Rod and Kathy Oberg of Cosmic Enterprises would like to advise all Junior Dragster competitors that we will be passing the organisation and running of the annual Junior Dragster Challenge event over to the management of Willowbank Raceway.
We have reluctantly made this decision after careful consideration of the impact of the Raceway changing the date allocated for the race meeting from the Saturday prior to the Castrol Edge Winternationals to the now scheduled Thursday June 9th, the day before the 2011 Winters.
When we conceived the Junior Challenge we envisioned a day where families from all over Australia could simply enjoy racing their Junior Dragsters with their children in as close to a stress free environment as possible. No championship points, multiple brackets providing plenty of chances to race rather than pack up after first round if the win light didn’t come on and a social celebration to end the evening with great prizes distributed by lucky draw. The event’s theme of “It’s all about the Kids” was not just a promotional tag line but the philosophy driving the entire project. We would like to think we achieved our goals in 2009 and 2010 and had solid plans underway to further enhance the event.
Its timing the weekend before the Castrol Edge Winternationals was chosen to make it more viable for interstate families to attend while still providing adequate separation from the Championship deciding Winternationals to allow time to take a breath and regroup before the big event.
After consulting with many Queensland and interstate families we feel that running the event effectively as day one of the Winternationals for Junior competitors will remove much of the “fun” and dramatically alter the atmosphere of the event with the focus moving from being “All about the kids” towards being part of Australia’s largest and most important drag race. Many racers who have suffered mechanical damage at the 2009 and 2010 Junior Challenges would not have made the Winternationals if they have had to run the next day. The enjoyable social aspect of the evening’s trophy and prize presentations and fun of the kid’s rides etc would certainly have been very limited if all parents and kids had to be up and ready for Winter’s qualifying next morning.
On a personal note, this season our family will be running cars for both our sons, Caleb and Ethan, which any multiple car teams will appreciate, is very labour intensive. With Caleb also attempting the extremely daunting task of defending his Rocket Allstar Series crown we believe it would be impossible for us to provide the level of attention and support he and Ethan deserve if we were dedicate the huge amount of time and energy necessary to organise and run the challenge the day before the title decider. Without the gap between events to recover and refocus it’s simply too hard. If it’s not going to be fun and “All about the Kids” we can not justify the risk.
We would like to sincerely thank all the sponsors, donors, helpers and participants who have so wonderfully supported our efforts with the Cosmic Enterprises Junior Challenge over the last two years and wish Willowbank Raceway all the best with the event in its new format.
