Nathan/Mick, Whatever the actual truth, it is disgraceful that significant changes like these were not offered out for comment prior to setting it in concrete. Some government instrumentalities adopt this practice, many don't. No greyhound administrations bother - we know best!!! The last two big jobs were similar. GRSA sought comment on the Murray Bridge concept but not the actual layout or design. Its 520m start is on a bend - ie it rejected to opportunity to push it off to one side in a kind of shute. (WA did likewise for the 600m start at Cannington. Mandurah changes under way are hard to fathom as the published plan is not really accurate). The biggest blunder was at the brand new Traralgon track which now contains four bend starts (and also has quite a high rate of falls). Again, no comment was sought. I could go on and on - Bathurst 450m start is a shocker, Sale and Ballarat both repeated nasty bend starts for 511m/545m starts (now 520m/550m). The Gardens 400m start always looked like a problem but it was months before the realised it and has to spend many dollars shifting it. Dapto 520m start has always been a disaster (inside dogs veering out, and more). Lots of work has been done on repairing and rebuilding Casino and Lismore but nothing was done to improve the layouts, the starts and the running (why retain both tracks anyway?). As for the Gosford 600m, it would be as good as you can get for a bend start, partially helped by the facts that it is slightly off-track and that it leads into a well cambered 520m home turn (Gosford's only good point).
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