Congrats to Andre for getting one of the best interviews in a long long while

Talk about calling a spade a spade

The Australian messgae boards have gone quiet on this interview .I WONDER WHY

TRUTH HURTS

Andre take a bow . Maybe because Andre doesnt have aVESTED INTEREST

A friendship that has endured for three decades

1. The man that owns Parramatta City Raceway
2. The person who brought about the introduction of 410 spec in Australia
3. The person who created Outlaws "Down Under".

What is your speedway background?

You live in the Sacramento, California; what brought you to America and how long have you lived there?

I try and make three trips a year and come over for the Christmas shows for a month, and off course I read Sprintcar Daily every morning to catch up on all the news.

No I don’t have any involvement with speedway over here. I am good friends with John Padjen* and I have turned to him quite a few times when things where not going right. He is a smart promoter and I like to learn from him.

We run our shows the same way as Chico and 80% of the tracks, hot laps qualifying, 4 heats, C-B-A- Main

We'd like to ask you a few questions regarding TPCR and sprintcar racing in Australia. If any questions are too sensitive to answer publicly, please feel free to take a "pass". Similarly, if you feel that your Managing Director at TPCR is in a better position to answer any of the questions, please refer same to him.

You acquired Parramatta City Raceway in 2001; tell us how that played out.

I always come home and spend Christmas with mom, she lives 4 hours south of Sydney in Narooma. It was a good way to spend a few weeks to unwind and I would always head to Sydney for the New Year’s shows at Parramatta. I got to know David Lander through all the deals I had done with him when I would bring the Kinsers over to race there in their off-season.

I had heard that Dave would sell if he got the right price and we worked on a deal around 1998-99, but it never happened.

Then over the 2000 season we talked again and when I got back to Sacramento I discussed the idea with Bob Spence (Bob and I had worked on deals together for years) and he said "lets fly over there and have a look at it". We met Dave and in 2001 a deal was done.

I am sure it all started in our first year, with me being good friends with Steve Kinser. I had asked him if he would come over in our first year and open for us. He had not been to Australia for a few years and since his last tour he had won a few more World of Outlaws championships. He said he would, but he wanted to bring all his own stuff (not drive for a Aussie owner).

That’s when I found out that the best sprintcar driver in world had to spend over $30.000 on a 372 motor to come and entertain Australian race fans. Right there I knew there was something wrong. At the time there was a block on 410 motors until 2003 (I think).

The SCCA was having their meeting in Tasmania and I called to find out if I could get Steven Green to address them at the meeting, as I was looking at bringing the World of Outlaws to Sydney and needed the OK for them to run 410s. In their wisdom, after finding out what Steve was asking of them, they moved the date (for 410s) from 2003 to 2007.

I had heard off some of the outrageous prices teams were paying for motors and I knew that the 410s were a lot cheaper and the teams would be looking to sell their stuff after the show in Sydney.

So we formed the 410-sprintcar club of NSW, using a WoO rule-book that’s is used 100 times a year in the USA. We also cleared it with the Department of Sport and Recreation of NSW and it was a done deal.

They (SCCA) soon realised that they were losing out on a lot of revenue form driver fees and called back the following year to say that they would let the 410 NSW Sprintcar Club join SCCA, provided the 410s did not race anywhere other than Parramatta. If it was up to me I would have told them to go jump in the lake, but I have good, hard-working people who work for me and I left the decision up to them.

Yes I have seen some stories about what’s going and I talked to Ray Solomon at our $50K race and it seems he going though the same deal. I suspect that all you need to do is follow the money (as in the movie of the same title).

The SCCA made another classic decision that is costing teams’ money. I would look into who is supplying all the parts for the SCCA motor and I am sure you’ll find it is the same group that was against me bringing in 410s. They would not make money out of the 410s, nor in this case, the imported ASCS motors from the USA.

So, lets get the SCCA to put a hold on them motors (ASCS) till 2012 - teams are getting screwed by the SCCA for not letting them run a motor that would save the teams’ money, yet they still have to pay the annual fee to the SCCA. Amazing!

Like I said above I have been around the World of Outlaws for years, even drove the pace car one year for Ted. I have seen a lot of teams come and go and there have always been a few US drives come over at Christmas time to drive for Aussie owners.

With the change to 410s I had drivers wanting come with there own stuff and run TPCR, so a light went on in my head. I talked to Ted and ODU was born,. I would say it went well although there were a lot against it, including bad press saying it would not happen, down to someone calling customs and telling them the containers had drugs on board! Crazy stuff, but like I was told that is the Aussie way.

