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Speaker 1: Some good news this morning.

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Speaker 2: We know the Northern Territory is set for its biggest

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Speaker 2: year of motorsport yet. A jam pack twenty twenty five

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Speaker 2: events calendar has been revealed now. The Minister for Major

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Speaker 2: Event yesterday, Marie Claire Boothby, had said events like these

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Speaker 2: draw fans and competitors from across the country and the world,

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Speaker 2: which is great for our economy. Now joining me in

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Speaker 2: the studio this morning to talk more about this is

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Speaker 2: NT Motorsports CEO Tony Severs.

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Speaker 3: Good morning, Tony, wanting Katie and good morning everyone.

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Speaker 2: Lovely to have you in the studio now, Tony, it

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Speaker 2: sounds like it's going to be a massive year.

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Speaker 1: What are we kicking off with.

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Speaker 3: Oh, it's huge year, Katie, huge year. And you know

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Speaker 3: we've got so many events. Local events have already kicked off,

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Speaker 3: So if you look at our Motorsports Ent calendar you'll

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Speaker 3: see some of the mud racing and all that's already

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Speaker 3: kicked off. So have a look at our calendar on

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Speaker 3: our Motorsport Ent website. But the big big announcements yesterday,

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Speaker 3: we're definitely around the Fink Desert Race, which kicks off

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Speaker 3: the sixth and the ninth of June in Ola Springs

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Speaker 3: and that's always huge and a big draw card for

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Speaker 3: our springs. And then we get into the obviously the

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Speaker 3: supercars of supercars indigenous round in the NT and that

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Speaker 3: kicks off on the twentieth to twenty second of June.

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Speaker 3: So that's huge codie. That brings in over forty thousand

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Speaker 3: people through the gates and good for our economy. All

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Speaker 3: of our our areas are booked out, you know, carrying parks,

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Speaker 3: the hotels and restaurants.

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Speaker 1: With the vights with the supercars. Each year.

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Speaker 2: They do seem to do things a little bit different

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Speaker 2: every year in terms of trying to sort of expand

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Speaker 2: that audience stuff.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, they change, they change the format, they're changing the

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Speaker 3: cars in the future. And yeah, and we've got our

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Speaker 3: own race driver in there, you know, Bryce Forward, our

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Speaker 3: inte race car driver and local family you know, so

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Speaker 3: we love to promote that and get behind Bryce Ford.

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Speaker 3: You know, he's a great, great kid and does well.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. How big an impact is it like for motorsports

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Speaker 2: into when you do have somebody at that level, for

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Speaker 2: the young ones coming up through the ranks, it must

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Speaker 2: be quite inspiring for them.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's inspirational Katie. We just had our Motorsports and

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Speaker 3: Tea Awards and we you know, Bryce came along last year.

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Speaker 3: This year we had Rossie Johnson along. He races the

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Speaker 3: V eight Supercar super Utes. Yeah yeah, and he's another

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Speaker 3: upcoming young fellow from the NTDs Mom and dad, and

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Speaker 3: it's just the inspiration for the kids that come along

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Speaker 3: and they win awards and they're the best of the

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Speaker 3: best in their categories and they get up on stage

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Speaker 3: and the ministers and the Chief Ministers our patron obviously

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Speaker 3: and Lee had done a fantastic job this year giving

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Speaker 3: out the awards to the kids. They love it, you know,

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Speaker 3: and you know and their parents, the parents and the

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Speaker 3: mums and dads and the volunteers behind all these clubs.

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Speaker 3: You know, you've got to take your hat off to

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Speaker 3: them because they not only support the local events and

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Speaker 3: all the committees and all that on these on these

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Speaker 3: car clubs and motorbike clubs, but they also support the

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Speaker 3: vight Supercars and the volunteers there if they they're they're

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Speaker 3: the officials that show up and do all the flag

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Speaker 3: martling and all the check and balances.

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Speaker 1: Good on them.

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Speaker 3: You know, they're local people.

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Speaker 1: You know, that's what you need.

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Speaker 3: It's fantastic. Sports world in the NT is so huge

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Speaker 3: and for yesterday's announcements to come out bigger and better

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Speaker 3: is great for the economy. Like we've seen return on

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Speaker 3: investments done in twenty nineteen, it's done every four years,

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Speaker 3: so the new ones due. But in twenty nineteen they

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Speaker 3: did a return on investment in motorsports in the NT.

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Speaker 3: Motorsports Australia did it and it came back as ninety

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Speaker 3: three point seven million dollars every year comes back into

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Speaker 3: the territory because of the motorsports stuff that's run. And

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Speaker 3: that's all the motorsports stuff Katie, from the local club

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Speaker 3: stuff to.

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Speaker 2: The because I know there'd been some further discussion about

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Speaker 2: that return on investment because some of it is quite

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Speaker 2: expensive to set up, no doubt about it. And I

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Speaker 2: mean later in the year we're seeing the Motocross World Championship,

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Speaker 2: like that's the first time ever that we've had. It

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Speaker 2: is meantastic, ye And there has been discussion about how

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Speaker 2: expensive it is to set up, but you know from

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Speaker 2: your perspective what it brings back in terms of tourism,

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Speaker 2: event tourism and in terms of what it does for

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Speaker 2: the community, it's definitely worthwhile.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's fantastic. I mean the World's Motocross Grand Prix.

