MEGA Ride Days celebrated 30 years of operation late last year. We headed to SMSP for a taste of the on-track action.
MEGA Ride Days celebrates 30 years?! For many of us, non-competitive ride days held on racetracks are a huge part of our motorcycling lives. Smooth surfaces, run-off areas, no oncoming traffic and no speed limits — it’s a perfect recipe for two-wheeled fun. But it hasn’t always been so. Prior to the early 1990s, access to Australian tracks was restricted to racers or those attending rider-training programs. And when the first ride days appeared, they were relatively rough and ready affairs.
The old days still live fresh in the mind of Steve Brouggy, the founder of the most successful and long-lived provider of ride days in Australia, Motorcycling Events Group Australia (MEGA). “During those early years, there were numerous operators,” he recalls. “Most of them motorcycle enthusiasts who wanted to facilitate the environment that they themselves wanted to attend, without the necessity of needing a racing licence or being restricted by racing rules, and to be able to circulate the whole track without having to attend a skills training day.”
Brouggy, who achieved some Australian Championship victories and podiums on 125GP bikes as a motorcycle racer in the 1980s, says that back then all you needed was access to a broad-based public-liability insurance policy and you could hire a racetrack. “This resulted in a wide array of ideas on how to best manage the events, with some being more successful than others,” he explains. “While we could critique this until the end of time, in all fairness it’s hard to measure some of the standards against what is expected today, and everyone – including ourselves – did the best we could with what we knew. It was a different world.”
To fully appreciate how far things have evolved, Brouggy just needs to recall his first event, where he took five riders to the Broadford State Motorcycle Complex to teach some basic cornering skills and give them the opportunity to ride on the track. “We had no flag marshals, no ambulance, no support staff and no catering,” he says. As rudimentary as it was, this was the event that gave birth to the company that would soon be known as MEGA. Brouggy and his team have since gone on to provide racetrack experiences to more than 300,000 riders at 2500 events held at 45 racetracks in 10 countries. “These were not all ride days,” he clarifies. “I was involved with the California Superbike School for 22 years, which is where many of the overseas events happened, but now we are very happily situated at Sydney Motorsport Park (SMSP) in NSW and Phillip Island in Victoria.” Indeed, Brouggy’s first ‘real’ ride day was held at Phillip Island in 1995.
THEN AND NOW
ARR attended a ride day at SMSP late last year, which was held to celebrate 30 years of MEGA. It was indicative of how far the industry has come in those three decades. From the initial online registration and safety briefing system, fully functional tyre service, and motorcycle and leather suit hire, to the provision of flag marshals, lights, cameras and a timing/tracking system, MEGA offers an impressive, rider-centric set-up. It’s also a friendly, inclusive environment that welcomes riders of all backgrounds and experience.
It’s all a far cry from the 1990s when leather was the preferred riding suit material, but you could also ride in textiles, with some providers even preferring denim jeans and jackets. “Full-length motorcycle boots and gloves were preferred, but not mandatory,” Brouggy says. “You could ride in any ankle-length shoes and with the equivalent of gardening gloves. Furthermore, rider groupings were self-evaluated and not measured by any structured system. Group sizes were not capped, with stories of 60 or more riders in a group not uncommon.”
Incredibly, recovery vehicles were sent out when bikes were still circulating and there was little to no enforcement of passing rules. “In today’s world, none of the above would be even remotely acceptable,” Brouggy says. “So how did it all change? Like most things, it was through evolution. One of the reasons that I’m standing here is because we have never stopped evolving.”
This process led to MEGA establishing ongoing arrangements at both SMSP and Phillip Island. “I get asked all the time whether or not we want to go to different circuits and the answer is no,” Brouggy says. “They are the two best circuits in the country, in my opinion, and that’s all we want to do. And being located in two circuits permanently allowed us to invest in hire bikes, storage, and do a whole range of things we couldn’t have done before, so it was one of the catalysts for the industry moving forward.”
SAFETY ON TRACK
One of the most recent innovations that has been implemented for MEGA ride days is the creation of safety videos for all aspects of ride day participation, including entering and exiting the track, passing, dealing with cold tyres and so on. There are also interactive venue maps of both circuits that show the process of getting into the venue and then how to ride the track. Pit garage selection is now via a “choose your spot online”-style booking system, while ride simulator access between sessions is being introduced to help educate riders on the best way to tackle each circuit according to their skill level. “Not a day goes by in which my team and I don’t have an in-depth discussion about how something functions and how we can do it better,” Brouggy explains.
The chief marketing officer of the Australian Racing Drivers’ Club (ARDC) and SMSP, Peter Larum, says each year, MEGA oversees approximately 750,000 track kilometres across multiple days at SMSP, featuring hundreds of riders each time. “That’s some record,” he says, adding that a ride day provider needed to be a dedicated and passionate organisation that can present ride days in the safest, most professional, accessible and rider-centric environment possible. “Steve delivers this and more in spades.”
Brouggy says people often ask him if he is tiring of the ride day world after 30 years. “The reality is no,” he says. “I love what I do, the people I work with, and the industry in which I work. All that combined makes for a very fulfilling and enjoyable working life. I am a very fortunate man.”
PHOTO FINISH
Steve Duggan of SD Pics (below) has photographed every Phillip Island Ride Day since 2001 and every SMSP Ride Day since 2020. He says he has found Steve Brouggy to be “one of the most honest and loyal people I have ever met. I cherish the friendship we have formed and I have huge admiration for everything he has achieved in the industry”.
SD Pics takes photos of bikes and riders on track, in pit lane and in the garages. Photos from each event are put up on the SD Pics website the following day, with digital downloads, prints and montage posters available to order. You just select your ride day date and the group you were riding in, then start searching for your pictures. A good tip is to purchase a pre-order bundle of images and/or prints for a reduced price before you ride. Bundles are available until midnight on the night before each event. Check out http://sdpics.com/ for more information.
BEEMER SCREAMERS
MEGA has used BMW S 1000 RR motorcycles as hire bikes for more than a decade, as they provide a useful combination of high power and rider safety tech. The head of marketing at BMW Motorrad Australia, Joel Simondson, says BMW Motorrad’s support of MEGA Ride Days has been a fantastic success in growing the exposure of the S 1000 RR and other BMW performance motorcycles. “Steve and his ride days team deliver an unbeaten level of professionalism and experience for Australian customers, and we’re excited to see how we can continue to evolve this partnership in the years to come,” he says.
During the 30th anniversary ride day, BMW Motorrad Australia had a production M 1000 RR (above) in the pits on slicks, and ARR managed to bag a ride on this amazing machine (between sessions on the S 1000 RR hire bikes). Needless to say, it was a highlight of the day. It features the optional competition package, which includes a swingarm in anodised aluminium, as well as M GPS-Laptrigger, endurance chain and billet package and, of course, acres of carbon fibre. It has also been signed by the riders of the world-champion ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team (Toprak Razgatlioglu and Michael van der Mark) and the Bonovo action BMW Racing Team riders (Scott Redding and Garrett Gerloff).
The M 1000 RR is currently being displayed at various dealer functions and motoring festivals. Visit www.bmw-motorrad.com.au for more information about the M 1000 RR or S 1000 RR models.
