MAINTENANCE COSTS "RIDICULOUS" Uncertain future for midget car champion

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32460, 21 November 1970, Page 14

MAINTENANCE COSTS "RIDICULOUS" Uncertain future for midget car champion

VOBODY has had greater success at South Island championship level in speedway than the experienced and forthright midget car driver, R. T. Hall, of Christchurch. In 10 attempts he has won the island title no less than eight times—a record which promises to stand unchallenged for generations to come. But now Hall, who began racing midgets at the old Aranui track more than 16 years ago, has reached the stage where his future in speedway is uncertain. He considers that there is even a possibility that he will hang up his safety helmet and goggles for good before the end of the current season. However, he intends to begin his season, as he has always done, with his 200 brake horsepower RepcoHolden powered midget in immaculate order —and take things as they come. He missed the opening meeting last Saturday because of “one or two problems with the car,” but hopes to be back in action next Saturday. Whether he will continue to race throughout the season will depend on whether he can “dredge up any real enthusiasm.” One of his main worries is the ever increasing cost of racing. “I have got more money invested in tyres now than I had in my whole outfit when I first started racing at Aranui,” he said. “Maintenance costs have just got ridiculous. The way the wage-price spiral is going, I get the feeling I am pouring money into a bottomless pit.” He has been completely re-building the car from the chassis upwards during the winter and the cost has been in the vicinity of $6OO. “It almost seems a shame to take it out on the track,” he said.

The car now has a larger engine and several innovations which Hall is keeping very quiet about. “I like to get my rocket up before I publicise it.”

Hall accepts the fact that the end of his driving career is in sight. “Sooner or later one has got to face the reality that one cannot go on forever. Time will catch up with me eventually. I was driving Army trucks in Italy and Japan before some of these chaps

I am racing against were bom,” he said. But the main reason he is finding it hard to muster enthusiasm for racing this season is because he has “considerable misgivings” about the condition of the track. Hall has never been afraid to speak his mind. Nobody is ever left in any doubt as to exactly what he thinks, and on the subject of the track he is particularly outspoken. He considers the surface was unsatisfactory last season and is concerned that nothing has been done to improve it for this season. “One was either racing

in great clouds of dust or sliding around in a swamp,” he said. “The surface has had so much lime put into it that it rapidly deteriorates after a few races. There are some competitors who like this type of surface because it equalises performance, but

these people are not racers. They are merely on parade.” There were also competitors, officials and members of pit crews who believed that the track was all right, but it was significant that they did not have to handle high-powered equipment on it and had little or nothing invested. “Track conditions are more critical for cars than for motor-cycles. As the motor-cycles go on first when the track is in better condition and with only two wheels, they penetrate the surface better. A car sits on top and develops wheel

spin much more easily. This opinion is upheld by the fact that in recent seasons the only good times have been set by motor-cycles. “It is 'naturally fairly hard to get the message across to those who are used to running a 40 horsepower T.Q. or motor-cycle, just what it is like to try and put about 200 brake horsepower into this surface. It is rather like trying to describe the view across the desert to the pyramids in Egypt to someone who has only seen a sand castle at Brighton.” He appreciates that lack of money is a problem, but is adamant that it is pointless putting good equipment on an unsatisfactory track. “If drivers find they can win races with mediocre equipment there is no encouragement to get anything better and the whole standard falls off. If the standard is poor, the spectators won’t bother coming." This season promises to be a big one for the midget cars with an international meeting featuring the leading Americans, M. Bettenhausen and J. Parsons junior, on January 16, visits from other top international drivers and the New Zealand championship being held at the track for the second successive time. Hall is looking forward to matching his skills against any visiting internationals —but is a little reserved about the national championship. “I am looking forward to it, but I have no fixed ideas about nailing it to the masthead because there is such a large element of luck involved,” he said.