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Speaker 3: We you know, it will put Darwen on the map

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Speaker 3: again around the world. You know, you're going to have

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Speaker 3: people coming from France, Spain, Italy everywhere. You know, like

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Speaker 3: it's fantastic and we've got to Australian riders in it

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Speaker 3: as well, you know. And the money, the money that

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Speaker 3: goes out and it is tax payers money and we're

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Speaker 3: very diligent around that sort of stuff, but we always

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Speaker 3: look at the end figure of the return on investment

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Speaker 3: and the figures that we've seen around return on investment

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Speaker 3: in that alone was twenty one million dollars back into

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Speaker 3: the territory economy. So you know, we've had other things

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Speaker 3: offered to us. We've had the Ferrari academies, drivers academy

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Speaker 3: to us, but when we do the figures, they don't

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Speaker 3: it doesn't stay stack up as good as what the

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Speaker 3: motocross GP does and what it will bring to the territory.

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Speaker 3: We're putting Darwen on the non territory on the world scope.

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Speaker 3: You know, we're going to have.

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Speaker 1: Some great motocross is there a lot much.

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Speaker 2: Do we have a lot of young people, I mean

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Speaker 2: all ages, but I always look at the juniors.

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Speaker 1: Do we have a lot of juniors in motocross?

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Speaker 2: Yep.

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Speaker 3: So we've got ten and a half thousand members and

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Speaker 3: officials right Motorsports nt right across the territory from our

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Speaker 3: springs to Tenant to Catherine and Nullen Boy and Darn obviously,

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Speaker 3: and of those about fifty percent are in the motocross stuff,

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Speaker 3: all the quads, all the yeah, the bikes stuff, the

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Speaker 3: road racing bikes and stuff like that, so that there's

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Speaker 3: a huge take up and we've got some young, great

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Speaker 3: races coming through. If you have a look at our

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Speaker 3: website again, you'll see the awards and our Facebook site

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Speaker 3: see the awards that these young kids are winning and

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Speaker 3: they're representing us in other states as well. Motorsports n

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Speaker 3: T also do a lot of grants for kids and

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Speaker 3: that to go into state and represent the NTEP. And

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Speaker 3: you've got young young kids road racing motorbikes. Liam Foks

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Speaker 3: is one here who's going well and he'll he'll come

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Speaker 3: up through the ranks really soon. We've got Joel Kelso

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Speaker 3: who's in an Australian GP three racer and he's from

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Speaker 3: the NTS. Mum's the local lady here.

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Speaker 1: Oh that's good.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we've got so many coming through, Katie, and there's

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Speaker 3: more to come, you know, and this will only help

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Speaker 3: those kids inspire more to to race motocross and in

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Speaker 3: the motorsports.

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Speaker 2: So it's going to be a massive year, of course,

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Speaker 2: kicking off with the Darwin Triple Crown, although you did

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Speaker 2: say think before that, and then we've got the Red

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Speaker 2: Center GNATS, and you've got the Motocross World Championships, you've

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Speaker 2: got Nitro up north, the Desert Nationals.

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Speaker 1: Is that new?

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Speaker 3: It's usually down there, Katie, but this year it'll be.

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Speaker 3: This should be even bigger and better because what you

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Speaker 3: have is the Red Center NATS. Prior to that, you

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Speaker 3: have the Red Center NATS and then the Desert that's

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Speaker 3: not in the Red Center Nats, I mean.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, the Red Centerat's and the Desert.

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Speaker 3: National Nitro up north and then because that's on the

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Speaker 3: twenty on the thirtieth August, and then what you have

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Speaker 3: is those cars will go back down through Alice Springs

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Speaker 3: and they'll do the Desert Nationals down there. So Alice

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Speaker 3: Springs will get a good look at some of the best.

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Speaker 2: So is this really the biggest year we've ever had

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Speaker 2: when it comes to motorsport and some of those really

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Speaker 2: big events.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd say so, Katie, because if you had we

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Speaker 3: always had the other events, but if you had the

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Speaker 3: Motocross World Championship Grand Prix on tw it it just

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Speaker 3: just takes it that so much higher level. We're putting

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Speaker 3: it down on the world map, you know.

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Speaker 2: And very quick before I let you go, do you

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Speaker 2: know if we ended up where are we at with

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Speaker 2: that second emergency exit out there at Hidden Valley?

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Speaker 1: Is it being sorted?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Katie. Look, it's always been on the on the

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Speaker 3: agenda and you know, Governor doing the consultations and all

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Speaker 3: that through our clubs and so forth, and yeah, I

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Speaker 3: mean we need it needs to be done and it's

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Speaker 3: always been on a part of the plan. We've had

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Speaker 3: numerous consultations over years and even looking at the back

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Speaker 3: end of wish Art.

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Speaker 1: Road there to care right there.

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Speaker 3: But it's got to be cost effective too to the taxpayers.

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Speaker 3: That's that's that's the bit.

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Speaker 2: That's a big one home, Hey listener, question, are we

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Speaker 2: still set to have the drags and top fuelers at

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Speaker 2: the supercars.

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Speaker 3: No, so the Night North will be running separate nineteen

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Speaker 3: thirtieth August and they'll do the Nitro funny cars which

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Speaker 3: are big crowd pleasers, flames out the side, big big

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Speaker 3: blowers on top of them, really noisy, burned tires and

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Speaker 3: all that, you know. And you'll have the Grand Final

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Speaker 3: Series up here for the top door Slammers, so that'll

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Speaker 3: be bigger than bigger than it's ever been before as well.

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Speaker 1: So good stuff, kadi and massive, and.

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Speaker 3: In between all that is all of our club events

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Speaker 3: we've got. There's so many national titles up here this

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Speaker 3: year with all our club events from go karts to

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Speaker 3: to mud racing to road bikes and all that, so

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Speaker 3: it's all happening. And of course our very own ride

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Speaker 3: again its Cancers on the twenty fourth of May.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well we'll get you back on for that for sure.

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Speaker 2: Tony Seaver's MTI Motorsports CEO. Lovely to chat with you

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Speaker 2: this morning, Thanks so much for your time.

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Speaker 1: Thank you