Bob Barnard Track Engineering

This is a great old English expression that relates to the once a year parade through the City of London with big crowds and lots of horses. Right behind the parade come the men picking up the trash and the you-know-what. That is how the next few days felt. We had to clean up the track, but we also had to clean up our act and add up the cost. The traffic jam made big news of course and our marketing people were already worried about the effect on next year’s sales, no one cared why the traffic had been held up. They did not seem to care about it though as we sold $250,000 of tickets for the 1990 race the day after this one. There was an advance booking form in the program and lots of people took advantage of it. Not that it did us any good, our friends at BASS refused to release the money, and by the time they would we did not want to take it as the sponsors were by then saying the teams were not coming back.

The TV ratings were exceptional, so Channel 9 were very happy, they knew they had a great product here. PBL were not so happy as we owed them a bunch of money, the price of success. To be fair they never stopped working for us and were very patient, until in the end they lost patience with the ACCA, but that was two years of struggle away yet. John Cain was to describe me as a great entrepreneur but a bad businessman. He would be correct, no businessman would have taken this on, and he would have quit much earlier. We had met with the Minster of Sport, who along with the Premier had written letters of congratulations with assurances that things will be smoother from now on, and we had let them know that we would need some assistance if we were to get through the next few months until sponsorship and ticket income kicked in.

Noel and Rod were out beating the bushes for some finance to cover the capital works, but 1989 was like we are today in 2010, there was a recession and no one was lending anyone anything. We thought that Elders might come up with it, and as they were associated with Carlton United Brewery perhaps if we had Fosters as a sponsor that might have worked out. As it was, no. Our friends down on the Island continued their “help.” It seems that the income from the GP was great, just do not give us the noise the rest of the year. The Planner Joshi came up with the section in the zoning for the track that did not specifically allow testing, so told us we could not book time for teams to test. We noticed it did allow “Time Trials” which were defined as a vehicle being timed around the track, and changed our booking forms to nominate time trials and not testing. He also took exception to us clearing some of the native bushes around the hay barn, and started legal action against us. This was a clump of shrubbery around a fallen down shed with brambles growing through, and fortunately we had the photos to prove it, but it all took time and money, and was a distraction we did not need. The Islanders were annoyed when I later said we had not received much support, but most of them had no idea what we were being subjected to.

The EPA then stepped in with a noise limit. At that time in Australia, and it may still be the same, there was a very stupid basis for limiting noise on race tracks. It was 5dba above the background noise at the nearest structure. So when we built Eastern Creek next to a Freeway 80dba was fine, but here in rural PI the background was 45dba, trees rustling level. It is crazy, you cannot ask car or motorcycle owners to change their exhaust system for every track they go to. Mind you, the houses had been built ten years after the track, but since when did that stop anyone complaining? The locals asked us to let them know when we had “quiet” weekends when a road based car club, BMW for instance, would be at the track, so they could arrange to have friends down and sit outside. No problem, we published a schedule in the local paper a month or so in advance. Within six months it became “how dare you tell us when we can have a quiet weekend!”

Back to our money woes. Goodsports, the clothing company from Adelaide, had made our officials shirts for us, and a great job they did too. They had been bought out by the Adelaide GP Office, taking everything in-house remember? So when the bill was not paid guess who was first through the door with a wind-up notice? David Eckart arranged a lunch for Mal and I at Ayers House on May 1, where Mal offered to buy the event. I should have said yes, but we had fought too long to give up now, and although he was offering to have us run it, I knew from past experience how that was going to end up. Perhaps I should have let him have it, and he could fight the Victorian Government, who I’m sure would have been delighted to have a South Australian Government entity running a race in Victoria.

We definitely felt we were fighting the Victorian Government, attacks seemed to come from all sides and various Departments. Our “friends” at the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation had not been amused by the success of the tobacco promotion called the Motorcycle Grand Prix, and were back talking to us about obtaining a “paint out situation.” They quoted West Germany as an example, but when I went there later with Kenny there were girls giving away cigarettes at the gate, and if you’ve been there it is almost compulsory to smoke in Germany. They were inciting us to break our contracts with Rothmans and Marlboro, for which they would compensate us financially, but it was the sponsorship on the motorcycles that were the real issue as neither we nor they could influence that. I pointed out that under the sporting regulations there was nothing that gave me the power to prevent tobacco advertising on the motorcycle. Their letter of May 18^th spells this all out, and the last paragraph is telling.

