Scott Connole elected Northwest Speedway Club’s 2020-21 president

Northwest Speedway Club Narrabri has elected a new president and what an appointment it is.

Formula 500 champion and well-known local Narrabri man Scott Connole has stepped up into the top job for the 2020-21 season.

He was part of the general committee last season.

Connole told The Courier that he wanted to help the club keep moving forward.

“I had no aspirations to take any of the executive positions on actually, I was quite happy to just keep doing what I do as a general committee member but I got nominated and I didn’t want to see the club fold,” Connole said.

“All the hard work the previous committee and executive have done, I didn’t want to see that go to waste.

“My biggest goal is to keep the track and club functioning, we want to keep going for the community.

“We have got a pretty good committee, there’s a lot of experience there and a lot of passion for speedway so we will be able to take the club forward.”

Connole replaces club stalwart Gary Rodd who has stepped back following two seasons at the helm but will remain on the committee as a general member.

Other committee members for the coming season are Moree’s Luke Hook (vice-president) who Rodd said had great credentials and connections to Speedway Australia, former club president Trent Keeler (treasurer), Angela Kelso (assistant secretary) and Peter McEvoy, Matt Hayne, Mark Tailby and Terry Lennox (general committee).

In a huge coup for the club, Gilgandra Speedway Club secretary Louise Harland will take on the Northwest Speedway Club’s secretary position for the coming season.

The club’s goal is to find a local person to become the club’s secretary long term going forward from the 2021-22 season, and for Harland to train that person during the 2020-21 campaign.

Harland has already made a positive impact on the club which announced last week that it would host four race meetings at the Newtown Park Speedway Track in the 2020-21 season.

“She has locked all these race dates in for us,” Rodd said.

“She has been working on these race dates for quite some time.

“She has been secretary of Gilgandra for a long time and knows you must get in early, get everything organised and get your race dates early.,

“That’s what she did for us.

“She’s done a marvellous job and there’s a good mixture of divisions lined up.”

The first of those four meetings is scheduled for Saturday October 24, then another is planned for Saturday, December 5.

A short turn around will see the club hosts its third meeting of the season and its first of the 2021 calendar year on Saturday, January 16, followed by a fourth and final meeting on Saturday, March 13.

The December 5 meeting will host the NSW RSA Outlaw Sedan State Titles, while the AMCA Nationals are likely to host a round of their Country Cup and the Newcastle Street Stockers are expected to host a round of their championship at the Newtown Park track.

Rodd said that while the four dates were still proposed race dates, at this stage he was positive all four would go ahead.

He said that the club was over the moon considering that just last year after the July annual general meeting the club was in danger of folding due to a lack of committee members getting on board.

However a new year has presented a new threat, that being the COVID-19 pandemic which could potentially derail the 2020-21 season.

The Narrabri Shire community has always supported the Northwest Speedway Club and the club’s gate takings at race meetings contribute considerably to its yearly income.

Rodd said that no crowds, or even limited crowds, would force the club to cancel meetings.

“It’s probably the best season we’ve been able to put together for a long, long time and I’m extremely confident that we’ll have all four race dates but the COVID could get in the way yet,” Rodd said.

“If we have no crowds we will not be able to run a race meeting.

“Our gut feeling is that the October meeting might not be able to go ahead but it still could provided we abide by COVID rules with hand sanitiser and social distancing and all that.

“Social distancing is an issue that the club will have to address.

“Our max is about 500, roughly 300 on the hill and 200 in the pit area.

“If the government told us we could only have 300 we wouldn’t be able to race. It wouldn’t be practical or financially viable.

“We’d also be put in a position where we’d have to turn people away and no one wants to be put in that position.”