By Sam Tickell
The battle in Australian sportscar racing is now in the courts
GT Racing in Australia is at crisis point. Over the last week the Australian GT Championship has gone into a tail spin which threatens its existence and the integrity of GT racing in Australia.
The Australian GT Championship are confident of their continual existence and claim to have “some very exciting prospects for 2009”.
But the rest of the tale does not look so rosy.
The seriousness of the current problems became apparent when we broke news regarding the Porsche Drivers Challenge (see this story) problems with the upcoming round at Oran Park (see this story)
We have obtained new information that demonstrates the mess that is sportscar racing in Australia at the current time.
Competitors were officially notified on 16 April that the next round of the Australian GT Championship at Oran Park was not going ahead.
Not only was this due to a small entry for the round but also a rights disagreement regarding the Porsche Drivers Challenge.
It should be noted that the two issues are very much interconnected.
Let’s tackle the Porsche Drivers Challenge issue first.
This issues is long – with the first actions arising over the Christmas break. Porsche Drivers Challenge Champion Sven Burchartz and Jon Trende meet with the Australian GT Sportscar Group (AGTSG) (who own the management rights to the Australian GT Championship (AGTC) and the Porsche Drivers Challenge (PDC)) to discuss the potential sale of the Porsche Drivers Challenge.
These negotiations soon break down with no sale being agreed to. The AGTSG then notified the governing body of Australian Motorsport (CAMS) that the two afore mentioned categories need to be kept together to ensure the viability of both series.
The AGTSG reentered talks with all parties previously mentioned to ensure that the two groups stay as one. Other parties were included in some meetings like the owners of the Carrera Cup (Australia) and the Australian Motor Racing Commission.
Subsequently, however Burchartz or Trende who created another group called Challenge Cup Promoters Pty Ltd.
An agreement was reached ‘in principle’ to transfer the rights of the PDC to the new group which would race together with the AGTC.
But things were no where near complete at this stage. On March 13, a media release was distributed claiming that the PDC was now transferred over to the Challenge Cup Promoters with the support of Porsche Cars Australia.
In the view of AGTSG, there was no agreement and consequently legal battles begun.
Now the legal battles are still ongoing and both sides (AGTSG and Challenge Cup Promoters) are claiming that they have rightful ownership of the brand and are advertising as such.
In all this confusion, however the Porsche drivers stayed away from the Oran Park round (or at least are going to) and entry levels were low (thought to be seven).
In a statement to competitors, “AGTSG has been forced by the devastating loss of confidence in the Championship…[AGTSG] to review its position and withdraw from the CAMS National Championships round at Oran Park on 26-27 of April and seek urgent talks with CAMS as to the viability and ability of the Championship to continue under CAMS”.
So if you understand all of that, you are doing well.
Despite the fact that the above portrays a victim like state for the AGTSG, this is not true and the have been blamed and have come under heavy criticism from their own competitors – particularly those running Porsches.
Some insiders believe that the AGTSG have been ignoring their requests and suggestions and have made it impossible for them to compete. This has resulted in the actions that have bought them to this point. If they had been treated differently, this situation may have never come to pass.
Cup Car/Carrera Cup Australia are supporting the Challenge Cup Promoters
Other issues with car owners and CAMS have seen the creation of the Pirelli GT Championship at the start of the year. This series sees two Maserati GT3 cars as its headlining acts but fields have been small so far. The other problem is the previously reported issue with the Porsche GT3 cars (see this story).
So, in effect, all of this has led us to this point. So what happens next?
The GT Championship has a proposal – to create the Australian GT Challenge.
This series would cover most sportscars in Australia at this current time and their performance would be restricted to that of a Porsche 996 Cup Car.
This would allow a separate class to the GT3 cars and would allow future competition from cars currently running under the Australian GT Sunset Clause (namely the Lotus Elise), the Ferrari Challenge models, Porsche Cup Cars, World Challenge Cars and a variety of others.
The option of GT4 cars is also being investigated.
This option would be open to amateurs only and the cost to compete will be controlled through performance matching and decreased entry fees.
This series would have its own identity but would race on the same track as the GT3 cars.
So that is all well and good but what until then?
The AGTSG is having emergency meetings this week with stakeholders for the series and with CAMS where these issues are being discussed.
From these meetings, the AGTSG are searching for a way forward to ensure that top level sportscar racing can continue under their management agreement and to protect the investment of those car owners who invested in newer machinery.
The AGTSG will not be issuing further comment before these discussions are complete but have assured us that they and their partners are seeking to continue and build sportscar racing in Australia and they do have plans to continue and build throughout 2008 and 2009.
Whether this eventuates or not is unclear as yet. There is a lot of legal wrangling and board room deals that has to happen before this can be settled.
No party in this is without blame but how this all came about is shaming for the industry as a whole in Australia and no party is without blame.
One thing is for sure, this must be fixed and strong Championships must proceed and fragments must not be allowed to go off on their own.
Australia does not have the competitor base to support fragmented sportscar championships and no amount of politicking will change this.
This mess is long and complicated and will not resolve quickly, however, with luck a clearer picture will soon emerge.
As new information emerges, we will bring it to you – and, we at least hope for good unifying news (and something less complicated then this).
In essence though, it goes like this Australian GT Championship will now no longer feature the Porsche Drivers Challenge (which is being legally disputed by respective owners and the national motorsports body) which means that the GT Championship has no cars and feels that they have been duped out of a management agreement so are reconsidering their position. What happens next?
Stay tuned.
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AGTSG - The Australian GT Sportscar Group
CAMS - Confederation of Australian Motorsport
PDC - Porsche Drivers Challenge