Southcoast Nats has been under some pretty intense fire on here over the last week or so and I thought it would be well worth speaking to Lee (promoter of Southcoast Nats) to find out the actual reasons behind the happenings there rather than continue to have everyone rubbish each other.
Lee and I had quite a long discussion and I really do hope that this will explain to a few people why what happened did happen and that it was pretty much taken out of the hands of the organisers.
The main focus of the discussion has centred around the burnouts / driving events being cut short.
The reason the burnouts had to be stopped is because there was a very strict EPA Notice (Environment Protection Authority) put on the event. The Notice specifics were that the burnouts were only allowed to continue if there was a minimum of a 5k wind blowing between South and West. Anything else meant the burnouts had to be stopped.
Lee had a weather station setup all weekend as they had to monitor the wind speed and direction every minute and document all of this for the EPA.
If the EPA Notice were ignored then Lee himself would have faced a $120,000 fine plus upto another $60,000 fine per day. The reason Lee himself would have face the fine is because he had to place the event under his name for the event to go ahead.
The next highly contested part was the mention of a golf buggy being able to run yet unregistered vehicles not? The reason for this is the insurance only covered registered and permit vehicles to be at the event. To get a permit to operate an unregistered vehicle all you have to do is visit the RTA pay $20 and you get a permit to use an unregistered vehicle. This permit however doesn’t enable you to use the car on the road. Lee and organisers did contact everyone who had already entered to let them know of these rules. HOWEVER they were unable to forewarn those who simply turned up on the day to use their car.
Why all of a sudden did the insurance only cover permit or registered vehicles only? The new committee at the speedway decided to pull the insurance they had from under Southcoast Nats at the very last minute so a new insurer was needed and the only insurer they could find at such late notice only allows for permit and registered vehicles to be at an event.
When it comes to the problem with the toilets, this is a bit of a non issue. The toilets were hired as a unit that is maintained by the driver all weekend. None of the event staff were made aware of the flooding toilets and none of them saw it to get on top of things. It’s most definitely not a passing of the buck, the toilets were to be kept clean and maintained by the driver.
Now some of you may ask why then would the event go ahead at this venue if all this was occurring? Well the new committee at the speedway didn’t communicate with Lee about the EPA Notice until the very last minute and withdrew their insurance at the last moment too. This left Lee and the Southcoast Cruisers car club in a **** of a position.
The good news is a new venue is being secured as we speak, Lee has pretty much got one in the bag which is a far better location with better amenities. Full grass areas, large bitchumen areas and closer to a much large town on the Southcoast. Lee will be announcing the new venue once it is all sorted out. The new event will not have any more driving events as the EPA Notice will still be a huge cloud above the event, so Southcoast Nationals will return to being a static car show with Dyno runs, Audio comp and more at a far far better venue.
Thanks very much Lee for your time
Hope this clears a few things up.
Southcoast Nationals - what really happened...
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