The ANDRA Pro Series has suffered a blow with the cancellation of Willowbank’s planned Easter super-event which was to have contained two rounds of the championship on the one weekend.
For Top Alcohol, Top Bike and Pro Stock Motorcycle racers, this means their championships are now just four rounds of racing.
Willowbank Raceway’s only involvement for the entire Pro Series season is now limited to the Winternationals.
Willowbank Raceway managing director Steve Bettes announced the cancellation on the Drag News forum and in a letter to Group One competitors.
“The single reason for this cancellation is the total lack of support for the event by the majority of Australia’s leading Group One drag racing teams,” Mr Bettes said.
He explained that the Willowbank Raceway Management Committee surveyed all Group One teams early in September and again in late September, but the results of the two surveys were no different with more than 66% percent of the responses being negative.
“This event required 100% support from all teams so that they would all become ambassadors for the promotion of the event,” Mr Bettes said.
It comes as no surprise that Top Alcohol and Pro Stock Motorcycle racers were the ones who most strongly supported the concept, given the minimum of rounds they already had with Mr Bettes saying it was almost unanimous support from those divisions.
“For three years the Willowbank Raceway Management Committee has been considering the concept for this event and believes without question that it was a winner and would have provided an innovative answer to the lack of crowds at major ANDRA Pro Series events,” he said. “This event was to feature a lot of additional entertainment including specifically designed fireworks shows, laser light shows, stunt shows and live entertainers. The event was to feature two nights of racing (in) the three-round format, with two sets of championship points allocated and great television coverage assured for all competitors.”
Mr Bettes said the event carried advantages over a single round, more traditional event.
“The major advantage of the Easter format was that there was not going to be any non-qualifiers, everyone was going to race both days, there would have been great TV coverage, points could be earned on both days and all racers had the chance to be in the finals on both days,” he said.
The event was to be billed as the Easter Super 3 ANDRA Pro Series in order to build on the new concept.
The two most controversial points were the Easter date and the race format.
The event was to use the three round format which features a compulsory qualifying session and then a round of eliminations where the four quickest winners are chosen for the finals.
Unfortunately this met with opposition from racers who questioned the use of the format in a championship season.
“The Willowbank Raceway Management Committee saw these two elements of this event as non-negotiable and were not prepared to jeopardise the enormous investment that the track was prepared to put into this event by changing it to a traditional event with normal qualifying and eliminations,” Mr Bettes said.
There are no plans to replace the rounds of the championship with a traditional event.
“As mentioned in the previous correspondence, the Willowbank Raceway Management Committee has no further plans to schedule any further ANDRA Pro Series rounds to replace the 12 rounds of Group One competition that will now be lost to the series,” Mr Bettes said.
The loss of the event has raised questions about how far tracks should be able to go to meet the demands of an ever more competitive entertainment market, versus the love the competitors have of a traditional eliminations format.
Drag News would like to hear your thoughts on this issue. Do you think Willowbank was on the right track with the event? Or should eliminations racing be kept at all costs? Is there a compromise that could be struck? Leave your comments below.
