Rino puts to rest rumours in Adelaide
Bums on seats at Adelaide International RacewayOver 300 racers, crew and interested observers gathered at Adelaide International Raceway last night to hear from Rino D’Alfonso, principal of Racing Onn Promotions, about the future of drag racing at the track.
The meeting kicked off at 7pm sharp with Rino spending about 30 minutes explaining the current situation to listeners and dispelling a number of rumours about the financial position of Racing Onn Promotions.
Rino indicated that drag racing will continue at Adelaide International Raceway with the scheduled ANDRA Championship event on February the 23rd and 24th of February. A vote was then held on how many major events should be run each year at the track.
At the end of the process, the consensus was that 3 major meetings per year was a practical number. For 2013, the events include the February and September ANDRA Championship rounds plus one other event which has yet to be determined. Street meets will continue on a regular basis.
While the number of meetings for 2013 will be reduced, the entry fees are set to increase to offset the costs of promoting and staging events at the rented facility. Sportsman entry fees for championship meetings are set to increase from $220 to $265.
From the euphoria of the opening meeting a year ago, the crowds have steadily fallen which has made it more and more difficult to run profitable meetings. Sources at the meeting said that Rino has asked drag racers to contribute to the running costs where they can to keep the track operating, with one racer donating his prize money from a previous meeting.
Options on how to improve the facilities were also discussed as it is unlikely that the Bob Jane Corporation, which owns the track, will make any capital improvements in the near future. A number of racers have already started to discuss ideas on how they can help in this area.
Rino also indicated that he had been approached to run meetings at Calder Park Raceway in Melbourne, but said that his home is in Adelaide and he will concentrate on that first.
The meeting concluded at about 9:30pm after Rino had answered questions for about 2 hours. The majority of the time was spent discussing ways to make running events more financially viable, from racer donations and marketing strategies to get more bums on seats to securing corporate sponsorship.
The general opinion of those people present was that it was a positive meeting and everyone needed to pull together; the promoter, racers, fans and the local industry as a whole to make sure that drag racing remains in Adelaide for years to come.
