Articles & Information Commission Information

2007 Annual General Meeting

The 2007 Annual General Meeting of the Western Australian Speedway Commission Inc will be held at

8.00pm on Monday 29th October, 2007 at Unit 16B/190 Swansea Street east, Victoria Park.

Two (2) Commissioner positions will become vacant at the AGM and persons interested in becoming a Commissioner must apply in writing to the Administrator, Western Australian Speedway Commission Inc c/- P O Box 153 Thornlie  WA  6988  by 1st October , 2007. Please note that  Commissioner  positions are voluntary and do not receive remuneration.

 

Recognition of Officials, Honours and Awards DSR 2006 - Officials Awards .

The DSR Sports Officials Awards were established in 1999 to recognise and reward an official from each sport for their outstanding contribution to sport in Western Australia .The WASC Commissioners supported SDAC nomination of Mr Col Philippson for Commendation Award of  “ Special Achievement and Service Award” and Mr Nathan Cherkoff as  “ Youth Official of the Year” Nominees and WASC representatives will attend the Gala function to be held at the University Club, Hackett Drive ,Crawley on Friday 10/11/05.

History of WASC Where Did We Come From?
Written By: Mr C Philippson JP

The question is often asked, “Why do we need a controlling body?”

The commission is the result of a government enquiry into several sports which started in the early 1990s. Boxing, soccer, recreational diving and speedway were listed by the then Minister for Sport, the Hon Graham Edwards, now a Federal Member of Parliament.  Speedway was selected on the 24 July 1992 and some of the best names in speedway were on the task force along with representatives of the Local Government, Police, Health Department and Sport and Recreation.

Con Migro, Des Ferris, Des Alfirevich, Bob Goddard and Ray Duncan represented speedway and the chairperson was Colin Philippson, JP. Colin was the then motor racing reporter for The West Australian and supporter of the sport.Safety and safety standards were some of the terms of reference along with track insurance, track inspections and generally the management of the sport.At the time there were 39 active speedways in WA, some under state and national bodies whilst others “did their own thing”. Survey forms and requests for their input were called for and considered by the task force.The task force could foresee problems occurring in the long term, public liability insurance, duty of care and increased speed requiring increased safety standards.

There was no one group that was coordinating the sport and its standards and this worried the task force.During the enquiry period several tracks took notice of their increased responsibilities to their competitors and members and took out insurance, mainly through the FAS.Others ignored their responsibilities and this caused the government concern when the report was presented to them.No formal risk management was in existence, individual groups set their own standards.No government funding was available to the sport as a whole to run any training for drivers or officials.

No funding was available to clubs to improve their safety standards. No group had official approval to impose their standards on any other group. The sport had no recognised body to represent it at government level, particularly in “noise” management and “site” protection.We now have buffer zones to protect speedways from being moved as progress moves closer to their sites.In all, over 30 recommendations were made by the task force and accepted in principle by the government.Following an enquiry by a consultant on the best way to introduce a controlling body, the Speedway Commission was formed.We represent you all: competitors, groups, fans and most of all, the sport overall.