Ship shape Procar

Copeland, Cowley and Edwards gone, now it seems Brian Lawerance has departed! What's the future of Procar?

[Ross Palmer]

Ship Shape ! just like your post.
For the first time in 8 years [since Procar was conceived]I have decided to take on the role of CEO.
Anew Chief operating officer will be appointed in February for PROCAR which seems to be operating much more effectively under the stewardship of a much smaller team,with team being the operative word.
For myself I am quite experienced having built a small backyard "tube mill" into a multinational operation.
I have been around motorsport for 30 years and am quite committed to PROCAR given that my group has committted the capital for all these years for firstly the good of the sport and secondly in the hope that we are building a viable business.
In terms of achievements .
In 1995 PROCAR started with just 9 teams in the Australian Production Car championship as a support for TOCA.
In 2004 PROCAR has grown to the extent that well over 200 teams will compete at our own stand alone events.
Over the years we have of course faced a few obstacles and a few knockers,but I seem to have run into those types throughout my whole life.
A new media and sponsorship arm PRISM is taking a lot of the workload from PROCAR and our new initiative "formula green" [check it out at www.formulagreen.com ] has recieved enthusiastic support from car manufacturers and potential licensees in other countries.
I am off to NZ tomorrow with Peter Brock to meet with government representatives to put in place the finishing touches for our first overseas round at Lake Taupo New Zealand in October 2004.
The final round of GTP ,V8 BRutes,F3 and the APCC will be held there [with transport costs fully funded through sponsorship,and full details of the event posted at www.formulagreen.com in the next few days].
As for Nations Cup it is growing from strenght to strength and we can see at least 16 Group One teams in the series this year with the announcement this week of 2 new teams .
Team Brock [2 monaros 2 V8 Brutes and 2 F3 cars]
Ralf Rupprect from South Australia is definitely fielding 1 new Mosler and there is a better than 90% chance that he will run 2 cars.
The Bathurst 24 hour has just completed it,s second year with increased crowds and a longer live television package .
Overseas press attending the event are singing the praises and no more than Malcolm Cracknell from www.dailysportscar.com are thouroughly impressed with the way the event was run this year,claiming that it was world class.[Cowley and Copeland were not at the event,and unfortunately Chris had announced a few weeks earlier that he was going to work for TEGA and could no longer be a part of the team.]
As for Brian Lawrence he was an outside contractor with a year to year contract which the board decided not to renew.
Procar and PRISM are hiring new "TEAM PLAYERS and you will see the "hiring advertisements" on the Procar website at www.procar.com.au home page top right hand corner.
In 2 days we have recieved over 30 applications for one position with another position to be posted [for marketing administration being posted next week].
Unfortunately Brian did not take his "non renewal" of contract all that well and instead chose to spread scurrilous rumours to teams about the company which were quite false and actually frankly speaking downright lies.
We are examining our options in terms of redress and have communicated to our teams rebuttals of quite strong proportions.
In other words we will probably sue his "everliving arse".
It is unfortunate that in a world of positives that some people choose to take the negative approach to try and pull down something that is obviously good and I hope that some time soon he stops the bad mouthing and gets on with his life,and I can,t be more frank than that.
Oh and by the way White Knight what was the gist of your post?
I am just curious did someone put you up to this or did you dream it up by yourself?

[TheGspot]

Great post Ross, Good luck with it all.
Rumour is that Peter Boylan joins the procar board, the new CEO possibly.

[pete55]

Well Ross, now when i complain i know i'll be reaching the top floor. I hope sensible decisions are made regarding the categories and they go on to become really sucessful. For a start how about getting rid of the stupid rolling starts for GTP, i'm sure you can do better than that. And get in and really promote F3 too.
All the best.

[GTRMagic]

Knowing the scale of Mr Boylan's business, I doubt it is in a situation where he could leave it to run another entity (PROCAR) in a hands on role for a year or more without putting added management in his own operation.