We all know how well it went, the racing was great, teams sold all their cars and motors at a fair price and TPCR had a car count of 60 cars.

I don’t think I have pulled the pin as you say, giving it a rest would be a better choice of words after last year’s season's rain outs over Christmas and New Years/ODU shows, we just had to step back and take a look at the big picture.

There has been on/off rumours of PCR being up for sale. Can you comment on this and also the longer term future of the raceway?

Rumors, rumors, rumors! I have never been involved with any other industry that so has so many people knowing so much about what’s going on, but in reality don’t know crap. I think any company is for sale if two parties can reach a selling/buying price. I must say, we have had a few good offers, but have not reached the right number at this time.

A while back we looked at Eastern Creek. With the ARDC holding the lease to all the land up there, we looked at doing a deal with them, but with all the fees they wanted for parking and a percentage of food and the rent there was no way it would work.

We have a 24-year lease with the NSW government and have had several meeting with them about selling the land where we are and moving to Eastern Creek. But I must say that if anyone builds a speedway track and does not have its own drag track next-door, they are not going to make it and we all know that there is already a drag strip there.

I would say the health of sprintcar racing is the best its ever been. You only need to look at the car count for the coming shows such as the Classic and the Australia Title. Both have over 60 cars and only looking at getting better. Prize money for a lot of the shows are at an all-time high, so why did it take the SCCA/NASR (so long) to make the move to 410s?

Well you could thank NASR for that. In the first years of running a racetrack every good businessman looks at ways to save money and not hurt what you are trying to do when putting on a show.

When our insurance came up for renewal we got a quote from NASR and just happen to make a few calls to other insurance brokers. We found that we could save $40,000 a year, so we called NASR and all they told us is that the insurance we were looking at was no good and we need to go with them. After we had our attorney look at it and (the department of) Sport & Recreation to OK it (which they did) we dropped NASR (insurance) and changed to the new policy for a lot less money.

Now that made us the bad boys of speedway, but for the saving we where getting we could live with that.

Then at the next promoters meeting, Neil Sayer from the ASCF told everyone in the room that if you did not have NASR insurance he would not let super sedans race at that track. At a break I went up to him and said "I have a lot of good friends that race super sedans. I had worked and played with the Sims over the years and they had two or three supers and just live up the road", but he told me, "too bad, that is what the members want".

I again asked him "are you sure because they will not able to run at TPCR" and again he said "yep, the members want to run at NASR Insurance tracks only". I said "OK, that’s a little sad but so be it".

Bruce McKenzie had been calling me about starting up a Late Model class (which I had seen run in WA and in the Midwest over here). I told him I would give him three years to build a good car count and as you all see, they now have 20 odd cars.

On January 23-24 we are running our two-day Gold Cup race and next year, working with WA, we'l be running the first Australian Late Model Title on the East Coast.

Are you satisfied with the role that SCCA plays?

Again Andre, what role do they play? They run an over-priced Australia sprintcar championships once a year. Their format (for the Title) sucks. For a while they would not even run a main event on the first night, just heats and all that does is wear out the track.

And when its time for the main on the 2nd night, the track is long gone because of all the crap they make you run in the lead up to the final.

They make you pay tow money to drivers from all over Australia you have never heard of (like they going to put a lot of bums on seats). I ask them why are we wasting all this money on drivers that one day can tell their grand kids, "I once ran in the Australia Title at TPCR", did not make it out of the C main but I was still there".

Their (SCCA) answer is it’s the Australian title and every Australia driver should have a chance to run in it. And then you have to supply rooms for the officials so they can make take their annual vacation at which ever track is running it.

Andre you’re making a lot of this crap up right? SCCA, Sprintcars Australia, I think there might be another one out there to right?

Were you/Steve Green driving forces behind the formation of SPA and ultimately it's acquisition of World Series Sprintcars?

NO, NO, NO. As you well know, we had not run a WSS show for a few years. The 410 deal did not help and trying to get a good date to run it when we were still a 372 track just did not work for us.

Then at the promoters meeting we where told NASR were going to put it out for bids. I liked the way it was going to be done with the 6 tracks forming the SPA and doing a joint bid (any track that was part of the ASPA was welcome to join, but at the end of the day there were only 6 of us).

Do you believe that SPA took WSS to the next level as promised?

