Thursday, June 23, 2011
Confusion in Apple Isle over government's commitment
Early today Tasmania appeared set to drop out of the V8 Supercar Championship after November's round at the Symmons Plains circuit near Launceston, but now the state's premier and tourism minister are denying withdrawing the state government's support for the event.
Reports from Tasmania early today were that the government had opted out of the remaining two years of its contract with V8 Supercars Australia on the grounds of budget constraints. But now the state's premier, Lara Giddings, is accusing V8 Supercar officials of "sabre rattling", while tourism minister Scott Bacon says "the suggestion that we have abandoned our commitment to 2012 and 2013 is incorrect".
The island's potential loss of a round in Australia's major national motor racing championship has sparked outrage among many in the southern state.
The most disappointed, if it is the end, will be the state's former touring car champion and Bathurst 1000 winner John Bowe.
Sensing a likely government pull-out, Bowe said recently it would be "political suicide" for it to withdraw its support, which has been in the form of a transport subsidy of almost $600,000 a year.
"The government would be very brave, or stupid, to kill off the event," he said.
Hobart newspaper The Mercury quoted V8SA chairman Tony Cochrane today revealing the government pulling its support from what consistently has been trumpeted as Tasmania's biggest annual sporting event. However, a report on the website of Launceston's The Examiner later quoted V8SA media manager Cole Hitchcock saying: "whether we come back next year has not been decided by either party".
And this afternoon, on The Mercury's website, premier Giddings is quoted saying: "We are keen to see V8s continue here in the state because we know it is a very popular sport for many Tasmanians, but we have to go through a negotiation process and that is what is happening right now.
"I think it might be a bit of sabre rattling by the V8s because we are still in discussions with them around a negotiation. So there has been no decision made here."
The strong indications this morning that the November 11-13 race meeting at Symmons Plains (round 12 of this year's 14-round championship) will be the last in the island state in the foreseeable future came just seven months after former premier David Bartlett announced the government had struck the three-year, $1.7 million deal.
Bartlett said at the time that deal was struck, last November, that it was "great for tourism, great for jobs, great for Tasmania".
The Mercury reported this morning that tourism minister Bacon said yesterday: "The government remains committed to keeping V8s in Tasmania, and negotiations with the event's organisers are continuing."
However, Cochrane later told the paper that the government sought a release from the last two years of the contract and that had been agreed.
"The state government's indication to us is that they were unable to continue with the huge budget problems they've had in Tasmania," Cochrane said.
"They have now signed a release saying they are only able to complete this year and are unable to complete for future years… With the budget problems down there they couldn't see their way clear to continue past this year… They asked to be released from their contract and reluctantly we released them… This year will be the last one down there, regrettably," Cochrane commented.
The V8 boss continued: "Without their [the Tasmanian Government] assistance in getting 38 B-double transporters and 600 people across the stretch of water between Tasmania and the mainland it makes it completely economically impossible to bring the championship to Tasmania.
"It's not a particularly big ask for a government, but it makes the difference in being able to get down there and not getting down there.
"We are currently negotiating with several venues both in Australia and overseas to replace the Tasmanian event," he told The Mercury.
The future of the Tasmanian round has been in the spotlight for several months and its likely disappearance will be -- or be seen as being -- at the expense of AFL games in Hobart.
AFL club Hawthorn has a lucrative conctract (reportedly $18 million for five years) with the Tasmanian government to play four AFL games per year in Launceston, while another AFL club, North Melbourne, will play two games a year in Hobart from next year.
It has been reported that North Melbourne will be paid $500,000 for each of those games, although much of the funding is coming from the Bass Strait ferry operator TT Line rather than directly from the government.
Symmons Plains, 32km south of Launceston, has been part of the Australian Touring Car Championship, which transformed into the V8 Supercar Championship in the late 1990s, since it became a multiple-round series. However, Tasmania dropped out of the series for several years early last decade after an earlier stand-off with V8SA Supercar organisers.