“The Foundation and other health promotion agencies would also provide a strong lobby for the Grand Prix at a State Government level. The State Government would also be pleased to have the Grand Prix working in co-operation with government policy on tobacco free sport.” Message received loud and clear, just nothing I can do about it.

In mid-May I went to London and met with Andrew Marriott and his CSS partners, and went over to Dijon for the World Sportscar Round to promote the track as a winter testing venue and to look at the opportunity for a race at the Island. I met Max Mosely while he was running the Aston Martin team, and we were successful in having Toyota book two weeks of track time for early 1990. I travelled on to Hockenheim for the motorcycle GP to remind people we were around, and to catch up on all the latest politics. Moves were afoot even then to put the sport on a more professional basis and get away from the whims of the CCR. One suggestion by that group to solve the problem of first corner crashes was to go back to push starts! That would be safer, not. People may have thought I was just holidaying, spending my creditors’ money, but I had the QANTAS sponsorship airfares and it was a lot of hard, necessary work.

While all this is happening Bill O’Gorman has invited me to Sydney to meet his Father-in Law, Laurie O’Neil, of the Southern Quarries O’Neils. Small world. He has some land out at Eastern Creek, an area of mainly horse agistment and with most of the surrounding land owned by the Government. It was sort of a green space about half way out in the suburbs. Laurie was a car guy and wanted to build a decent track out there, so we put a plan and budget together and started talking to a noise consultant. It did not get very far before events overtook it. One of his friends was Rod Hunwick who was a Suzuki dealer and an up-market car dealer. Rod had brought in two Cosworth RS Sierras, the only two in Australia on the road. They were the hot race and rally car, and Rod offered me one, Laurie had bought the other. Not cheap but an exceptional car. The Brock was getting a bit tired of all the cross-country trips, and had actually broken a valve spring on my last trip to the Island, so I wanted to retire it. Noel said we could lease the Cosworth, and I took it. Probably should not have in the circumstances, and I suspect that Noel was smart enough to keep each of the partners happy by giving us “toys.” I met Chris Hall and Colin in Melbourne after picking it up, and I know they were not impressed, but they were both actually getting paid much more than me, so why not indulge myself. I suspect that both of these guys were close to the Camerons and not happy with them being ousted, but also were not aware of all the circumstances and did not have their money on the line.

June comes and there is another letter from the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria, my friend Nigel Grey, following a meeting about tobacco sponsorship. He obviously knew what the Government had in mind with new regulations as he walks me through the statutes about TV advertising and tobacco, and states “Regulations have been drafted to limit the exposure i.e. in terms of both size and time. In due course they will be processed and will apply to all sponsored events in the State of Victoria.

I think it’s fair to summarize this by saying that the amount of recognition permissible to tobacco advertisers will be extremely limited and that it will be accompanied by suitable health warnings. The effect of these regulations will certainly be to limit the attractiveness of sporting sponsorship to the tobacco industry.” Only in Australia, and if they do not come here we will just watch it on TV from China, was my response.

The letter goes on to threaten what will happen if we do not cooperate. “The Government has established a policy, strongly supported by the Premier, under which no Government support will be available for events which involve tobacco sponsorship. Given that major events such as the Grand Prix require government facilitation, and that the processes by which the Department of Youth, Sport and Recreation achieves this are rapidly improving, this issue is certainly an important one for you to ponder in the long term.” Do I need to paint you a picture? Roll over on tobacco or else. Even if I did it still leaves the problem of signage on the motorcycles, which in the end is the real problem. The actual regulations come into effect on July 18^th.

In the meantime, we have been talking with the Department of Sport about helping us with BASS and they set up meetings with the Department of Management and Budget, DMB, about a guarantee for BASS so that they will release ticket money, as was done in 1988. DMB keep setting higher and higher goals for us to achieve to satisfy them and at one point agreed that we could probably never provide what they needed. One condition was to obtain the landowner’s consent for this arrangement, goodness knows what it had to do with them, but when the asking price for the signature reached $280,000 and included an increase in rent for this “world class circuit” to $800,000 a year, we stopped negotiating. One of the last requirements was for the ACCA to provide a guarantee! This is all from a State that has just received an economic boost of $44 million by its own research.

