Speedway shares big plans after COVID quashed Aus Day event

South Burnett Speedway Club are back at the drawing board for 10th Anniversary of the King’s Royal, which was sadly pulled this year.

South Burnett Speedway Club have made the tough decision to call off the upcoming Royal Stampede. Photo/Holly Cormack.

South Burnett Speedway Club sadly pumped the brakes on their annual Australia Day event as Brisbane’s COVID outbreak continued to unnerve event organisers statewide, but the news isn’t all negative on the Speedway front.

Kingaroy Speedway‘s Tanya Barron said the annual Kings Royal weekend lures in revheads from across Australia, however the event was condensed and renamed this year in an attempt to shrink the crowd to a COVID compliant level and leave space for local fans.

“About a month and a half ago we decided to downgrade it and renamed it ‘Royal Stampede’ to still be able to run a speedway for our competitors,” Ms Barron said.

“But we still knew it would hamper our crowd and hamper people coming from interstate and then trying to get home, and when all that other stuff happened in Brisbane a week from the event, we had to make the difficult decision to cancel entirely.

Ms Barron said in addition to not wanting loyal attendees and competitors to miss out on the event, the decision to pull the plug on the event was also largely financial.

“It costs a lot of money to put that Speedway on. If we lost a substantial amount of money trying to run it, and then something bad happens and it gets cancelled, where does that leave us in the future?”

“So we had to make that tough decision based on the COVID situation and the safety of our community and the financial decision as well.

“And sadly like a lot of other major events around Australia and the world, we have to cancel.”

But while the decision was heartbreaking for the team, Ms Barron said they’re already looking toward the 10th anniversary Kings Royal event next year, which will be bigger and better than ever.

“We’ve started talking about it and because it’s our 10th year celebration, we want to try and make it a 10 day celebration if we can,” she said.

“If we could have some sort of activity for our visitors every single day leading up, that would bring people to the region earlier, make people stay longer, and put more into the region economically.

“I think it’ll be a win win for everybody.”

While the King’s Royal is sadly a no go, the Speedway has other exciting events coming up soon, with the team now looking into running a big event over the 2021 Easter Long Weekend.

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