Speedway Australia is back on deck with Motorsport Australia.
Speedway has over 13,500 licence holders at 97 venues and 275 clubs across the nation. Becoming a delegated body of Motorsport Australia will allow Speedway to access a number of association benefits.
Speedway Australia general manager Darren Tindal said there would be plenty of up-side to the announcement.
“It is such a great affiliation for us to be able to come back under Motorsport Australia,” he said. “It has been quite a few years now but to be able to come back and join forces, and as I have said to a number of people now, there is a great message in numbers.”
Speedway joins the Australian National Drag Racing Authority (ANDRA) and Karting Australia among others as recognised Motorsport Australia delegates.
“When you join these two with drag racing, karting and motorcycling, we’ve got some great numbers for the sport moving forward,” Mr Tindal said. “One of the biggest things is that it gives us a lot of credibility when we go to government that we are part of Motorsport Australia, and that will be extremely helpful in every region of our nation.
“For example, all 22 Speedway Australia venues in Victoria will no have the opportunity to start looking at grants for safety upgrades, lights, catch fences, concrete walls, all those type of things, all because of this relationship.”
Motorsport Australia CEO Eugene Arocca said the body was thrilled to have Speedway back aboard the family.
“It is very significant from a motorsport point of view in that we now have a major discipline for our sport, which is Speedway, back under the FIA banner via their delegated authority from Motorsport Australia,” he said.
“For the Australian Motorsport Council, it completes the process of bringing together the entire motorsport industry being karting, motorsport, motorcycling, drag racing, and speedway. Apart from the opportunity to share our collective knowledge, it is very important in allowing us to promote the sport generally.”