I had taken another trip overseas, this time to Spa for the motorcycle GP, and to Paul Ricard for the F1 GP. It was a part holiday as we drove between the races having a couple of days sightseeing. In Spa Bernie, who was promoting that race, told me he was not staying but needed to talk to me in Paul Ricard. We get to Marseille and I call Bernie who says come and see me. “You’re in the bus in the paddock?” I ask. Yes. “I need a paddock pass.” “They are very hard to get,” Bernie says. He is the man who controls them, he has a drawer full. I wait, and he finally says, “I’ll see if I can leave one at the gate.” Thanks Bernie, I’m glad he wants to see me. I still sit and wait the whole event in the ante-room in the bus, along with many others, until he decides I am the next person who is important person there. It did not matter that you had sat there a week or five minutes, you were it. “You have to go and tell the Qld Government that they cannot stage a CART race, it is illegal.” CART was a National series and should not leave America is what Bernie was saying, but I told him that he needed to understand the Qld Govt., if it is illegal it is positively attractive them. “Offer them a Sportscar race” he says. Fine Bernie, I am to go and tell the Qld Govt. what they cannot do and offer them a Sportscar race, with what brief from the FIA?          

Now what were the ACCA doing all this time? They had set up the permanent office in Melbourne and hired Henry Daigle to run it as the full time Secretary. All with our money. John Thomson, David White and Henry had accompanied us to meetings with the Government to support our case. Then when we missed an installment and a payment to Jeff Sayle for his ride at the GP, did they say never mind, we understand, thanks for taking our sport from basically nowhere to one of the five biggest events in Australia and put us on the FIM map. Hell no, they gave us notice of breach of contract and thirty days to remedy it!

And what was Noel doing. Well he and Christine were divorced and he was due to marry his office girlfriend on September 2^nd.  Due to our financial problems we had done a deal with the bank to extend our overdraft by s few hundred thousand dollars, but they wanted our houses, those of us that had them, signed up as collateral. Now we go the standard line, “We are not in the real estate business, we do not want your house, it is just a sign of good faith.” Good faith was sadly lacking on their part a couple of years later when they foreclosed. But it gets better. What does Noel do with the money? He goes and buys a couple of blocks of land for he and his new wife to build a house on. This is the last straw and the other four of us vote him out. Fleetline wound up.

Somewhere around this time I sell the Elfin FJ to provide some income, and would later sell the Morgan for the same reason.

So we arrive in August, and the tobacco companies have had time to read and digest the new regulations and now understand that a “paint out” would be the result just as the Health Promotion Foundation, VHPF, wanted. IRTA advised me that the teams would not be competing at Phillip Island in 1990 on that basis. Now we certainly could not sell tickets even if we had been able. The VHPF were willing to guarantee ticket sales to BASS if we took their sponsorship. How could you guarantee sales when there is even a suspicion that the performer is not coming?

One of the key things here is the size of the Australian market for both motorcycles and cigarettes, and the sponsors were in no mood to set a precedent that would be used elsewhere, as the VHPF were already doing incorrectly with Germany. At the end of August the ACU of Victoria, David White, issued a press release that recognized that the event could be moved to another State, or lost to Australia altogether due to the Government’s actions in regard to tobacco.

I was at a loss to know where to go on this, damned if I do and damned if I don’t. I am sitting at my desk in Adelaide and a journalist who I do not recall the name of calls and suggests that I talk to Mike Ahern, Premier of Queensland. Now truthfully, I had never contemplated moving the race and did not call the Premier, but the journalist obviously called for me because I am at home Saturday morning 2^nd September when Ahern calls. Cain never called me once. “Come and see me right away.” My memory says that this was in the middle of the pilots’ strike in Australia, and Mick Porter and I jumped his SUV and we drove to Brisbane.

Monday morning we walk into an ambush in the Premier’s office, he has the press there and is announcing how he is going to bring the GP to Qld! We spend three days looking at possible sites to either rebuild a track, like Lakeside, or finish one being built like Darlington, or look at a completely new site. This did not bother us, we had built tracks quickly before. None of these really worked, and we were now getting messages that the sport was not happy with Qld, nothing about not moving, just Qld ACU was not strong on officials and workers. Bond Brewing were not keen despite owning the XXXX brand. “Motorcycle racing is too up market for XXXX.” What had we done? The tobacco sponsors were not keen either and would prefer NSW who were already becoming interested. It seems every State had woken up to the opportunity, even the Northern Territory called and I had to politely tell them not on your life. Qld had a Special Events Corporation who were already the ones working on the CART race, and the offer was to set up a joint venture with Barfield that would see our debts cleared and a fee for running the race paid to BPM. Sweet deal for us, but not sure about track and no one else wanted to go to Qld, so we did not.

