10.Roland Dane

Team Owner, TEGA Board Member

Triple 8 Motorsport boss Roland Dane has been in Australia for less than a year as the owner of the Betta Electrical Falcons, but already his astute mind has taken him into a leadership role inside the V8 circus. Elected to the TEGA Board to replace former SBR business manager Mark Rowarth, Dane has now set himself the mission of making the sport more manageable and with greater control over the costs of winning. He's only just started, but already he seems to make sense.

9. Tim Schenken

Race Director, Championship Series

The man behind so much of what happens on and off the track is Tim Schenken, the ongoing Race Director for all V8 Supercar races. Elegant to the point of the ridiculous, Schenken sits in the driver's seat when penalties are handed out on race days, he cops the flak when his team gets its wrong and defends his mates with an honest logic. He's not always the most popular bloke in the place, but with Formula One races in his kitbag he knows what he is talking about.

8. Garry Rodgers

Team Owner, TEGA Board Member

Garry Rogers has been a constant on the TEGA Board during the past few years, and has been instrumental in the ever increasing power of the Board itself. It is clear in 2004 the TEGA Board is now probably the most powerful mini-grouping of people in the sport, and that alone ranks Rogers right up there. But throw in this bloke's amazing take on life, and you've got an interesting character to accompany you on a ride. V8 Supercars would be a very boring place without guys like Garry Rogers.

7. Ray Borrett

Director, Performance Products and Racing, Holden

Ray Borrett stepped up to the plate to take over the major direction for Holden in the sport from John Stevenson just as the major red franchises were self-destructing. When TWR went broke, Borrett had to move to ensure the survival of its teams, including the HRT. He moved with surgical precision to protect the General's interests, and in doing so helped it ride some rough seas without getting vertigo. His stewardship also involves the future of Holden in the class, and the quietly-spoken Borrett has already proven it is in good hands.

The Real Power Brokers Time and time again while being asked the questions for this survey, those polled said bodies of varying sizes were more important now than individuals. One reasoned that Tony Cochrane takes his direction from the five-man TEGA Board. But they all unanimously agreed that Ford and Holden (manufacturers) were now far and away the most important bodies in the sport. Both the Melbourne-based companies sit at the front, controlling the sport from logical commercial platforms. They are the two biggest investors in terms of cash on a yearly basis - each slotting in a total commitment of more than $15 million - and each exerts its collective influence in varying ways to help the sport grow, and to sell cars. Another powerful body is the TEGA Board itself and its carefully chosen manufacturer's presence. Technically there is an independent Chairman of TEGA (Kelvin O'Reilly) and two blue and two red representatives (Mark Skaife and Garry Rogers for Holden, Mark Larkham and Roland Dane for Ford) and it is these five who control the largest part of the V8 fate. In most of the polling, O'Reilly is mainly there to resolve deadlocks, but the other four members are well and truly in seats of power. And then there is this group called AVESCO, which is essentially the teams themselves at 75% and Tony Cochrane's Sports and Entertainment Limited (SEL, which in itself is an important body) at 25%. There are 13 Level 1 Franchises (two car teams) and nine Level 2 Franchises (one car teams) which make up the runners and they take a profit share from the sport that is roughly defined as 4:1 for a Level 1 over a Level 2. Let's not forget Network Ten as the host broadcaster. It came up a couple of times, with a few different people from inside the network getting a mention, but no-one even thought of the media as a whole or individually.

6. Mark Larkham

Team Owner, TEGA Board Member

Mark Larkham has for years been a racing driver with vision beyond the driver's seat. Now that he has given up driving and jumped back onto the TEGA Board it seems that vision is starting to come into play for the sport. Larko seems to have a rare ability to cut the wheat from the chaff, and this combined with his business nous makes him an important player on the board, and a great custodian for the sport's future.

5. Stephen Kruk

Ford Motorsport Operations Manager

Kruk is now the man heading the Ford assault on the V8 Series, taking over from Howard Marsden shortly before the latter's death last year. No less intelligent but polar in personality, Kruk has taken the back room work of Marsden and started a push to improve the Ford brand in the motorsport marketplace. No mean feat after years of getting hammered by the red brigade. Look at the window strips on the Ford-sponsored cars if you have any doubts this guy has vision and determination. He has big ideas and plenty of drive, so you can be sure there are a few more rabbits up the collective Ford sleeve.

