Drama continued off-track, as the Tribunal of Inquiry led by Lord Shawcross into the 1983 protests finally reported, after a fourteen-day hearing.
Sensationally, the Inquiry found that the Rovers did contravene Group A regulations in 1983,
and excluded them from the results of all meetings subsequent to 29th May 1983 (Now you can see why I haven't added to the 1983 thread yet, even though I've got at least a couple of race reports...
)
TWR were fined £10k plus £90k costs (they'd already paid nearly 50 grand in costs after withdrawing an injunction against the MSA in March. What was that comment by Jon Dooley earlier in the season about ARG's legal budget being more than 4 times his racing budget....?
The summing up stated
'We fear the case is indicative of the dangers arising from the strong commercialisation of all forms of sport. Today such very large sums of money hinge in one way or another upon the results of the competition, that some contestants go out to win almost by hook or by crook, and much ingenuity is devoted to getting around or beating the rules or concealing conscious departures from them. We can only hope that this grave case will discourage others from doing likewise'
The MSA announced that there would be changes in 1985's Championhip Regulations to ensure that future eligibility disputed could be dealt with more effectively.
Performance Car commented that they'd recently had a 'long, interesting and very revealing' conversation with ARG Motorsport boss John Davenport in which he expressed grave disappointment that the Inquiry hadn't commented on the MSA's handling of the dispute, in spite of it's obvious failings. Unfortunately they didn't reveal any further details, as
'Alas, the laws of libel prevent us repeating much of what was said'
PC commented that this was the biggest chasm between competitors and administrators- the competitors practiced their sport in a 'professional' manner, while the administrators preferred to administer in an 'amateurish' way....