Wade Tank??? What?? (Read 26,209 times)

try nz stockcar crazy yaz had some good shots looks good ,and its ex wade tank lol.

Hey there, Smeats photo bucket

Hey Brendon, yes it is the ex Wade tank now piloted by the skilled Bill Clarkson Jnr (correct me if I am wrong). Was thrilled to hear of the new owner who got the Superstock bug last season and showed some promise from the outset. Some hasty snaps from the pits....

cool cheers smeats

all the cars are looking awsome

man that 115h car seems to be quick it pulled away from that tank real good

Love the double wing on this beast.

Thanks for the words of encouragement and views. I wanted to do something a little different to give the car a point of difference. I found that you either love or hate tanks which is great from exposure perspective. Which brings me onto a question posted here. My sponsors from the Midget did not come over to the Superstock for a number of reasons which varied from the recession to the Christchurch earthquake. However the underlying view was that "Stockcars" were a not a good investment and therefore not a good return of investment (Thier view not mine). Lets face it if you have to explain your class to a sponsor/investor then your in trouble. In Auckland nearly 100% of the people thought it was a Stockcar and had no idea what a Superstock was and if they did know thought they only ran at Waikaraka Park. We tried everything to entice excitement including leasing a Midget and running both cars in the same livery. However the view of the stockcar class and People that associate with it killed it dead. It should be said that even though some of our "spectators" many seem a bit rough they still buy burgers, batteries, oil, parts, tyres etc. In other words thier money is still the same. I am a strong fan of our fans and that being said they are one of the main reasons I decided to race the car and not sell after the many negative knocks that I have had in the off season.

I feel that we as a group have let ourselves down. We don't hold our elected governing body responsible for anything as as such many many wasted hours are spent on unproductive, and often arse covering, business. Where is the promotion of our sport?? The only real promotion that I have seen is from the individual tracks and that is great for their track or region. However that needs to be paralleled by National advertising. We have many many smart people in our sport who run successful businesses so for the life of me I cant understand why we are so far behind the eight ball when it comes to promoting ourselves.

Another problem is advertising space on the cars. Look at the size of our NUMBERS. For god sake why do they have to be so bloody BIG. We have electronic lap-scoring and before you say "oh but we need a manual back up" then I say we have the wrong lap-scoring then. Have a look at a V8 touring car or F1 car. How big is their number?? Sponsors logos are HUGE as they should be. Here is a little test for you. Ask yourself or another friend what numbers certain drivers are then ask them what their two major sponsors are................I bet you will get a blank look on the second question. There needs to be a look at how we can lessen the numbers on a car....as their are way too many (5 on my car) and too big.

As for my racing this season. Like some drivers out there we don't have sponsorship this season. This was not planned for and we had been told that we had it and put plans in place only to have the rug pulled out in early October. That means that unless we can find the funding we will parked up. The shame of it all is that this car (had my first drive of it Saturday) is very fast and will be a head turner. I am having a ball and have alot to learn about the class and just hope that someone will see the huge benefit to being involved with my team.

Once again thanks for the positive comments.

Bill Clarkson jnr

Interesting comments Bill - good to hear (and hard to hear to the passionette fans here I guess).

SNZ in my opinion can only do what they can do with the limited funds they have. It seems to me the current funding only goes so far as covering the governance of the sport - they have nothing in the way of budget to promote the sport.

Given that leaves the promoters to promote the sport - which is pretty clear given there name - are you suggesting that individually they are doing enough, but there is a need for a collective marketing push?

And if so who do you think should be responsible for it? And then who will pay for it - the million dollar question.

Thanks agian for your insight into whats happening with the tank and sponsors.

questions Bill. Is the tank fast enough with all that down force on the wing? The tank didn't seem to turn into the corners very well, do you think it's just a learning thing and thirdly is it as easy to drive as it seemed from the incar video's we've all seen.