The November Race Report.
November Race Report
The first round of the
Auckland Car Club summer series took place on Saturday 29 October at Pukekohe
Park. The weather dawned fine and a good
day was had by all, subject to the usual breakdowns and odd crash.
What did however I understand
upset many people was the fact that the new greater Auckland City Council
(Auckland Council) is now forcing Pukekohe Park, the owner of the track, to
ensure that noise standards are met. It
was clear in the event regulations which were provided to all those that took
part that noise was going to be tested.
The sad result of all of this
was around a dozen cars were served noise abatement notices. I thought it was important to set out to you
all exactly what is going on here.
The first point to note is
that the noise is actually measured by a person employed by Pukekohe Park
Raceway, not Auckland Car Club or any other car club. We do pay a fee to have them at the track but
we are required under the terms of our hire to have them there.
The second point is that
technically these issues have been there all along it is simply now that the
Council is enforcing them. These noise
standards will apply to all of
the race meetings at Pukekohe, and not just Auckland Car Club meetings. By the time you read this I will have raced
at the tier 1 meeting on 4, 5 and 6 November and I can assure you that exactly
the same measuring equipment, person and standards will be applied.
The third point to note is
that noise is measured at a point near the kink on the back straight, 30 metres
from the circuit at 90° to it. It is a mechanical test. Where cars are getting close to the limit, we
will let them know if they within a few decibels. However, once you have got a notice stating
that you have exceeded the noise threshold, if you then go past that point
again and exceed the noise threshold we have no choice as the organisers of the
meeting but to black flag you. While you
may not like this, which we can certainly understand, we have simply no choice
in the matter.
Fourthly, your noise reading
will not be static, ie on different days the same car, unaltered in any way,
can read at different levels. A lot of
this is to do with atmospheric conditions.
Hence why we will give you a warning that you are getting close to the
noise threshold rather than giving you an actual notice once you have exceeded
it.
As I stated at the outset,
this is not of our doing and it will apply to all clubs that hire Pukekohe Park
Raceway. Technically similar issues
apply with Hampton Downs although they have managed to prove that noise doesn’t
actually affect the neighbours to the same extent that it does at
Pukekohe. It is possible and feasible
however that they will end up with similar noise monitoring measures at some
point in the future.
So for those of you that have
been affected, we do apologise. We would
like to see you back and we would like to see you get your cars so they
comply. The 95 decibels has always been
a requirement in our regulations and all that is changed is that we are now
being forced to record each car and issue notices where you are over. You were clearly warned of this in the
regulations.
The next outing is Sunday 27
November again at Pukekohe Park. We
follow this event up with a joint meeting with the Historic Racing Club on
Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 March at Hampton Downs, then Sunday 1 April at Pukekohe
Park and we finish off the Summer Series at Hampton Downs on Sunday 6 May with
a joint meeting with HRC.
As always, we would love to
hear from you if you have got any comments or suggestions.
Nigel Smith
