CAMS Statement re Wakefield park and Legends Series

[RaceTime]

STATEMENT FROM CAMS & WAKEFIELD PARK


The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport Ltd. advises that Round 5 of the "Aussie Legends Touring Car Championship" is not a CAMS permitted event, is not recognised by CAMS, and is not on the race program for the meeting at Wakefield Park on 18-19 August 2001.

Wakefield Park confirms that this race meeting is being run under a CAMS permit and that therefore, the Aussie legends will not be running at this event.

[Crash Test]

What's their problem with Legends? Is it something along the lines of Nascars problem?

[RaceTime]

Yes - similar. They don't like allowing categories to run they supposedly cannot control

[Buckshot]

So what's CAMS problem with the Aussie Legends ? Weren't they going to develop AU and VT shells for these cars and let them support the V8 Supercars ?

I've only ever seen 1 or 2 races of this series on Speedweek from Oran Park and they looked great - how many other categories go three abreast through momo corner ?

How much does this category cost to get into ?

[RaceTime]

try contacting Phil Ward in NSW as he is the promoter of the series. They ran at Wakefield Park a month or two ago.

Personally I believe that this is yet another indication that CAMS is not out there to promote motorsport but to fill their own coffers with sanctioning and licensing fees.

[racer69]

i say the more motorsport the better.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by RaceTime
Personally I believe that this is yet another indication that CAMS is not out there to promote motorsport but to fill their own coffers with sanctioning and licensing fees.

There is another issue... CAMS have lost control over the Auscar setup, and Bob Jane could have totally crushed them when he took them to court over this... it was a Restricted Trade Practices Act issue... but he backed off so they could continue.

They don't want that to happen again, but are still seeking a way to prevent it while retaining control over all they have left, to keep a power base.

[RaceTime]

There are a couple of things I find totally at odds with this statement from CAMS and I will be trying to find out why the sudden changes.

Various states are taking different attitudes with racing - NSW appears to be a hard line state IMHO - to the point where I know that if the NSW state manager of CAMS pokes his head in a timing room again when I am working there he may end up losing his head - arrogant does not descibe him at all!

However - I have been at meetings with bikes competing as well where CAMS have stated that all CAMS personnel were to come in when the bikes went out and have nothing whatsoever to do with the bike component of the race meeting (last time the two ran at Calder - Shell meetin g3? maybe four years ago).

Why they can't try and get on with other forms of racing I do not know - power base, personal egos - WTH are they playing at?

[Crash Test]

I remember when QR opened, the QLD round of the NASSA was at Lakeside, and since we didnt have many classes racing, they stuck a sprint kart demo on....I guess they wouldn't like that now..

[Ray Bell]

Isn't it strange the way that clash happened... neither side wanted to relinquish the date (Lakeside couldn't, the contenders for the title were locked in for their travel arrangements) and so went ahead to an inevitable display of bloody-mindedness and monetary loss.

And CAMS stood back and said "Restricted Trade Practice... we can't do anything!"

[RaceTime]

Surely not - CAMS wouldn't do anything like that, wold they?

Would they?

Nah - never - you're having us on Ray...

Are you?

Oh! Typical CASMS...

[Ray Bell]

I really must put some of Bruce Polain's 'explanations' of CAMS' activities on this forum somewhere...

Nahh... I wouldn't have you on!

Mind you, QR were, I believe, in the wrong that day. Surely they could see that they were at the very least splitting the crowd... they were on a power trip, really. Of course, it was a very different management then.

[Crash Test]

It's amazing....all of the spectators loved QR after that initial non-championship meeting and V8 test session, but they weren't saying that after the first SCS round there...

I hope they do have the traffic sorted out for the 500, its pretty much their final chance. The only reason I would question it is because the traffic at the historic meeting was spewing a couple kilometers up the road, meaning a 30min wait in traffic on race day...

[Ray Bell]

I see they have done some work on the road there, but hardly enough to provide a smooth bypass when race traffic is heavy.

Wonder if this ever affected the drags?

[Crash Test]

What they have done since that first drama (where traffic went right back to the turn off onto the highway...) is divert northbound traffic, so all of the traffic going into the track has a free go, ie they don't have to stop every minute or so to let the northbound stuff through. Another problem this year is all of the roadworks at that new creek crossing a few kms down the road....i hope someone with a brain tells them not to be working on race weekend...

Generally with the drags, the 40,000 odd people for the big meets like the Winternats, slowly trickle in through the day. Sure there is a bit of congestion getting in and out, but that has more to do with limited entries to the car parks- everyone wants to get in the first one...

[DAVID PATERSON]

I believe the major cause of the delays getting into QR is their insistence on checking passes and taking money from people while they are still in their cars. Surely, it would flow much more easily and quickly if people parked their cars and walked to the gates and then paid their money. A queue of people is always going to be a hell of a lot shorter than a queue of cars.

[Ray Bell]

Dead right that would help, David, but I understood people parked and walked to a 'pay here' gate anyway?

Passes for competitors, of course, that's different.

[Crash Test]

But there is only one meeting per year that they have the pay at the spectator gates, and that is the 500.

Another delay sometimes early on race morning is where all of the officials have to sign in, but that is usually finished about an hour and a half before the action begins.