All smiles for great start
Big crowds soak up the atmosphere
BURNING rubber, brilliant sunshine and no arrests – it was arguably a near-perfect start to the race weekend for Gold Coast 600 organisers.
Thousands of spectators came through the gates for the first of three days of Supercars action with both police and organisers reporting above-average attendance on what is characteristically the quietest day on the race weekend.
It’s a big achievement for the city only four months after Supercars Australia bosses threatened to walk out on Queensland unless the Government offered them a new deal to ensure the future of the events on the Gold Coast and in Townsville.
Supercars Australia boss James Warburton yesterday said it would be tough to top last year’s attendance of almost 200,000 but he was thrilled at a strong turnout on day one.
“We have seen good crowds come out for Friday, including lots of families and students as part of our Students on Track program,” he said.
“We had 3923 students and teachers today, compared to last year’s attendance of 4002.
“They came from 78 schools, including Yeppoon State High School – that has travelled the farthest.
“This is a great program which gives young fans an introduction to the sport and a fun day out.”
Queensland Ambulance Service senior operations supervisor for Gold Coast special events, Justin Payne, said paramedics had been kept busy with a number of minor injuries but the only significant hospitalisation was for Porsche Carrera Cup driver, Scott Taylor.
Taylor was rushed to Gold Coast University Hospital after crashing into a wall dur- ing practice with another driver subsequently crashing into his car.
“We have attended to quite a large number of your typical scrapes, abrasions and blisters,” Mr Payne said.
“We have transported three people so far which is above average for a Friday.
“There was an incident on track with a driver in one of the supporting categories and he was transported with a leg in- jury.” Major Events Group acting inspector Des Hearn said that a drug detection dog spent much of yesterday monitoring revellers but that it did not alert police to any criminal activity.
“The crowd has been brilliant – they’ve been very engaging and it’s been family friendly,” he said.
“It does feel bigger than previous years – even in and around the track feels that there are more people in town.
“Throughout the Surfers Paradise precinct it feels like there are a lot of people floating around.
“We had our drug dog out this morning, it got no detections.
“The track is usually low arrests anyway and usually most offences that we have are alcohol-related.”