PREMIER SPEEDWAY SHUFFLES THE CALENDAR

Premier Speedway Shuffles the Calendar, Classic Still a Priority

As the whole of Australia continues to grapple with the uncertainty and pending conditions of return to some form of post COVID normality, the Premier Speedway Club Board of Management met recently to adjust their 2021-22 season calendar, to provide the best chance of the Club completing a full season.

While the changes as agreed upon are now in place, the Club will need to remain extremely agile as the reality is that State Government and Chief Health Officer advice and regulations will still determine how the 2021-22 season looks – at this time this is still very much a work in progress.

Given these pending instructions, and advice with regards to crowd sizes etc., the Club is continuing to work with the respective race divisions around a re-shuffle of a number of key dates, with a likely season start now slated for Saturday December 18, 2021, which will feature Max’s Race for Sprintcars.

“At this time, we are continuing to work with the relevant State Government Departments with regards to when we can kick off our season in a manner that is safe for all of our competitors, officials and race fans,” Premier Speedway General Manager David Mills said.

“There is so much to work through, that at times it would be easier to throw our hands in the air and say let’s not worry about it this year, however the Club is determined to start as soon as we can, with the South West Conveyancing Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic still a part of the Club’s plans this season,” he added.

“To be able to have a crowd in the venue, that makes an event the size of the Classic viable is crucial to our decision making, then to be able to be approved for a crowd of that size, we have so many hurdles to jump, including fully understanding the impact of COVID Vaccination Passports, how our seating can work, the ability to attract staff to operate Canteen’s etc are all a part of it and are very real issues that we are addressing now.”

“We understand that there may be starting to be a degree of agitation from those that have purchased season passes, memberships and reserved seats for the coming season and also from those that are expecting ticket sales to be available on-line, as to why they haven’t had these mailed out yet or as to why they can’t access the ticketing site. The answer to this is that we have everything in place and ready to go from our end, but again we need the Government to sign off on how we are going to operate before we can commence the mail out or launch our ticketing,” Mills added.

“The long and the short of it is, is that our patience like those awaiting tickets etc, is being tested, however we don’t want to short change anyone and we are simply waiting for the all clear to move forward, in reality, if we are searching for a time frame, early December is when we think we will be able to or in a worst case scenario be for forced into making some solid decisions”, he said.

So, as it stands currently, the November meetings are postponed with the Victorian Title night of November 20, likely to now (subject to confirmation) form part of a double header weekend with Avalon’s Great Southern Showdown, with the Victorian Title on Friday March 4, 2022 before Avalon host their scheduled meeting on Saturday March 5, 2022.

The Classic is being planned, however if our amazing fans wish to try and secure accommodation, we suggest confirming with your accommodation provider what is the latest fee free cancellation date to avoid any unnecessary cost.

In a perfect world the Classic will run, it may yet be affected by border closures in certain states, it may also have a capped audience and in a worst case, it may even be postponed and replaced by individual nights of racing.

As soon as the Premier Speedway Club knows this information, it will make it public as soon as practical.

The Club also wishes to advise that its stance with regards to vaccination policies etc, will be completely determined by the Government’s Regulations, more of which was outlined in a video update that was released by the Club on Friday October 15, 2021 on the Club’s Facebook Page.

To summarise, we are planning to move forward hoping that early December is the trigger for vaccination rates to be high enough for the Government to allow us to operate. We are, and we ask our officials, competitors and patrons to also be aware that things may change, so please be aware of this.

A full version of the Video Update as posted by the Premier Speedway Club in conjunction with Liam Fitzgerald can be viewed by clicking on the link:

https://www.facebook.com/Sungoldstadium/videos/628252641885699