference, Sprintcar driver, SCCA Board member and Northline Speedway track curator Alan Barlee spoke about the importance of track shape in speedway to offer competitors multiple lanes for exciting and safe racing.

Barlee through his experience as a professional earth mover has worked on many tracks over the years. He has even been ‘summoned’ by promoters during the race program on some nights to assist and bring the track back to a suitable condition at the expense of his own racing activities.

Barlee has had a hand at shaping many tracks including Avalon, Murray Bridge and more recently Darwin, with great results.

It was therefore fitting to invite Barlee to talk about his experiences at the National Safety Conference in Sydney to open up the topic for the industry, of track preparation and its link to safety.

“It is incredible to see what NASR and venues have done in lifting the bar and improving safety in the last few years,” said Barlee, “with things like tripping hazards and things that were just historically a part of speedway.

“In speedway the laws of physics are against us. We battle gravity and centrifugal force to get our cars around the race track, let alone race each other. I believe that track shape - the actual shape of the racing surface, is the most important safety aspect in speedway. The track has the potential to cause the most serious of injuries, whether they be to competitors or the crowd.

“I am not here (at the Safety Conference) to offend anyone that has anything to do with track preparation but unfortunately all venues rely too much on volunteers and I am certainly a volunteer in the Northern Territory. I hate the mindset that ‘the track is the same for everyone’. There are not ten people in speedway in Australian that can be put on any racetrack and they could all race. Everyone has a different level of experience, different likes and dislikes and some know how to set their car up for a slick track or a hooky track etc. I believe no one can say the track is the same for everyone.”

“It doesn’t matter what surface it is, how wide the turns are or if the track has 3 degrees or 20 degrees of banking. What point is there having a track where you can only race on half of the surface? How many venues do we have currently that are preparing tracks with a flat section at the bottom for the novice drivers, a slight bank for everyone else and a flat graded section at the top to get the recommended concrete fence height? (The recommended concrete fence height is just over a metre – impact zone of the car hitting the wall).

“Effectively this decreases the available racing area and creates one line racing. If you have a crack and try racing around the outside, you fly off the edge and hit the wall because the centrifugal force is throwing you out there, you have no option you are going to hit the fence.

“I believe if the racing surface is prepared using a straight line effect from pole to fence or a salad bowl effect (slightly concave) and there is no deviation in elevation (i.e. get a piece of string and hold it from the pole line to the fence uninterrupted), that is the safest way to prepare a speedway for racing and offers the potential to develop multiple racing lines.

“I am not advocating a reduced fence height however I believe that track shape is far more important to keep a car actually in the circuit. Some concrete fences are 1.5 or 1.2 metres high and we might be able to use 20cm from the fence, which might reduce it to just under a metre, but we end up with a better, safer track because you have got that concave shape.

“Why does it take two thirds through the feature race before competitors start using the outside of the track and we see passing? Because material is thrown from the bottom and fills the top. Until that material gets put there by the race cars and fills that flat spot one can race there, and even then the feature might be over before that lane opens up

“Then comes the other benefits such as better racing, no more follow the leader and less damage to racecars because drivers are less likely to make desperate moves, because the track just won’t let you pass anywhere else.

“If the quality of racing is excellent then word of mouth is the best form of advertising you can possibly have. You don’t even need the top quality drivers to have top quality racing. If they are racing three wide and someone comes from position six to win by the skin of his teeth, everyone will be raving. That is the type of racing we are getting in Darwin and even with our limited population base crowds are growing. The local politician could not believe the demographic we had at the speedway from the boys drinking at the bar to families with blankets on the hill and older spectators enjoying some sensational racing.

“Tracks have been built 20, 30, and 40 years ago and they are the wrong shape to start with to suit modern day race cars and to race safety. Especially with the speeds that are achieved now but a concave shape will help a lot of that.

“A prime example is Brisbane International Speedway and the accolades John Kelly has been getting lately. At last year’s SCCA conference I gave my little spill and we had a long discussion afterwards and the next thing you know John is on the grader himself and he made improvements.

“In Darwin we have a bottom, middle and top racing line all night and people are gob smacked what a difference purely the difference of track shape has made. The last thing the competitors want to do is hit the fence or follow each other around on a one and a half car wide race track where you can not pass.

“Speedway is unique and perhaps there should be some sort of recommended track shape formula or minimum standard. Perhaps a track graders meeting can be held so we can all work together, NASR, competitors and promoters, to improve the shape of our tracks and reap the rewards because there is a lot of experience out there,” concluded Barlee.

The Speedway Safety Advisory Committee (SSAC) will discuss this issue at their next meeting and if NASR members have any thoughts or feedback about track shape please email your comments to competition@nasr.com.au.