THE Myrtleford Speedway Club just can’t seem to catch a break.

The club was forced to postpone its long-awaited race meet over the AFL grand final weekend, which would’ve brought open-wheel racing back to the area for the first time in 20 years.

This marks the second time the event has been cancelled, after heavy rainfall and track conditions axed the race day back in May.

Myrtleford Speedway Club president Glen Walch said due to a minimal number of entries, the committee made the tough, but correct, decision.

“I was shattered, I was absolutely shattered,” he said.

“It was a lack of entries on the car side, a lot of them weren’t ready.

“The speedway is a summer season, so bikes, cars, or sidecars always run September through to about March, and it was just an unfortunate chain of events that just led to a lot of the cars not being ready.

“The last thing we wanted to do is put on not the show we wanted to – the worst case scenario for me was to have a really good crowd, but then have the crowd be disappointed because it wasn’t the show they expected to see, and they never come back.

“We tried absolutely every avenue – we tried different classes of cars, putting on a different day, but it wasn’t the show we wanted to put on so we had to pull the pin in the end.”

With the date for the third attempt now in the hands of the promoters – suspected to be around February-March 2024 – the club has turned its attention to other pursuits.

A GoFundMe page is active, with the club seeking donations to re-affiliate with the governing body so they can host races with bikes and sidecars once more.

So far, $970 has been raised of the target $2000, with Walch aiming to host bike events as soon as re-affiliation is achieved.

“We’re just looking for a leg up there, because we haven’t run for basically two years, there’s been nothing coming in and a lot going out,” he said.

“If we can find the funds to be re-affiliated, we can be back and running bikes quite quickly, so that’s what we’re looking for at the moment.

“The first thing we’d run once we get re-affiliated is junior competitions, getting the kids back and racing, because that’s the most important thing to us, the future of the sport and the future of the club.

“We want to get them back and go forward with seniors from there.”

To donate, visit https://gofund.me/addf04de.