LAST month V8 Supercars Australia announced the successful amalgamation of the two long-standing separate boards, which had previously managed the sport, into one streamlined entity.

In a majority vote, the boards of V8SA and the Touring Car Entrants Group (TEGA) merged their previous individual responsibilities into one reorganised business structure that will be in place for at least the next decade.

However, two team representatives voted against the move because of questions regarding their effective level of "control" retained under new supporting documentation. One such team owner was V8 veteran Garry Rogers but with only 75 percent votes in favour needed, the motion was passed.

"Ninety two percent voted in favour of proceeding with the amalgamation and the documentation," said V8 supremo Tony Cochrane. "The greater majority have the say and that’s called democracy."

As V8X went to print, Cochrane intended on standing for re-election as chairman at the April board meeting but revealed his intentions could have been the opposite if the outcome of the merger was different.

"I agreed to be interim chairman until the amalgamation went through and I wouldn’t have continued if the amalgamation hadn’t have gone through to be perfectly frank," said Cochrane.

The board currently holds four seats for V8 team principals Ross Stone, Paul Morris, Larry Perkins and Tim Edwards – these positions will be voted on again later this year – two director seats for Sports and Entertainment Ltd (the marketing arm of the sport) for Cochrane and James Erskine, while two independent director positions are also catered for although one remains vacant and the other is currently held by South Australian businessman Roger Cook who chaired the amalgamation committee.

For more info on how the merger will take the sport into the future, turn to page 46.

– FG

 

 

Driver protection

$500K cover now a must

PERSONAL liability cover worth half a million dollars is now a mandatory minimum for all drivers competing in both the V8 Supercar Championship Series and the second-tier Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series.

The new policy, which also includes those contesting the endurance races later this year, has been welcomed by drivers and was implemented before the inaugural Hamilton 400 street race in New Zealand. Drivers were given a choice of using their own provider or purchasing the cover through V8 Supercars Australia for a premium of "approximately $2800 a year" according to V8 chairman Tony Cochrane.

"For most, not all, but for most of our drivers this is their full-time job, even in the development series a lot of those drivers now this is their livelihood," said Cochrane. "That’s where it’s different to people driving in the support categories where most of those people, not all, but 95 percent of those people are part-timers."

The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport’s (CAMS) membership program already includes a minimum $75,000 cover for all licensed competitors at CAMS-sanctioned events and urges drivers in that policy to upgrade that level of cover through its official insurance partner OAMPS.

However, considering the substantially different requirements between the broader make-up of the CAMS membership base and those contesting V8 Supercars, Cochrane said it was vital for drivers in the V8 fraternity to extend their cover further to "make sure a good level of protection is there for every driver to begin with".

"We’d like (V8 drivers) to take more to be frank; we encourage them to take more than half a million," Cochrane encouraged.

Ford Performance Racing’s Steven Richards is one such driver supporting the move: "It is part of our responsibility to ourselves and our families to have the adequate cover in place. The last thing I would want is to be survived by a wife and kids who have no means of getting back on their feet should something happen to me on a racetrack."

– Filippa Guarna