MOTORSPORT: Robby Gordon, CAMS slug it out in court

Robby Gordon Entertainment claims its Stadium Super Trucks would have 2.5 to four times stronger wheels if the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) suspension of them was lifted and they were allowed to race at the Gold Coast 600 on October 19-21.

The Stadium Super Trucks (SSTs) were dropped from the Gold Coast event program after CAMS suspended the category on safety grounds following a wheel coming off an SST driven by Matthew Nolan at Perth’s Barbagallo Raceway in May and which hit a pedestrian bridge crossing the track, with the wheel landing in pitlane.

Victorian Supreme Court judge John Digby will decide by next Wednesday whether to grant Gordon’s company an injunction against CAMS that could – but probably unlikely – lead to the SSTs being restored to the Gold Coast program.

Gold Coast organisers have already revised the support program to include the Kumho Touring Cars instead of the SSTs, which the Gordon organisation has told the court could make the meeting with modified machinery if given the green light by next Wednesday.

Gordon stayed home in the US and was not in court in Melbourne today but had a Queen’s Counsel barrister, Stewart Anderson, represent him, while CAMS was represented by another QC, Jeffery Gleeson.

CAMS has vigorously defended itself, claiming it has acted on what it “reasonably considers” safety concerns.

Anderson spent two hours on his feet this morning pushing the Gordon case.

He drew on evidence provided to the court by Agars Race Products of Adelaide that new forged billet aluminium wheels would be 2.5 to four times less likely to detach from SSTs than the cast alloy wheels used since they first raced in Australia in 2015.

Judge Digby expressed surprise during the later submission by Gleeson that CAMS had not sought evidence or verification of that enhanced safety claim.

The Perth incident this year occurred on May 5 but the court heard that, while the decision to suspend the category was made by a CAMS working committee three days later, it was not conveyed to Gordon until July 3 in what Judge Digby later described as “very naked communication”.

Anderson said an agreement had been struck between Gordon and CAMS on February 20 this year but, since the Perth incident, several earlier incidents – what he called “the dredge of retrospectivity” – had been brought up against Gordon, yet the February agreement indicated that CAMS had been satisfied with the way the category ran.

He said there had been no immediate incident report by CAMS on weekend of the Perth incident, no stewards’ inquiry and no complaint to the SST fraternity.

Yet by May 8 CAMS had made up its mind to suspend SSTs and had not been interested in any response or input from the Gordon camp and this had been unreasonable, he said.

CAMS, in its decision, had tried to impose new safety standards without consultation with SST and the first the Gordon camp had seen of a subsequent incident report was on the eve of today’s court case, Anderson said.

He said racing great Larry Perkins had provided an affidavit that he had inspected SSTs at this year’s Adelaide 500 and that “the standard of design and construction was second to none in terms of safety” and that “the safety standard was on par with V8 Supercars”.

He said CAMS technical manager Scott McGrath had rejected the views of SST, Agars and Perkins.

Anderson said CAMS had claimed after the May incident that there was “unacceptable risk”, yet it had not had that view of seven incidents prior to the February agreement – one of which had been quite similar to that on May 5.

Gordon, he said, had “a powerful case” that CAMS had breached their agreement.

The court was shown video footage of Nolan’s SST multiple rollover at Barbagallo Raceway, a wheel coming loose and bouncing an estimated five metres in the air before it hit the bridge.

Gleeson began his presentation in the afternoon by saying CAMS was concerned at the risk of harm to participants, marshals and the public.

He addressed the court at length on the affidavit by CAMS racing director Tim Schenken, who had said that – while he did not see the incident live but later that day viewed the video footage – it was “a significant concern to CAMS from a safety perspective”.

While the Gordon camp had claimed there had not been complaints about driver behaviour in the SSTs, Schenken said in his affidavit that he had expressed concerns to the category manager over a period, including about “driver culture”.

Gleeson said that if the tyre had not hit the pedestrian bridge at Barbagallo Raceway “it could have continued on and entered the support paddock”.

The court heard that racegoers were not allowed to be on the bridge during races.

Judge Dibgy reserved his decision but said he would “endeavour to deliver” it by next Wednesday (October 10).