Ben’s Car Blog

Fro offered his thoughts to my recent post on club level motorsport.

Fro said:

you won’t see Marcos Ambrose or Mark Skaife at a club motorkhana, or ads on tele telling people that this is the sport that they could get involved with.

True. And there’s part of the problem.

I wonder what the wowsers would say if they saw this on television during prime time:

Fro is right that CAMS have a focus on the “big end of town”. But why do they when (as Fro knows) most of the numbers come from the little guys? Is it too hard? Do they think it’s the role of the member clubs to promote motorsport to the entry level? Clubs have a busy enough time promoting events to their members, let alone seeking out new people who might be interested.

Staying with the cricket comparison, why isn’t there this sort of thing for motorsport? Junior Cricket.

Don’t even get me started on drag racing.

Just thinking out loud…

• Are the barriers to entry into motorsport too high?
• Is there enough information out there on how to get started?

Barriers to entry

To participate in a casual, club level motorkhana for the first time you need:

• Club membership (about $40);
• CAMS L2NS Licence ($46) or L2S ($85);
• Entry fee ($20-40)
• Enough organisation to arrive at the venue on time; and,
• To be prepared to be bad at it.

Then, assuming that you don’t like it, you’re out of pocket $126 to find out. Compare this with the cost, monetary and otherwise, of hooning about an industrial area.

Information for newbies

A quick google for “motorsport” on Australian website leads to: Calder Park, Wide World of Sports and Drive.com.au.

Google is obviously not the best test, but at least it’s indicitive. Google thinks that motorsport is about professional level competition.

I was watching TV the other day and an ad came on for club cricket. Why aren’t there ads for club motorsport on during the F1 and Bathurst?

Anyway, here’s CAMS Getting Started page. The calendar doesn’t list everything but it’s a start.