In the report on The Examiner website today, V8SA media man Hitchcock confirmed that the existing agreement has been modified to cover just this November's round but, unlike Cochrane, suggests the door is still open beyond that.
"We did renegotiate a one-year arrangement at the government's request to get their funding mechanism in place,'' Hitchcock said.
"We have that one-year deal in place and are open to discussions about future years, whether that be next year or beyond. The door has not closed."
While it is well known that the government is under severe pressure on its budget, ejecting from the three-year deal after just one year if it does indeed want to keep the V8 Supercars coming to Tasmania is likely to have been very false economy.
Going back to V8SA now to negotiate a new deal is sure to mean facing a demand for a higher fee than it was already contracted for in 2012 and '13. And if it isn't inclined to pay it will be game over.
Movie and reality television show new dimensions
Disney Pixar's Cars 2 computer-animated movie in which Ford Performance Racing driver Mark Winterbottom has a cameo role starts screening in Australian cinemas today. And a reality television show starting on 7Mate next month will choose a young driver to partner Channel 7 star Grant Denyer in October's Bathurst 1000.
In Cars 2 a character with Winterbottom's nickname, Frosty (voiced by Winterbottom and featuring a car in an Australian colour scheme) meets up with 2008 Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton and the movie's hero, Lightning McQueen, ahead of the "World Grand Prix".
A teaser clip can be viewed at youtube.com. Apparently Frosty only appears in the Australian release of the film.
Meanwhile, the new reality television show on 7Mate will have 10 contestants -- including three women and three teenagers -- in an elimination series to decide host Denyer's co-driver in a Holden Commodore at Bathurst. The car, a fifth entry for The Great Race from the Kelly Brothers Racing stable, already has a ‘wildcard' entry for the October 6-9 event.
The show, to be called the Shannons Supercar Showdown, will screen on Saturday afternoons from July 23.
It is a joint production between WTFN, The Media Mix and Kelly Racing.
WTFN was the creator of Bondi Vet, Coxy's Big Break and a number of advertorial style television programs. Kelly brothers Todd and Rick Kelly will be the judges and experienced team manager Dean Orr will run the car at Bathurst.
The drivers competing to make their V8 Supercar and Bathurst debut will be Amber Anderson, Andrew Jordan, Ben Small, Cameron Waters, David Sera, Hayley Swanson, Nick Cassidy, Nick Foster, Samantha Reid and Shae Davies.
Anderson, 26, is already the V8 Supercars Championship safety car driver, has commerce and law degrees, is a qualified pilot and a scuba diver who has competed in the Fujitsu V8 development series.
Jordan is a 21-year-old Briton and three-time race winner in the British Touring Car Championship.
Waters is only 16 but leads the Australian Formula Ford Championship while Foster, 19, is a Formula Ford driver and engineering student. Davies, 21, also is a Formula Ford racer.
Sera, 22, is an 11-time Australian karting champion. Small, 23, has been a snowboard instructor in Colorado but raced previously and is the son and brother of race engineers Les and James Small.
Swanson, also 23, has raced in production cars and Aussie Racing Cars, while 24-year-old Reid from Adelaide has had a varied racing career and is a qualified driver trainer. New Zealander Cassidy is another 16-year-old.
Rick Kelly said that bringing new talent to the sport was the family-owned team's main motivation for its involvement, although marketing and promotion is obviously a huge priority.
V8 Supercars Australia chief executive Martin Whitaker said the series was "a brilliant concept which again demonstrates the enormous depth of V8 Supercars to have a mainstream reality show based around the living-the-dream premise".
"The show is sure to be a big hit and, who knows, it may just unveil the next star of V8 Supercar racing," Whitaker said.
It's a flamboyant initiative, but (remembering high-profile motorcycle racer Troy Bayliss' Bathurst outing a couple of years ago) this author questions the merit of little-prepared youngsters being 'baptised' into V8 Supercars at Bathurst -- especially when the development series is an obvious training ground to prepare future Great Race participants.