Another thing the TCVL management and the BOP Speedway Association need to do is stop doing is telling PR fibs.
The claims of a 50 per cent increase in competitor numbers are nonsense. In terms of the number of cars on track not much has changed this year apart from some growth in the stock car ranks and that drivers registered at Baypark must now join the BOP Speedway Association.
The number of cars entertaining the paying fans hasn't changed much.
I keep the results from all meetings and have tallied up the grid sizes for the four meetings completed before Christmas this year and compared them to the same four meetings from last year.
Super Saloon grids are down by an average of two cars per meeting and sprint car numbers fluctuate but the average is down by less than one car per meeting.
Saloons are up by one car per meeting and, pleasingly for the future of the sport, the youth ministocks are up by about four cars per meeting.
Stock car numbers are up on average by 10 cars per night, boosted mainly by a good number of Rotorua visitors for the season opener and a well-supported Harry Fredrickson Memorial Gold Cup meeting which saw 41 cars on track. However, the Gold Cup meeting drew the smallest crowd of the season, probably less than 1000 people, and next week's NZ Stock Car Grand Prix will be test of whether stock cars are a viable Baypark drawcard.
The crowds haven't increased and, in actual fact, are probably down a little. Threatening weather on several evenings and a November 5 meeting without a fireworks display have certainly affected the fan turnout.
But it has to be said the fenced-off pit access and searching of bags to confiscate home-made snacks as well as commercial food has done untold damage with many speedway followers vowing never to return.
There's certainly a lack of effective promotion. On Monday night when I wandered through the pits beforehand I realised that for the first time since the track opened 10 years ago the Boxing Night (or equivalent December 27) meeting was little more than a regular club night.
Sure there were a handful of visiting super saloon drivers but 12 months earlier the same meeting had US late model star Josh Richards and sprint car legend Sammy Swindell on the programme.
Boxing Day speedway isn't a drawcard in itself, there has to be a show worthy of the date.
On the promotion side I find it baffling that the class which delivers the most consistent high quality racing and grid sizes doesn't have a special event of any kind on the 2011-12 calendar.
Saloon cars are the backbone of the Baypark racing and the class that hasn't looked back since the limited saloon name was dropped doesn't get a chance in the limelight this season. Track conditions had been an issue in recent years although these were largely sorted last summer.
The first two track surfaces produced by the new management pretty much duplicated those from last season. The third track was a particularly good first effort with new dirt trucked into the venue groomed into a smooth and fast surface.
The track for the fourth meeting was surprisingly dusty considering the amount of rain beforehand while the mistakes made in track preparation for Boxing Night means a good amount of the valuable new dirt has probably been lost.
Upcoming at Baypark are an international sprint car event tonight (weather permitting), the NZ Stock Car Grand Prix on January 2-3 and the rescheduled fireworks night on January 7.
