Kasey Down Under

[kat2220]

Kahne Races Down Under
Most people take vacations to get away from it all, but in Kasey Kahne's case, he's combining business with pleasure in Australia this week.

After spending time with friends and family touring Sydney and Australia's Gold Coast, Kahne prepared to run a pair of Sprint car races at Tyrepower Parramatta City Raceway during the New Year's weekend, according to speedway media relations manager Dennis Newlyn.

It may be vacation time for Kahne, but he was certainly taking the competition seriously, having his Sprint car, two new engines and a complete set of parts shipped Down Under for the Kasey Kahne International Sprintcars/Coca-Cola Track Championship events in Granville.

The 66-car field included World of Outlaws legend Steve Kinser, Donny Schatz and Joey Saldana in a second Kahne-owned car, but Kahne earned top billing. In fact, the speedway sponsored a Kasey Kahne "colouring contest," in which younger fans were eligible to win free tickets.

"This is a major coup for Australian speedway to have a driver in the NASCAR ranks of his status racing at our venue," Tyrepower Parramatta City Raceway managing director Steven Green said.

Kahne plans to also compete in Monday's feature before packing up and heading back to the United States...MORE...(nascar.com)

 

[Betsy]

Wow! Kinser, Schatz, Saldana and Kahne! Maybe the Mericans will bring home some of that Aussie bacon..
Betsy

 

[buckaroo]

My Aussie pal told me that he thought Kahne was older than he really is. LOL Anyway, Dirk told me that this track is the only one left in the land down under and the popularity of that sort of racing is nothing like it used to be. Maybe they are using the popularity of the Americans to help bring the series back. Also notice that even though Kahne was good when he was driving the sprints, those other guys are tops too in their series, but the top name down there was the youngster Kahne because of where he drives today.

 

[Kyle48]

My Aussie pal told me that he thought Kahne was older than he really is. LOL Anyway, Dirk told me that this track is the only one left in the land down under and the popularity of that sort of racing is nothing like it used to be. Maybe they are using the popularity of the Americans to help bring the series back. Also notice that even though Kahne was good when he was driving the sprints, those other guys are tops too in their series, but the top name down there was the youngster Kahne because of where he drives today.

I dunno who 'Dirk' is, but he doesn't know anything when it comes to Aussie Sprint car racing.

http://www.cams.com.au/Content.asp?PageID=TracksCircuits

At that link you can select by state or territory and see how many Sprint tracks are operating, not to mention every other major track in the state too. They've everything from the huge Gran Prix style to small oval dirt tracks - the sport's just as popular there as it is here. And we all know how many little dirt tracks dot the U.S. that aren't listed anywhere - it's the same there.

http://www.speedcarworld.com.au/default.asp

There on that page at the bottom left you can click on 'track sites' and it lists 13, just in the midget series (what Khane was running).

Would Kahne and Kinser go at all if there were no fans? No fans, no tracks = no money. And while Kasey and Steve are nice philanthropic fellas - they went for the money.

I'm not trying to call anyone out - it just makes me mad when folks discount racing everywhere else as 'small' because NASCAR is so overgrown here in the US. I mean, F1 may not be popular here in comparison, but it's bigger than NASCAR worldwide. Just like we love the NFL, but in comparison to the 'real' football (soccer) in terms of popularity worldwide, the NFL is a joke.

- k y l e

 

[buckaroo]

Well kyle, I'll tell my friend Dirk that he's wrong. I guess he needs to get out of the house a bit more often, huh. Maybe all those venues are sold out and they don't need to advertise anymore. Thanks for your help there from Georgia. I'll send Dirk the links and he can then change his mind.

