Cochrane's big head

[Morris 1100]

Want to see the best thing that Tim ever did? Look at Schenkens last formula 1 start and see what happened He didn't qualify for the race so he started from pit lane anyway and eventualy got black flaged for his efforts Talk about lack of judgement and contempt for officials. Maybe thats why he got out of F1, they kicked him out

[Ray Bell]

Why, exactly, should Tim lay claim to any Australian FF Championship?

From memory, he was in England already when FF started here. Richard Knight was our first champion, followed by Mike Stillwell... or was Larry Perkins next? Anyway, that was 1970, and he was already there, as discussed above...

Tim is pleasant, nice to talk to, knowledgeable etc, but like everyone from the CAMS head office he is above the rest of society at times.

The thing that gets to me about Cochrane is that he's not even a motor racing person, as far as I know.

Sports Administration has become a career, so we get all these people administering motor racing after clawing their way up the ladder in surf lifesaving, badminton or little athletics...

Can't work it out at all...

Check this out, from the Historic Racing Newsletter:

IN EARLY August CAMS announced an ‘across the Board’ increase in permit fees ranging from 4% to
slightly over 10%, with the higher figures being applied to rallying. Once again the reason given was
“insurance” and, although plausible, there could also be myriad other reasons. If one considers the overall
financial situation, there are strong indications that all is not well.
Many of the reasons have been ‘self inflicted’ by the Administration; eg. the engagement of high-salaried
staff has pushed CAMS wages bill up to the $3m mark (from $2m a couple of years ago) without any
perceived increase in activity to justify the need!
Add to this the loss of income as a result of ‘selling off the farm’ to AVESCO and the fact that portion of
the money achieved (but under the terms of the ‘sale’ not necessarily received) is being held by the AMSC
who claim it is ‘theirs’ and they intend to put it into the CAMS Foundation. The way things are going at the
moment, maybe CAMS should be the next recipient of a Foundation grant!
Level 2 licence Increases Not Approved!
The financial problems were clearly evident from the moment the AVESCO debacle occurred. In order
to avoid a negative budget, the submission to the Board last November contained an horrific fee increase to
Level 2 licences - an option not approved by the Board. Several other attempts were made, but still the Board
preferred a reduction in expenses rather than the licence fee increase.
This power struggle between the CEO and the Board continued until March - by which time the task of
presenting a budget should have been much easier, as the CAMS year, which runs from January to
December, was well under way - and the Board compromised with a lesser increase to level 2 and the
acceptance that the newly created Mercedes-Benz Driver Training scheme may earn some money. At that
point it was stated that the budget would produce a modest surplus of some $85,000.
Three months later a revised forecast for year’s result produced a negative in the order of some $200,000.
In a space of just three months CAMS had discovered it would be losing projected income (or suffering from
increased costs) at the rate of $100,000 per month - a $300,000 negative variation to a budget on which the
ink was hardly dry!
* * * * * * *
WE CAN only hope that the position does not further deteriorate, as already the CAMS has the potential for
a sizeable legal bill as a result of an ACCC Enquiry.
As usual this is something that should never have happened. It stems from the Administration refusing to
cooperate with MPG (promoters of truck racing), who requested CAMS to sanction their Extreme Utes to
race at their truck meetings. For once the Board was aware of its obligations under the Trade Practices Act
and instructed CAMS CEO Peter Hansen to consult further with MPG. You wonder why this was necessary,
as after all Hansen has his own ‘inhouse’ legal counsel.
Whatever the reason it was apparently not done, as MPG proceeded with their complaint to the ACCC
and now Hansen has appointed an outside QC to respond and if this response is contrary to the ACCC
attitude there could well be conflict.
* * * * * * *
IF THEY ever produce another CAMSreport it will no doubt tell you that rising star, James Courtney, who
now works for the Jaguar Team, received a CAMS Foundation grant of $25,000. This followed a meeting in
Melbourne of the Foundation Directors, who came from all over Australia to make their deliberations. One
can’t help thinking that if they’d conferred via a phone hook-up, the savings gained would have raised the
Courtney grant to, say, $30,000 or perhaps enabled a $5,000 grant to someone else.
We’ve been told that Clubs are also eligible, but I am not aware that the protocol for submitting claims
has ever been circulated other than on the Internet, which requires a most rigorous procedure, including the
submission of a three or four year business plan. On this latter point CAMS would render itself ineligible, for
a Foundation grant, as they themselves do not have such a plan!
* * * * * * *
THE CAMS magazine has historically been an ‘inhouse’ production of the Marketing/PR Department under
the auspices of John Benson, known to the Historic fraternity as a competitor in a Formula Ford. Following
the arrival of CEO Hansen, Benson was pursuaded to leave the organisation, but was given the magazine to
produce under some form of contract - or, to use the popular buzzword, it was ‘outsourced.’
Under this new arrangement a much more expensive head marketing bod was appointed, while the
outsourced magazine continued to improve in both editorial and advertising content. So much so, it would
seem that for the first time revenue gained would now cover production costs.
The fly in the ointment was that the greatly increased salaries paid to the restructured Marketing
Department has left no money available to post out the magazine to Clubs and Club members and that is why
its appearance is so infrequent - oh dear!
* * * * * * *
MEANWHILE - like the previous year - last year’s financials have not yet appeared. I seem to remember
that in July 2000 Hansen gave a firm commitment that the 2000 financials would not be delayed until the
following July like the 1999 reports. He was right - here it is August and there is still no sign of the 2000
reports! No wonder he has such problems with the budget.
* * * * * * *
PERHAPS the only positive thing I can report is that CAMS has applied to the Government for an exemption
to allow historic cars to still use Avgas - as with the similar exemption for aircraft. This is to avoid the ban
effective January next year.
BRUCE POLAIN

