A cat fight has emerged that has the potential to see the Australian Grand Prix de-registered and removed from the 2011 calendar. The fighting foes are the Australian Grand Prix promoters and Australia’s motorsport governing body CAMS.
It’s essentially a fight over money, what else; CAMS charges a fee to the Australian Grand Prix each year in return for providing a race track with officials, marshalls and the like. The promoters, led by Ron Walker, are asking CAMS to lower their fee.
CAMS are sticking to their guns and refusing to meet Walker’s demands. However, Walker is not really bothered by all the fun, and expects everything to be finalised by a CAMS imposed deadline of 19 November.
“CAMS is threatening us, using the FIA as a big stick, to comply with the request of November 19 or they will apply to have us de-registered off the calendar for next year,” said Walker who is in Abu Dhabi to discuss the matter with F1 boss Bernie Eccelstone. “I know it is going to be resolved because there are powers that be, such as Mr Todt and Mr Ecclestone who are sure it will be resolved in an amicable way.”
It’s always nice to have friends on your side, isn’t it. Anyway, Walker is quite happy to take his bat and ball elsewhere, “The organisers at Silverstone would be very happy to organise Melbourne, the organiser of Abu Dhabi could organise it. There are plenty of organisers that would be delighted to come down under and be approved by the FIA.”
[Source: Autosport | Pic: Renault/LAT]
2 replies on “Fee fight foe fun”
[…] Today’s battle between CAMS and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation has shifted up a gear with a stern press release issued by CAMS. Key to their reply is the claim that their fee charged to the AGPC is “substantially less than the AUD$800,000 or £500,000 stated in some reports”. […]
[…] were raised when the AGPC threatened to de-register the role of CAMS as GP organisers if they did not lower the fee charged for running the […]