That depends who you talk to. I know that everyone involved with SPA was working to making it better and I think next year we will have to make more changes if its going to happen, again.

NASR, using our money are sitting back there telling us what to do, We had 6 teams this year only that wanted to do it with fuel. Next year we need to drop the Big Screen and save $10k a night.

TV is some thing that would work, but would need a sponsor to make that deal happen and with the economy the way it is looking that not going to happen any time soon

We all lnew Wade was doing a top job, or trying his best with what he had to work with. He was not making a lot of money on WSS and was working on his third partner in 5 years.

The shows where all good this year and the tracks that run WSS all made money (and that’s got to happen, because no profit = no shows).

TPCR got hurt in its first show with the rain, but all others worked well. The final five shows in particular (2 x Archerfield; 1 x Toowoomba; 2 days at TPCR) saw the best of the best pitted against each other, providing outstanding racing and entertainment for the fans.

It has been reported that John & Kathy Kelly will walk away from World Series upon the conclusion of the current series. What impact will that have on the future of SPA and World Series?

And where was this reported Andre? Not in the paper that can't let the truth get in the way of a good story?

I talked to John and Kathy last week. Now Kathy was a little burnt out as she and Steve (Green) did a lot of the work, but the other tracks put their hands up when needed.

I am sure we need to make a few changes for next year but that’s all.

I have just been told today (January 20, 2009) that NASR/SCCA are looking at kicking in more help for 2009-2010 and that has got to be a good thing. Bottom line is we all want to make/keep the WSS the top touring sprint car show in Australia.

There was only one key learning point for all of us and that was not to turn the internet on and read any of the crap that all them idiots are putting on there.

WOW, we only won the bid from Wade, glad I did not run over him with a car!

Do you think NASRs ownership of World Series is appropriate?

If not SPA, then who should own/manage WSS, in particular, should SCCA have the management rights (through Sprintcars Australia)? What about the competitor group, Sprintcar Racing Pty Ltd?

OK Andre let put the two questions above together, and let me ask you if SPA is not in control of WSS and one of the three above are, where are they going to race?

At all the SPA tracks? How is that phone call going to work?

"Ring, ring, hello yes this is one of the above and we are taking over WSS want to book a date at your track."

"Cool, how much for a show?"

"$$$ Amount"

"Your crazy, it cost a lot less than that last year when we owned it"

"Too bad that’s the cost"

"OK, no thanks, I will just put on a $20k to win race the same weekend and save me a ton of money"

"Click… hello, hello?"

TPCR has been accused of changing track preparation to suit the internationals, resulting in dusty conditions. Is that true?

Some metropolitan venues have been accused of neglecting the front gate, because they make all the money they need through the back gate. Any comments?

OK I can live with this one, yes it is a hard market. TV costs are out of this world, the same for newspaper and radio. But one big thing that changed is the seating. When we moved in there the seats where rows of wood. Looked like nails had not been knocked down for years and the grass area would hold around 1800.

The only thing I can end this question with is that we have a top team at TPCR at this time lead by Steve Green. There is not another worker in Australian speedway working as hard as he is promoting our shows. He even runs our TV show on Fox which is a job all is own.

I think it’s a good idea to get a sprint car series out to the country tracks, I think that’s why the WSS is still around because it brings the top Series and Australia’s top drivers to country tracks all across Australia.

The only thing I don’t understand is the way SANSW went about it.

TPCR had a meeting with Bob Tunks and Mark Richards to work out our schedule for the 08-09 season, and we had heard some of the teams felt that there were too many races per year and they wanted to cut back so they could work on their cars.

I asked if this country series was going to happen so we could work it into our schedule, and the answer was no, not at this time.

Then all hell broke lose when we send the club a letter saying that everybody will have to pay at the pit gate if they want to race. We received a letter saying the club was not happy and they needed to vote on it,

We replied that they could have eight shows with no gate fee, or twenty shows with pay at the gate. To me it did not matter as we have a lot of classes out there that want more shows. Anyway the vote outcome was to pay and run 20 shows, but some teams where not happy with that outcome.

We also wanted to leave open some sat nights for rain dates (last year we got killed with the amount of rain outs) and with our schedule full we could not move the sprint cars to the next week. I think you call that planning ahead I am sure every company does that when they have a bad year.

We even blanked out some Saturday nights to give us room in case of a rain out. In doing that we get blasted by the previous owner (of PCR), Dave Lander. Up until then I held a lot of respect for him, knowing how hard it is to run a speedway and what he went gone through in the years leading up to him selling to us.

