As all is quiet on the Eastern Cape Oval front at the moment, maybe its time to look back at 2011 and what 2012 may hold in. Victory Raceway kicks off the season on Sat 28 Jan, PEOTR have not yet announced their calender.

No need to go into the MSA WOMZA issue again, but indeed scary to think about how MSA allowed oval to eradicate to the extent that most clubs walked away disgusted and fed up. Many expected MSA to respond drastically, but the modus operandi of take it or leave it continued and instead they resorted to the legal direction to force the clubs back. No need to say more.

So what happened? The Western Cape grew drastically and in PE, PEOTR continued as usual. Victory remained MSA and struggled on, but they definitely showed growth and ended the season on a higher level than 2010. George dipped under WOMZA at first and Champ of Champios was a disappointment as well as the start of the WOMZA Coastal Championships.

MSA took 15 PEOTR driver licences away when PEOTR ran the first WOMZA event and Shawn Collins was slammed a R2000 fine. MSA insisted on laying down the law, but then PEOTR drivers with WOMZA licences started racing at Victory and vice versa. This also happened in the SWD and WP - MSA simply turned a blind eye. These developments proved that all the drivers ever wanted, was to race and enjoy the sport.

So what is going to happen in 2012? Those at WOMZA will no doubt stay until forced otherwise, if MSA will succeed. Victory will continue under MSA and with the current committee line up in EL, my guess is they will stay MSA. Will there be MSA Championships? They may try but what would it mean with only 2 or 3 clubs taking part. My other suspicion is that MSA may do away with rule prohibiting racing at non sanctioned events.

Last thought - what if MSA finally succeeds in shutting down WOMZA. Would they expect all clubs to come runnning back and what wouild MSA do to repair the massive damage they have done. The MSA camps are set on shutting WOMZA, the WOMZA clubs couldn't care, they are going racing to enjoy the sport.

I think we are in for a great year of Oval racing with lots less politics - thats how 2011 ended and a good indicator for this year.