Snippet from local paper (SE)

[SKY031]

Here we go again........

I think it's time I start attending council meetings.

[SKY031]

oh..... and why is it aimed at "young" people.....?

I wanna be able to play too

[inark]

they better freakin do it!!!!

im sick of driving an hour to go to calder...

[Laurence]

Holy crap... apparently young people today think they are indestructible????

WOW!!!!! And this is different how from the last 2000 years of human history?

Good to see local government is still filled with 3AW listeners...

[stolly]

-Congratulations Cr Roland Abraham, well done, it seems like you have a good deal of common sense and wish to be proactive, rather than burying your head in the sand, banning everything and trying to win the mainstream vote.

[SKY031]

It's just unfortunate that it will never happen.

Due to council noise restrictions, and the proximity of the track to local residences, I doubt we're going to see a track over this side of town while we're still young enough to enjoy it.

[R31Nismoid]

i cant read it! it goes all small!

[foznice]

do you think the road toal would actually decline if sandown was opened up to the public?

[inark]

its not just road toll tho... its illegal street racing... dangerous driving etc... NSW or some state put in 2 tracks for this sort of thing and the number of dangerous driving fines, speeding fines and other illegal activites were dropped by 30%

[foznice]

really? thats quite encouraging,

it would definatly be a step in the right direction though

[Oosh]

i cant read it!  it goes all small!

If you're running IE make sure you don't have Auto Image resizing on, one of the more annoying default "features" it comes with, in the menu go:

Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced (Tab)

and scroll down and disable the option shown in the attachement below.

- Ash.

[Downforce]

Why would it need to resize the image? unless you're viewing it on some crappy 15" LCD with 1024x768 or below resolution? I view the forums at 1600x1200 on a 22" screen, no problems here

[Downforce]

I think opening up Sandown once a month would be excellent. but would it be only for "drag" racing? I'm not really into quarter miles.... I'd prefer to have monthly open practice days at Sandown to use the full track.. not just 400m

[Downforce]

oh..... and why is it aimed at "young" people.....?

I wanna be able to play too

You're never too old to enjoy life bruvva how old r u anyway?

[GTRgeoff]

I think opening up Sandown once a month would be excellent. but would it be only for "drag" racing? I'm not really into quarter miles.... I'd prefer to have monthly open practice days at Sandown to use the full track.. not just 400m

The copper down there is a bit full of himself "...if it is done in a controlled environment." Well what is a closed racetrack wanker?

Practice days are available at Sandown almost every weekend. Get a CAMS license and surf the other club websites and enter. They time you and everything, even have fire marshalls and ambulance. Personally I prefer Phillip Island, and will miss it when i go to Qld, but there is plenty of racing available if you make the effort.

[Oosh]

Why would it need to resize the image? unless you're viewing it on some crappy 15" LCD with 1024x768 or below resolution?  I view the forums at 1600x1200 on a 22" screen, no problems here

He could have been trying to open it in a small window and not maximised it, shit i dunno, just trying to be helpful. Congrats on your hi-res and large screen btw!

[SKY031]

You're never too old to enjoy life bruvva  how old r u anyway?

er... it's "sista" and I'm in the 30+ clan.

Geoff, most of us here know that Sandown has regular track days, but to Jo Blow on the street, they need something like Calder events which are held on a regular basis, with entry open to anyone.

However......

Even if they COULD get council go ahead for this, it wouldn't stop street drags.

In fact you could put money on it that dragging would get worse in the area.

Anyone who has ever been to easternats would understand the lack of maturity and disregard for other peoples safety shown by "the hoons".

The same goes on at Calder.

People get into the car park, and they think they're really cool and carry on like idiots.... spraying stones on to other peoples cars... doing burnouts (or trying)

just generally making fools out of themselves.

Another reason that this just won't happen, is the fact that Sandown is used for track racing.

It's not set up for 1/4 mile racing.

Unless they are prepared to constantly resurface sections of the track, they would have to build a new 1/4 mile track (plus find somewhere to install boards/lights etc)

[Oosh]

Maybe the Vic government could get of their arses and build an international level drag setup like Sydneys new one (forget what/where it is).

[GTRgeoff]

Yeah Kaz, I'm with you on most of that but I saw what happened in the ACT over the time that they shut down the 4 and Rotary nats and then the 1/8th strip, then they chose to shut down hard the street gatherings (for good reason but without providing another outlet for the speed needy, not including me).

had they instead chosen to reopen/extend the strip and gotten behind the popularity instead of the message "liking cars and going fast is evil" they could have influenced the direction of attitudes. I think the Calder straight is long enough for street drags but access back to the start would be via the rest of the track as the easiest route so there would be concerns with controlling the boy racers.

I absolutely disagree with general open days on track unless the users comply with the minimum safety requirements of fire extinguisher, flag marshalls and controlled numbers ont he track. this is the reason I don't go to the Winton fun days, and the number of near miss incidents at the recent event, and Roy's car fire including the time for fire marshalls to respond, tells me that I have grounds for my argument.

A track day can cost as little as $80 with some clubs plus your associated costs so it's not expensive to do one a month.

The key to all of this is an environment of educated car usage and intelligent users, but not everyone wants to comply with that so we'll alway have the rebel street racer/hoon element. Unfortunately the rest of us suffer for that.

[adznight]

I agree, open track days are a nightmare Go the sprint days!