September 5^th and Premier Cain is being asked questions in Parliament about possibly losing this golden goose. After a rambling recount of how good the event was, our financial problems, the economic benefit, and the new tobacco regulations he closes with these memorable statements. “When the Tobacco Bill was introduced, the government signaled that exemptions would need to be made for some international and interstate events. The cricket was one notable event that required consideration. The government believes the grand prix should be one of the events that should be examined. No one should underestimate the government’s determination to ensure that the grand prix becomes an annual event. We will ensure that that does occur.” Famous last words. As we found with John Cain a straight yes or no was impossible. Look at the statement “believes the grand prix should be one of the events that should be examined.” Should be, could be, would be, never was. This was how the dealings with Mr. Cain would go forward. To show how determined he was the “official” noise notice was served on the track the very next day.

Mick and I drove back to Melbourne where a meeting with the Deputy Premier, Steve Crabbe, had been arranged. As we were walking to the meeting Tony Sernack is on my phone telling me they want it sorted out, but I tell him he should stop hassling me, “it is only his stinking money, this is my reputation, which is much more valuable.” Tony suggests we end the conversation there. When we met Crabbe he told us there was no conspiracy against us by the various Departments, he laughed and said that they were not organized well enough to coordinate a conspiracy. The next morning we met with officials of Sport and Rec, DMB, ACCA and advisers from Cain and Crabbe. In one hour DMB’s list of requirements for guaranteeing the BASS money was reduced to three easy items – event insurance that we would have anyway, a monthly accounting, and early advice of any problems. Now wasn’t that easy? We still did not receive any cash advances, but we then met with Cain and Rob Jolley, the Treasurer, who basically said they knew nothing of all these problems, despite Sport and Rec saying they must know, and we can sort them out, including the tobacco sponsorship for the riders and the necessity of having bill boards to support that sponsorship. They did promise to look at the problems with the EPA, Liquor Licensing, and Planning.  Cain was to say later that we keep introducing new demands, but they were laid out in his letter to us following this meeting.

We drove back to Adelaide in the mistaken belief that Mondays Victorian Cabinet meeting would result in a workable arrangement, but they just gave John Cain the authority to fix it and we waited for a letter. In the meantime, we fixed the ticket launch for 14^th September. PBL had not been sitting around and had the TV commercial and poster for 1990 all ready to go. Wednesday 13^th comes and no letter, until after repeated calls we get a fax at 6pm. When it arrives it is the normal “be assured we will do anything we can to help” with an attachment with specifics, the only “specific” being the Treasurers guarantee to BASS. How absurd, you are guaranteeing a race where the performers say they are not coming, that is fraud is it not? Of course, Cain said they were bluffing, but I told him I was happy if he wanted to call their bluff with his money, but not with mine.  

The rest of it is an agreement to “discuss” tobacco exemptions, noise limits, and planning, with the information we should apply sooner rather than later. So we could no more sell tickets now than before. Rod Wallbridge wrote back to Cain on the 14^th, basically saying we thought we did discuss all these items on the 8^th and set out our requirements to resolve this and gave him a deadline of 5pm that day. I was actually in Sydney that day, courtesy of the Phillip Morris private jet, to talk to John Harvey, Premier of NSW Nick Greiner’s right-hand man about moving the race to Sydney. Cain’s response is an unsigned draft that now exempts the riders and teams but will only talk later about signage. Noise is no change, and Planning and Liquor are still to be discussed, but he reiterates “my government’s strong support for the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island,” but not necessarily run by us.

I realize now that I handled this all wrong. I had forgotten the Bus Depot issue back in my Highways times. We were trying to argue logically, where we should have done what politicians understand and motivated 100,000 emotional motorcyclists to clog the streets of Melbourne. I’m sure between the ACUV and Damien Codognotto we could have done it. As they say, “when you are up to your arse in alligators.”

Now I am sure that by now you think I am an activist in the pay of the tobacco companies. Nothing could be further from the truth, I have never smoked, I hate the stuff and would ban it completely if I had my way, but you cannot ban it in isolation as Victoria were trying to do. I was a pragmatist and told Nigel Grey that I thought it would go away soon enough in the rest of the world, but we were too small to make a difference. I also had a problem with the way the “Health” foundations treated us. They did not care one bit about us as people, what we were going through, I guess they saw us a part of the “evil empire.” I know it served their purpose, but people like Alan Hill from Rothmans and Ken Potter from Marlboro did care, and helped us survive.