As Ross is aware, i have been a big fan of where PROCAR has gone in the past, the cars and the events, but it seems there are still obvious some management issues which are now being addressed.

It is the best option for Ross to be CEO of his baby, its his dream that is being realised, and I too would struggle to allow that dream to be run by other people in a hands-off manner.... especially given the last little while where things have not been totally smooth sailing financially or operationally.

Here's hoping we site here in a year's time with the category stronger than ever, with competitors who understand, accept and are behind the processes PROCAR puts into place, and are continuing to invest in the category

[CooperS79]

Peter Boylan is a fantastic bloke and has put alot into motorsport especially the PROCAR categories over the years. If he was to become part of the PROCAR team im sure he would do a great job.

[Chucky]

All I wanna know is, where are PB's F3's going to come from?

[pete55]

Ross, Seeing that it seems that Qld. Raceway are not going to sign with CAMS, are Procar going to hold a meeting at that circuit. There are also other circuits that may not sign also and i guess the situation is the same.

[pete55]

Sheesh, i'll have to remember to ask easier questions.

[RaceTime]

Don;t expect an answer from Ross for a while - he is off to NZ tomorrow and probably the INternet is the last thing on his mind right now...

[deeks6]

As an avid motorsports follower who will watch 2 guys sluggingit out at a club meet in Datsun 1600s, I have to say that the PROCAR races are the best and most entertaining. With Moslers coming, Nations cup looks great again...and the cars are all different! Would be good to get some Jap cars in too...

If we could get a contract out on Cochrane, any chance you could take over V8SC, Ross?

maybe then we could get rid of the stupid compulsory stops, stupid penalties, control tyres etc. etc. and get some new shapes in there...but I digress

[TSR]

Mr Palmer I am looking forward to the 04 Procar series, with the addition of the Mosler I hope the series is one of close racing, considering that is what us the fans pay for, so let's go racing.

[pete55]

Interesting new board they have.

[Ross Palmer]

Yes check the "Procar New Board " out in the forum section at www.procar.com.au

[TSR]

Originally posted by deeks6


If we could get a contract out on Cochrane, any chance you could take over V8SC, Ross?

maybe then we could get rid of the stupid compulsory stops, stupid penalties, control tyres etc. etc. and get some new shapes in there...but I digress [/B]

Keep wishing deeks6

[Ross Palmer]

Avesco run a good show.
It,s fair to say that TC and I have different points of view in a number of areas,but that doesn,t detract from the fact that we are all in motorsport and we all are doing our best at the commercial end to lift the profile.

[TSR]

Are you returning our msg's form NZ

[Ross Palmer]

See my post on the PROCAR forum re our position which is neutral to the whole political scene.
forum thread "who has signed" www.procar.com.au

[TSR]

I thought you were in NZ Mr Palmer doing buisness, must not to busy that you can reply here

[Grimace]

Ross Palmer deserves accolades for getting on this website and telling the paying fans "the way it really is in PROCAR",

you dont see this from other category chiefs anywhere to my knowledge!!!!

[jetsetter]

It's certainly looking good for Procar this year with increased fields in all the categories.

Sorry Mr Palmer, no, nobody has put me up to starting this post. I very much admire your championship series and its role as an alternate program. But I am concerned that there are rumours flying around that a lot of the settlements have not been finalised from the Bathurst 24-Hour. The airwaves are suggesting that only the Bathurst City Council are completely happpy because they demanded upfront. Patch these with the recent Procar departures and one can only wonder!!!!

