Historic Winton 26 & 27 May

[inpitlane]

Rachel,
Our coverage of Phillip Island has nothing to do with whether or not it's my favourite track but more to do with commercial reality.
We have a sponsorship agreement in place with the All Seasons Resort and that sponsorship is based on us covering all meetings at PI apart from V8's MotoGP and World Superbikes.
This deal was in fact brokered by the Bass Coast Shire Council who appreciated the exposure that grass roots racing at the Island was getting from In Pit Lane and the fact that it was bringing more people into the area.
We have said before that we treat Winton as interstate purely because of the huge costs involved in us filming there.
If someone up at Winton could cover the $1200 per camera per weekend that it costs us to film there then we'd happily be there every race.
Also as much as I hate the fact that there was a clash, I don't see why it should be CAMS responsibility to assist the successful running of a race meeting run by the AASA, who are their competitors.
I know that the Historic Winton has been on that weekend for decades but times change and tradition and $3.50 will buy you a cheap cup of coffee.
There's nothing major on locally this weekend so why not move it there.
Like I said I love the meeting, and the fact that I had to go to the Island also cost me personally as I was supposed to cover it for Auto Action.
The only way to solve this mess is to stick with strict date selection criteria as used to be the case in the past..
1. AGP & V8 Supercars set their dates
2. Other CAMS National Series then set their dates
3. CAMS State Series set their dates (trying to avoid clashes where possible)
4. Other 1 off meetings (Historics, Island Magic, Muscle Car Masters etc set their dates.
5. Everything else takes what's left.
If AASA choose to run their meetings on the same weekends than that's their decision.
This approach of course requires something called strong leadership, and as we know the words strong leadership and CAMS are mutually exclusive.