Back in Melbourne that evening we met with John Thomson, David White and Henry Daigle and briefed them and exchanged information. On Friday 15^th we all met with Rec and Sport and the EPA who agreed to monitor this summer’s testing before invoking the noise regulation, and we worked through a letter to the Premier to clarify what he exactly meant in respect of signage for the event. We talked to the tobacco representatives who agreed to maintain the same level of signage, but with only the brand name, no artwork. This letter was taken to the Premier at 4pm, but we were advised the Cain could not be found. OK, we’re off to NSW. Suddenly they find him, his staff made some minor changes, but after some more prevarication Cain says he will not sign it, the billboards had to have the health warnings as 25% of the billboard. I guess he had the health lobby all over him.

We are done so return to Sydney to finalize arrangements with NSW, which included the site out at Eastern Creek that we had looked at before, except it was to be on the Government land closer to the freeway. Bill O’Gorman and CSS were involved, and a consortium put together to own the track. I think that was because I had told Harvey that I had a track in PI and did not want another, even if the government were guaranteeing the money. That was a bad decision as the consortium, which came to be Dovigo, was made up of Laurie O’Neil, Rod Hunwick, Craig Malouf, another son-in-law of Laurie’s and an attorney, and Sir Jack Brabham. The government took over Laurie O’Neils piece of dirt down the road and used it as his collateral. But they are not involved yet.

Mike Trimby calls for IRTA to say Brazil wants to change their date for the GP in 1990 to April, would we move to September 30 or October 7^th. Bathurst was on the 30^th, so we agreed to the October 7^th date as it would give us time to build Eastern Creek. Not that anyone wanted that to be the name, but it just stuck. We write officially to John Thomson on the 16^th to request that he write to the FIM and ask for a change of date and venue for the GP. After a lot of discussion between themselves they agree and the terms are received on the 19^th in a letter from Henry Daigle requesting some guarantees form the NSW Government and more money. We had as part of our deal with the NSW Govt. obtained an agreement that BPM was to be engaged to design and build the track, so we could be sure it was built to the right standard and finished on time. We could then assure the ACCA of those two important points. Just as important for us was a promise of financial aid to Barfield in the way of Government guaranteed loans. These turned out to be at outrageous interest rates, but that was Australia in 1989. It was actually like throwing a drowning man an anchor, but we were relieved at the time.

Monday 18^th though we hear that John Thomson and David White are flying up to see the site and meet with Harvey, and the ACU of NSW representatives, Robert McMurtrie the Secretary, and Ian Palmer. During the ensuing discussions back at the Parkroyal John Thomson told me I had his 100% support. I was doomed.

 We stayed in Sydney all that week working on details, which were not moving as fast as we would like, and when Premier Cain’s man came back to us with an offer of some cash flow, and formalizing the signage offer, but keeping the 25% health warning. Premier Cain asked for the weekend to finalize his offer, and we went back to Adelaide to wait. We received a fax from IRTA on Monday 25^th stating that the proposal from Victoria was not acceptable to the team sponsors and then had to consider the three offers BPM/Barfield actually had from Victoria, NSW and Qld. In reviewing these I was reminded of the problems we had at Sanctuary Cove trying to sell tickets when the media said the performer was not coming. The Qld deal was the best for BPM financially as they would share the risk, and who was going to come looking for us to be paid with a Government involved. Victoria just got us back to where we were in 1989 with no financial support and a bad signage deal and teams threatening not to come. Easy decision really as NSW was promising a new circuit, financial support in loans, no interference with commercial deals such as tobacco sponsorship, a large population and corporate base, a place sponsors wanted to be, and a thriving motorcycle organization. We advised ACCA on the 26^th to pursue our change of venue and date request, and told Victoria we were done. John Thomson was however with Mr. Apel consulting them about the assignment of the rights from BPM to Barfield. Why now when that was done last August 1988? Apel had raised it as an issue during the notice of breach of contract back in July, but we had the documents to prove it. It had no practical effect other than as a smokescreen or delaying tactic as BPM controlled Barfield 100% now.  

September 25^th Thomson had written to Nick Greiner asking for answers to what were actually statements. The letter states that before a recommendation could be sent to the FIM the following aspects need to be resolved.