 

[buckaroo]

I'm not trying to call anyone out - it just makes me mad when folks discount racing everywhere else as 'small' because NASCAR is so overgrown here in the US. I mean, F1 may not be popular here in comparison, but it's bigger than NASCAR worldwide. Just like we love the NFL, but in comparison to the 'real' football (soccer) in terms of popularity worldwide, the NFL is a joke.- k y l e

I don't know what really set you off about my post, but who is discounting racing of any kind anywhere else? Or as being small? One more thing, I live in North Carolina, you in Georgia and one thing we have in common, we don't have commercials on TV for snow mobiles. Why? Because of where we live. Where we live, soccor is not the "big" sport that it is around the world and I for one am glad. NASCAR is the "big" racing sport not only down here, but most other places in this country. There are a minority of people here in this country who like soccer better than football and who like F1 racing better than NASCAR. It sounds to me as though you are one of those minorities. Good for you.

 

[Kyle48]

I don't know what really set you off about my post, but who is discounting racing of any kind anywhere else? Or as being small? One more thing, I live in North Carolina, you in Georgia and one thing we have in common, we don't have commercials on TV for snow mobiles. Why? Because of where we live. Where we live, soccor is not the "big" sport that it is around the world and I for one am glad. NASCAR is the "big" racing sport not only down here, but most other places in this country. There are a minority of people here in this country who like soccer better than football and who like F1 racing better than NASCAR. It sounds to me as though you are one of those minorities. Good for you.

Nothing set me off, so I apologize for my tone if it appeared that way. It was just the assumption, from one person's report, that sprint car racing was 'small time' or racing was 'small time' down under, that's all. It wasn't a shot directed at you, even though it was in reply to your post. It's a feeling that pervades NASCAR-fandom at the moment that's been bothering me. Since we've gobbled up the Mexican series, and now CASCAR (which the France family is trying to kill off through delays) it's evident NASCAR is trying to dominate North American Racing despite not really being that great of a product when you watch some other series.

This is probably better served as a topic of it's own, and if the mods feel that way feel free to split it.

I love NASCAR. The strict adherence to 'old-school' racing with carburated engines and on-the-fly rule changes is something that endears a lot of fans, barring growing up with it. I also love the NFL and College football (Go Buckeyes - born and raised in Columbus, Ohio ). They're both different from F1 or professional soccer. Different doesn't always mean better or worse - just different. The point I was making wasn't NASCAR or the NFL we're better or worse than say EPL Soccer or F1 racing, I was referring to the size and popularity overall. American rules football (our NFL) is HUGE in Germany and Spain thanks to NFL Europe, selling sometimes 50 to 60 thousand seat stadiums. Hell, we don't even do that here for pro football. However, in comparison, the size and money generated from a sunday afternoon of NFL football here pales in comparison to what's raked in in Europe from professional soccer. In fact, there's probably little comparison at all. So, with that said, the folks in Germany and Spain love our game, and there's plenty of folks who love 'their' game here. No one's better or worse, just because you don't watch a Chelsea versus Manchester United grudge match on Saturday afternoon doesn't mean it sucked, and a lot of NASCAR fans are that way. "IT SUCKS."

"Have you ever seen it, or understand the game?"

"NO IT sucks - kicking around a little ball" OR "Road courses are sh!tty to watch."

And now with NASCAR taking over Canadian stock cars, Mexican stock cars the F1 market here will get even smaller and we'll be dominated by one form of sports entertainment and that sucks. Because Johnson and Edwards banging to the finishline, The Buckeyes scoring a last second field goal to go over Michigan, Fisichella out-turning Alonso in the final corner, Lampard heading one home in extra time past James for the one nil win, or my lowly Raiders winning in overtime versus those damn Chiefs - it's all sports, and it's all good.

I apologize if you felt like I was taking a shot at you, man - I really wasn't.

- k y l e

 

[buckaroo]

Not a problem kyle and I do understand what you are saying about the other sports in different countries. BTW, I chatted with my friend Dirk about all of this and he still holds what he told me to be true. That's not to say that autoracing in the land downunders isn't popular. V8 Supercars are where it's at down there and they sell out the tracks for those races. But as for the small dirt tracks, he tells me that while they are popular in their areas, they have a hard time geting more than a couple of hundred fans for the races.

So what's college football anyway? Did I say I was an OU fan? Maybe that's Ohio University...or I know, my brother lives out in Oregon, so maybe...