Two-year reprieve for dirt bike riders

Jane Emerick
Dirt bike riders will keep their home base at Barrabool Hills for another two years, Sporting Motor Cycle Club officially announced yesterday.
Sporting Motor Cycle Club said it had secured the two-year reprieve to stay at Barrabool’s McAdam Park after a meeting with the owners and local government representatives.
The club had been facing eviction this year as it struggled to raise $3 million to buy the site and adjoining blocks.
Geelong Motorplex consortium, Sporting Motor Cycle Club, the owners and Surf Coast Shire struck the deal to keep the track open until 2009.
Motorcycle club operations manager Peter Ovens said the agreement was “excellent” but riders still faced a lot of work to raising enough money and community support to buy the track before the two years were up.
“This is a really good thing for us but we don’t want people to sit back and relax,” Ovens said.
“What we need to do now is to ask everyone for help. We want to draw on our past members, and there are thousands and thousands of them, who would all agree the site is a fantastic and worth fighting for.”
Ovens said the club had organised a Big Picture Wall to raise money for the track. Supporters could buy tiles to bear their names on the wall at the track, with proceeds going to the land purchase.
“Right now it’s all about selling those tiles,” he said.
Ovens said the club and other groups involved had thanked the McAdam family and Surf Coast Shire for helping the riders to find a “solution”.
“The motorcycle community is grateful for the two-year window of opportunity,” he said.
Ovens urged anyone interested in helping the club to visit www.smcc.com.au.