[RaceTime]

Ray,

Apologies - for some reason I assumed (don't say it!) that Schenken was an early recipient of the Formula Ford Championship title - I should have know better!

[Brock]

Vandas. I have had dealings with Schenken at times over the years and I stand by what I said. In the old days when you went to race control at Bathurst and you were not from one of the very few top teams you were you were ignored until he saw fit to deal with you and then it was as if you where wasting his time. You treat people in this life the way you yourself are treated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Crash Test]

You've gotta love some of the factual reporting in many of the Historic Newsletters going around, not many clubs out there are prepared to report the facts.

By the way, I have 'acquired' a copy of the 2000 Annual report....it was dated July 2001, but even then it wasn't out until last month. There are some interesting points in it, i'll have to dig it out some time.

[racer69]

The idiot is at it again in this weeks AA. Whats next, he'll try and tell the Vic gov't that they would be better off with V8s than F1, or he'll tell the royal's in Monaco to replace the GP with a V8 street race, or he'll try to get the ACO to run the Le Mans 24 hours for V8s. At least IMG aren't supporting him on this Indy thing, even Geoff Jones admitted there is currently no growth and the ratings aren't great. When will he take the hint.

[aaaahhhhhhh]

Chochrane this week in Auto Fiction saying that he is sick of the V8's being treated like ****. Strange thats exactly how he treats most the other classes in Australian Motorsport

[elephino]

What I found odd about that was that Tony said Indy should look at the GP to how the V8s should be treated when just last year he was saying how badly F1 were treating him. Now, I didn't really notice any difference in the V8 area at Albert Park this year.

[marcus]

ahhh please this guy has go to go...who the heck does he think he is ...Don King?

he even stated that "they are not some dumb ass series that has blown in for the weekend"

ohh yeah statements like that are gonna get ya back to Indy Tony...oh hang on ...Indy ...Tony ??? anybody see any connections here


to use someone elses comments "what a clown ..we would be better off having a trained monkey in charge"

I think we should all write to Avesco and complain about him and the way he is giving V8's a bad name by shooting off his mouth.

[Vandas]

AVESCO aren't going to do much. They are an 8 man operation running out of the SEL offices in Brisbane.

Word is Cochrane was big at IMG. He broke away with a partner to form SEL. SEL is a partial owner of AVESCO. I am not 100% certain that all of this is true, but no one has told me otherwise.

CAMS lost control of V8 Supercars, because a former head of CAMS did not sign a legal document outlining the ownership etc. Anyway when CAMS and AVESCO went to court awhile back CAMS were screwed because the paper was not signed by either party, meaning that legally it didn't exist.

If you wanna get rid of Cochrane you have to turn your back on him and his sport. We do not want this so much because we like the V8 Supercars. They are a classy show with some good racing.

Therefore we have to wait until the 5 year cycle comes around and the supercars are not the go anymore. Or we support PROCAR and build a category the likes of which Australia has not seen for many years.

It is tough because a person like Cochrane did not get to their position of power without knowing how to evade being axed.

Therefore I put a question to you all, How do we get rid of Cochrane?

[RaceTime]

Originally posted by Vandas
Therefore I put a question to you all, How do we get rid of Cochrane?

Convince AVESCO that they should stage their first race outside the Australiasian area in Afghanistan.

[racer69]

I don't think sending emails to AVESCO will do it, won't they all go to him first.

How about letters in magazines, complain about him on radio shows, Banners at V8 races bagging him.

[marcus]

Originally posted by RaceTime


Convince AVESCO that they should stage their first race outside the Australiasian area in Afghanistan.

"Welcome back to mount fullofrubble for the start of the Taliban 1000"


hmmm sounds interesting

[Crash Test]

I suppose the pre-race millitary fly over would be easy to arrange...