WA round cancelled.

[Oldtony]

According to Speed Cafe TC has pulled the WA round demanding an "uprade of the third world facilities". It sounds like QR all over again but I think he might find the WA government a lot less susceptible to pressure.
With the QR furore, tha castration of Surfers, questions still being asked aboutHomebush and now this I wonder if he might be wearing out his welcome with governments.
Of course he left the announcement to the very temporary Shane Howard.

[Yoda]

Why is it the Governments responsibility to upgrade and underwrite privately owned facilities?

[Eno the Wonderdog]

"cause international governments are stupid enough to do it for F1 - a BIG show & Mr Cochrane believes he's tapped into the same market..

[Oldtony]

It isn't Yoda, but the TC format is to use this sort of pressure to get control of the meetings promotion and finance. And if possible get the Government to finance the capital improvements.
He has done it with NSW at Homebush, wioth Qld at QR, Surfewrs and Townsville and with the NT at hidden Valley.
He has an arrangement with Fox to promote at Phillip Island which is hy Sandown got the squeeze. I would imagine the next target is Clipsal and getting control of that from the SA events people.

[Everso Biggyballies]

One has to ask if he is acting on behalf of the betterment of motor racing in Australia, or merely lining his pocket. To even have to ask the question is a waste of breath. He probably has already made a phone call to Singapore to replace the round with a Govt. backed personal moneyspinner.

Perhaps ratherthan look at the F1 model he seems to think he has the product to match, he should instead look at such series as ALMS even, a series with far more status and infinitely better machinery, in a much larger community (ie one more likely to be able to justify the upgrades TC demands for one race per year. ALMS still happily race at venues such as Lime Rock Park where they happily camp under awnings to work on their cars.

The BTCC in the UK happily run at Croft or Knockhill, where facilities simply dont exist. But the public turn out in thousands to support the racing, pay value prices for their tickets, and come rain or shine have a great day / weekend at the races.

Will more people go and watch a round at Barbagello if they have to pay the double for their tickets that has to be charged to recoup the additional costs of gold plated dunnies for TV and his VIPs to sit on? Of course not.

[Prophet][]

It should not be upto V8 Supercars to keep every circuit they go to up to date just because they use it 1 weekend a year. If the circuit owners won't take responsibility for the property they own then it's their own fault for losing races.

I highly doubt he will try take over clipsal. Unlike alot of the other events it is a very slick event in terms of how it is run and how much money is put into it. All the other events you mentioned, he has reason to start them up or take them over. But there is no reason for clipsal as it already has huge government funding which is dependant and SA events running it and it gets one of the biggest crowds of the season. There is no indication he has tried to take it over or has any will too.

[Eno the Wonderdog]

If the Qld government are gonna fall for his "We have an international driver so it's an international meeting" BS I'll be disgusted.

Let the WA round go if you're the WA gov.. let tony tie himself to "sponsor" states then wait & demand a cut of the profits..