"Race fans at the Symmons Plains round of Supercars will have little to look forward to as far as the support program is concerned with only three categories scheduled for the weekend".
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That's exactly what I wrote on March 5 2016 and the same comment will apply in two weeks' time except the three will be four.
The support programme will consist of round one of the Formula Vee National series for both 1200cc and 1600cc cars, Aussie race cars, the second tier Porsche GT3 Challenge and the local Sports GT cars.
Now let's be quite clear.
In no way am I denigrating those categories and I feel sure they will turn on some great, entertaining racing for the spectators.
It needs to be remembered that Supercars are the promoters of the meeting and not Motor Sports Tasmania who owns the circuit and it is up to Supercars to organise the support programme for the weekend.
They have a contract with the government who pay millions to Supercars over the course of the contract term to race here.
That's apart from the millions made available over the years by the government to upgrade the circuit infrastructure to meet FIA and CAMS safety standards and Supercars demands.
The Supercars hierarchy has frequently made the comment that "we must look after our fan base in Tasmania" but that sounds very hollow.
They are happy to take the money but not prepared to make a greater effort to ensure by way of subsidies for more higher profile categories to race in Tasmania.
As I said three years ago "The irony is that if the fans stay away because they don't think the meeting offers good value then ticket sales will be down which will effect Supercars bottom line as they take all the gate receipts".
It really smacks of penny pinching and that is borne out by a decision to not have a course commentator in the box for the first time since the circuit opened in 1960.
So folks what you will get instead is the commentary from the Fox commentary team patched into the circuit public address system and as viewers are well aware the focus will be on what the director decides to televise and what they won't.
How they will fill in the gaps especially if some categories are not being televised is anyone's guess?
And by the way how many screens will be positioned for the punters to see what Skaife and Co are talking about?
I have only had 40 years experience as a commentator and over 60 years following the sport so what would I know?
Obviously there are smarter people than me calling the shots.
Back to Baskerville
The second round of the Tasmanian Circuit Racing Championship has attracted 86 entries for the 24-event programme at Baskerville on Sunday.
For the Formula Vee and Sports GT categories it will be a final opportunity to give the cars a shakedown in race conditions in preparation for their races at Symmons Plains in two weeks' time.
Multiple Formula Vee Nationals winner Wade McLean will be the man to beat against a strong field which also includes impressive teenage rookie Callum Bishop who started in round one.
McLean was missing from round one and the honours went to Justin Murphy who will be under pressure to retain the number one spot.
Sports GT A and B will be combined with Sports Sedans in a 22-car field and all eyes will be on rookie Brett O'Shea who blitzed the field in round one in his V8 Commodore.
Former Sports GT A series winner Tony Warren is coming out of retirement to race his incredibly quick Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7 while others in the mix include the Mazda RX7s of Andrew Reader, Michael Elliott and Peter O'Keefe.
The Hyundai Excel category should see a resumption of the battle between Peter Kemp, Josh Webster and Grant Seamer while in HQ Holdens, round one winner Otis Cordwell can definitely expect to be under threat from Andrew Toth, Andrew Bird and Phil Ashlin.