Panoz sues Adelaide Organizers

[Heeltoe6]

Reports indicate Panoz is suing former South Australia premier John Olsen, the South Australia Tourism Commission and the Motorsports Board for compensatory damages($18 million) after the organizers cancelled the Adelaide event after only one event of a nine-race contract.

http://www.speedvision.com/pub/artic...d/011115b.html

[Liz]

I would bet on Don Panoz -- either your name on the contract or your brains! Oh wait, that was Don Corleone.

Anyway, if I were Australia, I'd try to settle this really fast.

[Dr. Austin]

Maybe they should just have the race. It was a smashing success and the people of Adelaide just loved it. So did the drivers and crews. It was the year's biggest party and everyone wants to go back.

There is talk of using the Melborne F-1 circuit at Albert Park. That is sooooooo much nicer of a facility that it would be good for everyone. Panoz is detirmined to race in Australia, so don't bet against another race happening as soon as next season.

[Liz]

I hope they do! With the Aussie dollar at 42 cents US, what a bargain that would be.

And it would give me a chance to visit again one of my very favourite countries, meet a bunch of 10-Tenthers, and track down Geoff Brabham maybe.

BACK TO AUSTRALIA, DR. PANOZ!

[KC]

From what I heard, the crowd was large, especially for a non F1 event and a non-Australian series. I can imagine that a good portion of the city's businesses in hotels and restaurants did a booming business. The municipality probably drew a huge tax from all the money being spent, but somehow they deemed it as not financially viable. By contract, the event cannot be moved for the next 9 years. So I would thinkhtat the manin focus of the suit is to place blame on one side or the other so that the contract can be nullified. As of now, the contract was for 9 events, and no other ALMS event can be had in Australia during that time.

[racer69]

Apparently what i heard happened down here was that that the event was very popular here, and because there is also an Adelaide 500 V8 Touring Car race, run by a pack of a******es who think they are the greatest in the world, put pressure on the SA government to cancel the event, which they did, which was a huge shame, i was too young to remember the World Sportscar Championship races at Sandown in 84 & 88, and last years was pretty good. Hopefully it can be brought back to Australia soon.

[Ray Bell]

Agree with that... but I wouldn't count on it being at Albert Park (that inner suburb of Melbourne, some 600km from Adelaide), or any other existing venue.

Bathurst would be logical, but has a limit on the number of events to be held each year, the Gold Coast would never get it. You can bet that if (and I do think it's possible) it was Cochrane and the V8 mob's pressure that bore on the SA Gov't then they will pounce on anyone who wants to run such a race.

Moreover, this thought raises the possibility that the court case might be a sham, not to nullify the contract, but to allow the Gov't to say to Cochrane, "Well, they took us to court and had us over a barrel... we have to run it."

Liz, 52c at the moment, it's never been below 48 point something - ever.

[Liz]

Sorry, Ray, that is the Kiwi dollar that's at 42 cents. But 52 cents is still better than ours.

Do you thinkt here is a real chance the race will return to Adelaide?

[Ray Bell]

That's all in the laps of the gods, and the gods are the elected officials... do you ever know which way they'll bounce?

Was a great event, sure am glad I didn't miss it...

[Splatz the Cow]

Well well hello I'm back again and a good time too with this thread up.

I've been away with internet account teat sensitivities and udder problems.... da da dum!

Living in Adelaide and being a fairly well informed motorsport nut who went to the Adelaide Le Mans event, I feel qualified to through my two cents of knowledge your way.

The cancellation had little to do with the event, and more to do with politics. South Australian Premier, John Olsen was trying to garner much needed support for his party and mainly himself. Earlier in the year he had made a number of huge bungles; Nurses wanted more money, and hospitals needed more nurses and more beds. Olsen's solution was to quit the Le Mans series while he was only a few million in the red, and use the money that was promised to the Le Mans series future, to fund the nurses wage increase, additional nurses, and beds. The beauty of this for him, was that he immediately blamed the nurses for forcing this result, turning public rath against those selfish, overpaid, underworked, rolling-in-money nurses, (sarcasm.)

The hospital crisis was made worse from his previous stupidity earlier in the year. We kicked and screamed, but nobody can hear you scream - when you're blue in the face!!

So that's how Adelaide lost their race again - due to politics. Only the Le Mans was far more successful than any F1 GP in Adelaide or Melbourne, regarding impact on the city, set up time etc. The Le Mans race also drew more overseas ticket paying patrons than any Oz GP so far, all at its first attempt.

My respect for Don Panoz is a reflection of what he did for Adelaide and the patience he showed with the stoogers here.

Sorry about the War and Peace version but this issue hits a nerve here in Adelaide. They say once bitten twice shy....well that's the second race we've lost now...!!!!!

We've got a couple of rally stages in Adelaide now. What do yo reckon...give it another 10 or 12 months?



From a (still) white-hot angry voter.