[Ross Palmer]

Let us just say this !
What goes round comes round,and money is one of those things.
Re Bathurst City council you are incorrect.No one demands anything from PROCAR.Contracts are put in place and obligations are met as incomings meet outgoings.
In case you hadn,t noticed Australia has been on holidays and it seems that more money is owed to PROCAR than PROCAR owes to others.
It,s called terms of trade my friend.
Previous management were deliberately trying to confuse the board,with missing and irregular contracts,deleted important emails,and in some cases verbal contracts with no correspondence.
A number of key suppliers have overcharged or underdelivered. A number we have written to and have asked to resubmit and resubstantiate their claims as the paper trail is incomplete.
The Palmer Group does stamd behind it,s subsidiaries and PROCAR is a small part of that group.
We are however not a "milking cow" and I might suggest that for the source of the problem you contact the four people you mentioned and ask them if they carried out their duties in an honest and trustworthy manner given that you seem to know the internal politics of PROCAR intimately.
One informed us that he was leaving to work for TEGA and was caught photocopying sensitive customer supplier lists on the day of his departure,
Another was deliberately undermining the credibility of the PROCAR organization from May last year and at the same time informing teams that I was nuts, Procar was f***^^ and disseminaring erroneous information into Europe while at the same time approaching myself on 3 occasions asking if I would sell the business.This same gentleman is the Chairman of another Motorsport organization that submitted a false claim for $90,000 for television images at INDY that didn,t exist due to bomb hoaxes that cancelled a race ,shortened races and substandard night images . The same gentleman told us that it was impossible to reschedule a cancelled Nations Cup race on the Sunday morning of INDY when from 9am to 12 noon in which time the race could have been reschedled nothing of signifcance other than a V8 Supercar warm up and on track entertainment was taking place.
Procar is still investigating the circumstances and at the very least there appears to be a major damages claim against GMEC according to the reading of our contract.A large number of our teams had national and international sponsors who had paid good money for corporate boxes to see the cars perform and make sponsorship decisions for 2004.
Pirelli,Bridgestone and Mobil were just a few of the organizations turning up to see a non existant race that should have been rescheduled.A number of these people I have spoken to would not go back to INDY again given that because of the downpour ,cancelled and shortened PROCAR races the only tral racing on the day was 1 V8 Supercar race.
Another found a job with a sponsor [after being shown the door] in a key executive position and that sponsor renegged on a contract with us which meant that we were milked and they got a near free ride.
Amother is being investigated for "kickbacks" involving international aitftright of teams to the 24 hour.
Fortunately there are some honest people in this world and the key staff who remain together with our "new board" and the new employees who are being vetted for ethics and morality in previous employ will take this business to new heights.
Yes there have been glitches and that is why I have stepped into the role of CEO [which is right considering that I am the owner],given that I was asked to give the management a "fair go" in October of 2002 as I was disruptive,to trust that they would meet their budgets amd not to worry about the "day to day" as they had it under control.
The NAB had "rogue traders" and PROCAR had "rogue raiders".
It,s a sickening feeling when you confront and face up to the ugky side of human nature.
As reiterated earlier PROCAR is a small part of the Palmer Group and our other businesses are soundly managed with loyal employees who respect the system which is fair to them and fair to us.
In 30 years in business I have always met my obligations and the same "substantiated obligations" will be met here once the legitimate claims have been substantiated.
I do invite anyone within the "motorsport fraternity" who are prepared to supply information as to irregularities when dealing with PROCAR over the last 18 months to come forward and help us clean up once and for all.
At times there seems to be a notion that we are some sort of charity or not for profit organization.That will change ubder the "new board and mangement".
As for the future of PROCAR you can judge that for yourselves from where I sit it has never looked better now that some honesty is coming back into the organization.
I hope that this clears the matter up for yourself and also for other interested parties.
When misinformation is spread on the "airwaves" as you call them it is sometimes very expedient to dispense with diplomacy and double speak and say it "how it is".
I think that this post has attempted to address the real situation.
If all of the above seems to be "sour grapes" then you are right.
Procar is looking forward to a bigger nad better 2004 and would quickly like to get behing it some of the unsavouries of 2003

[TheGspot]

Ross,
F.......ck tell it how it is. Good for you. I personally wish the board and all involved the best for 2004 and beyond. Can you go back and help Dick also, he was actually a force when he had your support. Just kidding

[DaveOrama]

Up nice and early this morning Ross. And with brain in gear.....