I remember one statement he made "if I was making money I would not have sold", if maybe he had put his ego aside and looked at the dates we were closed, he might have understood what we were doing.

If Dave would run a speedway meeting on the same night as the Super Cross at Parramatta football stadium, I now know why he was not making any money.

Anyway getting back to your question, as we all now know they booked a show on one of our rain dates (which as it turned out we needed) and they tell us too bad, we are going to run our (country) show regardless. It left us with 30 odd cars which is still a good number to have, but from that day on the club was done as far as I am concerned.

Me having the highest respect for Steve Green and him getting in my face that’s he is the managing director of the speedway and to let him do his job is the only reason the club is still there racing for us.

Next season I would like to form a PCR sprint car club and work with the country promoters to run a series within a series and make it a win for teams and the tracks, I guess only time will tell.

First off Andre, I would like to thank you for taking the time to put this Q/A together, and I want anyone that takes the time to read it remember that this is my opinion and my opinion only.

You just have to look overseas into the world of NASCAR where a racing division that runs live on TV 32 Saturday or Sundays a year and is watched by millions of fans is in a world of hurt with teams folding and employees losing their jobs.

A quote from Tony Stewart, "I never thought that we would see the fallout of employees that have been released from teams, not only from the Charlotte area, but also Indianapolis. Whether it's drag race teams, IndyCar teams -- I mean, the economy has really hurt all of motorsports."

I think if the future of the sport/industry is to be successful, it needs to be run by the ASPA as they are the people that have put up the money to buy/rent the tracks where all the racing is held

At this time I am told that it cost around 800 dollars to get a class-A license to drive a sprint car from NASR/SCCA and in our case the SANSW club. The SANSW club has over a 100 member/sprint car drivers so you can do the math.

So how much does TPCR or any other track that run that class get? Yep, a big O. So we supply the track, take the risk of rain, pay all the advertising costs and all the prize money from the gate fee we get and from anyone that comes into the pits.

NSW is the only state in the country that is controlled by the government/ Sport and Rec so in the real world NSW is the only state that’s needs a company/controlling body to govern the sport and at this time it is NSAR-NSW, or any company that is approved by Sport and Rec i.e.: ASPA could do the same job.

Why do we need NASR/SCCA/Sprintcar Australia? it was not too long ago that the ASPA ran all the speedway events, supplied insurance and worked together so the sport could grow.

It was not until a few years back that a few smart promoters put a deal together to get more money out of the competitors and thus NASR was born. The four smart promoters are no longer in the sport and it has left us with everyone wanting to form their own groups (members pay of course) or pissed off at the fees they have to pay.

In Australia there are about six tracks that are owned by private parties with their own hard cash or bank loan dollars up front. There are 100 tracks that are run by clubs, they are all working towards the same goal and that’s keep there track open and operation weekly and try a make a little money on the way.

In the USA it is the track that puts up the prize money and the teams turn up and race for it. If the prize money is too low the teams won’t show. No teams, no crowed thus no money thought the front gate. Its call promoting that what’s is suppose happen.

A little editing would go a long way. Otherwise, good interview.

Savage

great interview sprint car daily...the best site from australia

Probably the message boards are silent in Australia because

(A) You have been banned  from AS.com, the most popular  racing message board in Australia.

(B) Everyone is at the Presidents Cup, Kings Challenege,and the Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic.

(C) Not everyone in Australia looks at Andre's website.

(D) Not everyone in Australia thinks PCR is the mecca of the universe like you do.

Great stuff!

...

Well Well ,look what the cat dragged in

Jeez your popular over there at the present moment with your Chilli Bowl ramblings

But a hell of a lot do especially in your country look at ANDRE site only got to look at the amounnt hits at the bottom

Most popular message board .It the only one

its a shame that andre constantly gets things wrong

its not the "Kings Cup" but the "Kings Challenge"

and the caption with a photo saying that it shane krikkie talking with brooke is pete the crew chief

pic of brian linigen calling him barry lewis etc etc

i could go on but i'm afraid ill take up to much room on here.

ps miss you steve

"Always be yourself... because the people that matter,
don't mind and the people that do mind, don't matter".  

excellent interview Andre and kudos for asking and airing a story that should be heard.

good luck to clubs that price themselves out of business, sorry that tracks have to take the fall for the union thugs, but thats just what is happeneing in Detroit...now isn't it?

