A contentious subject, no doubt, but I read recently that the races over the years had poured over $500K into the local community.
Considering the amount of work everyone does for zip that's all good for Paeroa.
But what about the people who actually do the entertaining, meaning of course, us racers.
The cost for us to do the entertaining .... and believe me I've done my share of entertaining at Paeroa .... can be quite substantial even if you're one of the lucky ones and survive the day without 'entertaining' the crowds.
Now don't get me wrong ... I know why we do it !!
But the reality is this .... from a track time point of view, Paeroa is extremely poor value for money. If you only race one class, then you might get 15 mins track time for the day based on 2x practices and 2x races. Most race more than one class, but even so, it's buggar all track time.
Factor in the danger to ourselves and our machines, the cramped pit conditions, the oppressive heat and the long waits and each time I leave the place I think "Well, that was fun in a perverse sort of way but I'm not gunna do it again"
But, a year is a long time and mostly I do, and then ditto ...
Anyway. the point to my babble is this.
In reality it costs most of us a small fortune in one way or another to compete their and it's probably one of the few race meetings that actually makes pretty good money out of it.
So, in a nutshell, I believe they should offer the racers some appearance money.
Doesn't have to be much, even free entry would be a start.
So, does that open a can of worms. I don't think so.
Street racing is unique and does not compare at all to the circuits.
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