CAMS to run National Series in 06

[JAY_B]

http://www.v8central.com/pitlane/rac...p?newsitem=538

[storyline]

He! Old news - now the real good news is that the split between AMRS and CAMS may not be as odd as many believe!

[Uncle Cranker]

Originally Posted by storyline

He! Old news - now the real good news is that the split between AMRS and CAMS may not be as odd as many believe!

Nice work Storyline.

I'm led to believe a recent meeting between some of the members of the warring parties was most cordial, almost convivial.

With some alleged progress made, and much slapping of backs & shaking of hands.

My sauce is far from reliable,(sweet chilli) as she allegedly has vested intrests, of one kind or another, but for what it is worth I will simply say.

"Watch this Space".....




geez I hope she's wrong, i'd hate to have to change my signature again..........

[storyline]

Originally Posted by Uncle Cranker

Nice work Storyline.

It's amazing what cold weather can make people talk about!

Whispers from behind and above the Mountain Pit Lane suggest that the movement of AMRS over to ASSA as a sanctioning body for 2006 has more to it that has so far been divulged.

Lines of stories are saying that Garry Willmington (from AMRS) and various senior CAMS officials from Dandenong Road in Melbourne have been discussing this series now for a while.

One of the original bones of contention was the amount of money CAMS wanted from AMRS as a 'sanctioning' or 'administration' fee (isn't this always the end of ANY CAMS discussion or negotiation though?). It appears that what CAMS wanted and what AMRS were prepared to offer showed a complete lack of understanding on CAMS behalf - they appeared to believe that the series was (or would be) very well off and they could 'milk it' whilst just sitting back and opening their deposit books.

The reality is, however, that the AMRS was set up to allow categories to go racing without the financial and regulatory impost CAMS have a habit of imposing on just about any category that comes up with a good idea (such as the current 'dispute' between long-time CAMS stalwart Peter Nelson with CAMS attempting to claim Peter's documentation of many years as being the 'intellectual property of CAMS' - but this is another story waiting to blow up).

Whilst a number of this years AMRS categories have stated they will run with the CAMS 2006 National Series, this left AMRS with only two basic potential drawcard categories - The Australian Touring Car Challenge (to use it's legally registered title which was something else CAMS refused to recognise) and Formula 4000 (which will shortly be re-named by its promoters).

All along Garry and Rod (Dale - the only other AMRS director after Richard McLeans 'resignation' two weeks ago) have wanted the AMRS to run categories that CAMS no longer wanted or should we say CAMS didn't like. Generally these were categories for exotic cars (Le Mans proptotypes, sports cars), categories they wanted to control too much (Historic Touring with the option to permit the car owners to sell advertising space on their cars), or simply couldn't be bothered with (too hard).

With this in mind, the discussions between AMRS and CAMS then came down to what other categories could be run - and when these non-CAMS 'approved' style categories were added to the mix it was generally agreed that the AMRS would be a suitable arena for them to go and race - without attracting the wrath of CAMS (sounds like the name of a good Star Trek movie).

So the 2006 AMRS series was born - with tacit CAMS approval - although, at this stage, they won't come out and say so - whilst they don't like or approve of AASA, they have grudgingly agreed that the AMRS , by moving to AASA sanctioning, has helped move a festering problem away from CAMS and this will allow CAMS to continue doing what they do best - banking the money they want to keep rolling in. They have also (quietly we should add) agrred that AASA race meetings are meeting a hole that CAMS have not been able to fill - that is the level opf racing required prior to the ultra-competitive national and state level series - what you and we would call 'club racing'.

BUt overall, what categories does this mean the AMRS can expect to have at its meetings?

Whispers suggest, apart from the SATCC and F4000 (rebadged with Holden support we should add - contrary to previous reports Holden have NOT withdrawn engine support for the category - this was a 'rumour' with behind the scenes dirty work by certain Dandy Road CAMS employees to prevent the category from going anywhere), a sports car class, Historic Touring, HQ's/Kingswoods and modified production cars are currently high on the list of categories.

The interesting part of all this - whispers we are hearing is that AMRS are not approaching anyone to take part in the series - the various categories are approaching Garry and Rod to take part - in other words - the categories recognise the potential of a lower cost series that isn't run by beaurocrats sitting in an office in Melbourne - many of whom have not attended anything other than a V8 or F1 meeting for the past few years.

It will be interesting to see how the category progresses - now that the Directors of AMRS have shed some weight and removed a major source of 'conflict of interest' from the series, they just have to work hard on their administration side (the current incumbant causing many problems around the various circuits) and they should then be able to move forward at a rapid rate of knots. Garry and Rod have been working hard, from all reports, to get this series moving ahead - those that have seen the 2006 schedule will note that the SATCC is scheduled for Queensland Raceway - whispers from up north suggest that any animosity between Garry and John Tetley were resolved recently and everything that was bad has been put behind them so they can move forward with a, possibly, successful series.

[hml2777]

A great deal of information to digest there Storline, but a whortwhile read.

Let's ALL hope that some common sense wil prevail and a good race series is the end result. We do need alternative race series's in Australia. There is currently too much focus on the V8's.

[storyline]

With luck this may be the start of the 'breakthrough' many have been hoping for in the continuing 'battle' between CAMS and AASA. It took a fair bit of time and plying of 'incentives' to some of my sources to be able to piece all of that together - but the underlying feeling was one of 'At last - let's do it!'