Lincoln 1845 ft/.35 mile T1=118MPH 
Eldora 2287 ft/.43mile T3=135MPH
Port 2716 ft/.51 mile T3=TBD
Grove 2792 ft/.53 mile T3=135MPH
Selinsgrove 2847 ft/.54 mile T1=136MPH
"I didn't move to PA from El Paso in search of better 
weather." Van May

It was and is a excellent interview

Jeez havent his critics come hurtling out of trees

Havent commented on the story have they

Good to see the ex moderators from that site posting here

INTERESTING wonder what happened happened there

honest questions, honest answers, its Eckert material.

...

Yeah to bad most of YOUR fellow countrymen dont like the truth. Some of them are like you,and only have one eye. Lucky one of your fellow countrymen (actually 3 of them but the other 2 dont post) were there and saw first hand my point,and that I was telling them the truth.

Check the hits page??? Sure think I'll do that. Maybe he has the same set up as the last round of "Chili Bowl Voting" for the legends race?? Does it count up the hits seperately from the USA,NZ Australia, and parts unknown??

Theres more than one racing message board in Australia if you open your one eye. Doubtful you'd last long there either.

So your now saying most people on that forum dont like the truth .ANDREW GOT THAT ONE RIGHT

I have more than one eye

When are you going to go back and post those ad nausem non wing post .I loved them

As for the hits .Over 1,651,000.So what are you saying ,Tell us Andrew

Can you tell me about the other Speedway message boards in Australia .Im interested to know

Please dont tell me Forum.Racefan which has one post a week

And then we get some bloke posting 3 year old WSS .Maybe that person should build a bridge and get over it

Or read the Brian Healey Interview

Just think,maybe your buddy Andre's site would be 1,7000,00 hits if you posted a link rather than copy and pasting the whole story.

I put my non wing stuff in the members section now. Oh wait a minute your not a member anymore so you cant read it. Sorry for your luck.............

Thanks for the advice on that ANDREW

Posting Non Wing stuff in the Member Section THANK GOD FOR THAT

You havent told me about the other message board Andrew

you know about the other forum steve, you are a member on it.

and yer the vid i posted is at least 3 years old. i got it off an old laptop that i just got going again.

"Always be yourself... because the people that matter,
don't mind and the people that do mind, don't matter".  

i've always like the stuff Andre did. heck i knew absolutely nothing about the Aussie Sprint scene until i started lookin at SCD. and that got me paying attention during the winter ever since. he really does a great job. i mean, like i said i knew nothing of the scene down under. and he put stuff together that explained so much about the drivers and tracks and how everything works down there ---- man - I was just like a lil kid - finding out bout things for the first time all over again.

that was great interview. unfiltered and unedited. asked good questions and got good answers. it wasnt the regular run of the mill politically correct bullshit. i really like that. it was like reading Open Wheel Times but Aussie Style!

yeah - the punctuation sometimes aint great. maybe thats an understatement. but hell i would trade punctuation for substance EVERY TIME.

good work andre! piss on the critics....

How much would could a wouldchuck chuck if a 
wouldchuck could chuck would

HA! thats what i said in my post before even seeing this one.....we was thinkin the exact same thing.

see Andre - its really good shit man!!!!!!!!

How much would could a wouldchuck chuck if a 
wouldchuck could chuck would

is this like a quasi-Aussie civil war? lol

banned from message boards? now i really like him!!! I like those that go against the grain! obviously - I've damn near almost 3,000 ways to!

stay in the politically correct arena with your members only elitist crap! and leave the great interviews to be read and enjoyed by freethinkers!

good god i'm just loaded with weird rhetoric this morning. this is probably where i should stop - Quinn probably thinks i'm insulting him by this point.....too-da-loo playas!

How much would could a wouldchuck chuck if a 
wouldchuck could chuck would

Have you seen the 2 Critics havent said ONE THING ABOUT THE STORY .Either has been a dump session ANDRE OR ME .

OKC12, GOT BANNED and you want know something ,DONT CARE.

PROBLEM THERE to many people with VESTED INTERESTS and peeing in each other pockets .

You know the old story toe the company line or get sacked

Hey ANDREW AND OUTSIDE

Howabout talking about the story .

OKC12 the Australians have started to wake up to how good this interview was and how honest it was .I can now feel the rumblings starting .And a few people might end with egg on their face .And Andre you keep giving to the critics .Will be interesting to read if people now open up about it on Australian Speedway Message board.But you get the feeling it will be Censored