by Craig Jarvis
As I reported in the last issue, 17 teams from Rockhampton travelled the nine hours to Morgan Park, Warwick (geez, I wish we had a track in our region).
What a great weekend, 25-kilometre winds on Friday with a wind chill of zero, -2 degrees on Saturday ice everywhere.
Man, I love Rocky weather.
But the racing and track conditions were perfect, all teams were having a good crack, with some seeing PB times over the days of racing.
Even though it was cold, for one local racer, it got a bit warm for his and our liking, a blown fuel line on a hot engine was not the best for all.
Eight fire extinguishers later, and a gut full of powder, some burnt wires, all is good.
This incident showed all teams and spectators how important it is to have the right equipment at the right time and teams working together to help a fellow racer out.
The best part about motorsport, bar the racing, is the comradeship before, during and after.
You may beat me on the track, but we will always help when needed.
This was shown at the last round, so big thanks to all that helped, I won’t name the bloke, but he does drive one of those cheater cars (4WD, with horsepower, and he can pedal) sorry Clay, oops, didn’t mean to state your name.
Anyway, the other best part is that he is not hurt and is in good spirits.
I also see the Finke Desert race for the car section still may be in doubt.
Back in 2021, a spectator died when a trophy truck lost control from a mechanical failure after a jump, with the coroner finding released last week, has found that the event safety measures are entirely inadequate, so Motorsport Australia has not issued a permit to race.
So, the event organisers are cutting it fine to show cause that they have improved the safety for all teams and spectators alike, so all get to enjoy this fantastic event and all come home safe.
The CQ Crane Hire Goldrush Hillsprint has been postponed for July 2023, a new date will be out soon.
After seven years, two years of getting approvals, and four years of running the event, and one year working on this year’s event, I have decided to step down from the event.
I would like to say a big thank you to all your teams that have supported the event, event sponsors and the support that you have shown me. Thanks again.
We grew the event from 75 teams to 175 in four years that’s incredible growth.
Plus, to my family thank you, as I know I’m a pain in the rear end working up to the event date motorsport runs my life I know I get told often. Sorry. But motorsport needs people like me.
CQMSC will announce who, what and where soon regarding the event, so stay tuned.
Remember, events like the Goldrush need volunteers, so if you can help out, reach out to CQMSC.
Now the good news, I’ll still be writing this column, and I’ll still be doing Facebook for the Circuit CQ.
We will keep pushing to get all forms of Government to recognise that we need a complex here in our region.
I had a meeting with Senator Matt Canavan, this is one politician that cares about what we need for our region.
Remember, he was the one that got us a 10 million commitment back at the last federal election wrong outcome from voters to help us, but Matt pushed for us, he put CIRCUIT CQ on his wish list for our region.
As we stated in the meeting, all our local members need to understand Circuit CQ is for us, our region, Rockhampton, Keppel and Mirani it’s our region so stand by us and push.
Circuit CQ will happen.
Yours in Motorsport
Jervo.