4. Wayne Cattach

CEO of AVESCO

Wayne Cattach is essentially Tony Cochrane's 2IC, but he is much more than just rear-gunner to the sport's most visible person outside of a driver's suit. Cattach stepped aside from the TEGA chair a couple of years ago to put his focus into the business of the V8s, and the results are there for all to see. If you are in doubt, look at the sport's growth recently and the new sponsors that have come on board. He also spent time at DJR in the 1990s, so he knows what it is like to work the sport from the bottom up.

The Missing Of the five people who have fallen out of favour, only Howard Marsden is no longer with us, although there are many who believe he is still steering the Ford ship from the grave. Quietly spoken, Marsden was something of a dark horse in Ford colours, and his job was to bring Ford back from the brink of oblivion. Of course Ford ex-boss Geoff Polites had to provide a better car than the AU to use as a base product, and once that was done, voila, Marsden engineered Ford's first championship in seven years. John Crennan has died a noble death in the eyes of the public, although there is no doubt his big hands still touch the sport in a major way. The collapse of the TWR empire brought down the TWRA enterprise in Australia, shuffling Crennan out of direct involvement with HRT, Kmart Racing and PWR Racing (formerly Team Brock). He's still there, just in a different form. Fellow Holden person John Stevenson has effectively handed the reins of the V8 future to Ray Borrett and Craig Fletcher, but again he remains involved and you still see his smiling face at the tracks. The other two to fall off the list were Geoff Jones, who has left IMG, and Ross Brodie, with Shell bailing out of its major series involvement (he has also left Shell). V8 Supercars' Almost Most Powerful People 11        Kelvin O'Reilly - TEGA Chairman 12        Denny Mooney - new Holden boss 13        Tom Gorman - new Ford boss 14        Craig Fletcher - Holden motorsport boss 15        James Erskine - SEL money man 16        Paul Taylor - Series technical manager 17        Murray Lomax - Key technical supplier to Network Ten's coverage 18        David Flint - FPV and FPR boss 19        James O'Brien - IMG's new motorsport boss 20        Kees Weel - Team owner and major player on the Holden side 21        Justin Milne - BigPond General Manager 22        Larry Perkins - Team owner and motorsport legend 23        Neil Crompton - Former driver, now commentator 24        Steve Richards - Current Castrol Perkins Commodore driver 25        Marcos Ambrose - Series champion 26        Craig Lowndes - FPR driver and Supercar icon 27        Victor Sussman - SEL marketing guru 28        Garth Wigston - the man who hands out the Supercar penalties

3. David White

General Manager, Sport, Network Ten

As head of Ten's motorsport team, David White has a very big say in how the sport is perceived by millions around the country and even more globally, or so we are told. TV deals come and go, and any sport worth its salt will always attract major network attention, but it is White who has had so much influence in how Ten sees the sport, and ultimately how it looks when it hits small screens around the country. Ten is now the TV network for motorsport, and the V8s are the jewel in the crown.

2. Mark Skaife

Driver, HRT Owner, TEGA Board Member

Five championships does a lot to your stocks in the sport, and Mark Skaife has come from nowhere in 2000 to land second place in 2004. Skaife has always enjoyed a leadership role among the drivers; he is the one to which journalists have traditionally turned when comment is needed on safety issues or other driver-related concerns. As the top driver in the series, he also defines the pay rates as the minions tumble down from him. Now he also owns the premier franchise in the sport - the HRT - and sits on the TEGA Board. Busy boy, this one.

1. Tony Cochrane

Chairman AVESCO, SEL Director

Charismatic and outspoken, Tony Cochrane is again top of the pile of the people who can influence V8 Supercar racing, although somewhat surprisingly this time not with a clean sweep of the poll. Cochrane leads from the front as the very public face of AVESCO, staunchly defending his interests in one of the top sports in the land and encouraging its growth through negotiations with governments and sponsors. He is the kind of bloke who always has something to say, he has an ego that drives him to achieve and he says his role is not to be liked, but to turn out results. And that he does, just ask anyone who has made millions selling a franchise recently.