Meanwhile Henry Daigle writes to Rothmans HRC and asks for comments on Trimby’s letter. A day later the Victorian Minister for Sport writes to Trimby saying we have their full support and he has been misled. He goes on to talk about the tobacco regulations and says that the changes “can hardly come as a surprise to the Companies!” Seeing as how they were a surprise to his Department I cannot see how the Companies would have known. There is no new offer in the letter, health warnings are still required on the billboards, but he assures Trimby that Bond Brewing, PBL and the residents of PI all want the event to stay! I know for a fact that PBL did not want us to give in on tobacco, they had Benson & Hedges sponsoring the cricket. He then goes on to badmouth NSW, the track will not be as good, as if he had anything to do with PI.

He was correct of course, we were on a hiding to nothing over the track. It did not matter how good Eastern Creek would be, it never would be PI, and no one knew that better than I.

Mike Trimby faxes straight back with a very polite “thanks very much, we know what has been going on and so do the sponsors, so we will support Mr. Barnard.”

September 28^th, we obtain the commission from the NSW Premier to design and construct the Eastern Creek circuit. Now I should mention that there were two parallel paths going with the NSW Government. One was the contract to build the track, the other to bring the event to Sydney. This second agreement, the initial correspondence I cannot find, hung considerably on our ability to obtain a “clean track” which means one devoid of existing commercial arrangements such as signage and sponsorship. We had our existing contracts to bring with us, and it would be impossible to fit in with anything the circuit might sell for the rest of the year. This was to be the major stumbling block with the eventual consortium, Dovigo, as when it came to agreeing a contract for the rent of the track for the GP Dovigo insisted that there was no such requirement and they could sell both signage and sponsorship. I learned much later during an ABC television interview that through the Freedom of Information Act, Dovigo’s contract with the Government did indeed say that, and that agreement predated ours, which we did not believe could have been the case. Malice or incompetence, you decide.

To facilitate the movement of the GP to Sydney by keeping Barfield afloat the NSW Government arranged for loan through the State Bank of NSW. To suit their political ends they passed the loan through CSS (Australia), Bill O’Gorman and co. The Government guaranteed the loan. The first installment of that loan came on 29^th September, and Rod and I immediately paid the pressing bills from the ’89 event. Basically what we needed was the money to cover the capital cost, $5m, which was to be the full amount.

On that same day John Harvey, on behalf of the Premier, provides the “answers” to the ACCA letter. On this basis, a circular letter is sent to the ACCA Councilors recommending that the FIM be requested to change the venue and date of the 1990 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

October 5^th, a fateful day, the Sydney Motor Show at Darling Harbour, and Nick Greiner has arranged a press conference, including Bond Brewing, so much for staying in PI, to announce the Grand Prix moving to Sydney in 1990. We are driving to the announcement and receive a call from our Adelaide office. There is a fax from Apel telling us we have no right under the contract to move from PI, and if we do not provide a written undertaking to promote the event on PI by 5pm then the contract with the ACCA is cancelled. So, cancel the press conference? I know from past experience that they can say they cancel the contract, but a court will actually decide. We are too far in now anyway. So we go ahead and at 5pm on the dot came the next fax cancelling the contract. It actually accuses us of “repudiating the contract,” which I guess gets around the 30-day remedy of breach clause. Not a good evening.

All is not lost, the ACU of NSW has some say in this. The ACCA only acts on behalf of its’ members, and NSW points out that John Thomson is acting without consulting them or the other States, so please refrain from further statements until the councilors have their say. This does not stop Apel issuing a press release, on ACCA letterhead saying we have no right to decide where to stage the race. Seeing as how we are paying for this and ACCA is not risking a cent than I would think we have every right. Unfortunately, our QC does not agree. I will not bore you with all the legal stuff, suffice it to say that as we had never contemplated running the GP anywhere but PI the contract does not address ever running it elsewhere. The only reference to PI is that we would ensure the track was ready for the GP, but the law is an ass as we know, and as it did not say you could or could not move it, the law will presume it was not meant to move! We had not consulted a QC before as we had no reason to believe that the ACCA was going to object, I had Thomson’s 100% support remember?

As an interesting side note a poll in Victoria found 62% thought John Cain to be in the wrong over tobacco and the GP. As I said, we should have mobilized that opposition.

The ACU of NSW follows up their letter of Oct 5^th with another on the 6^th, detailing at length their views on the situation, which mainly support Barfield but overall is concerned about the future of the GP, and asks for the Councilors to be fully briefed on the situation. On the same day the wonderful Victorian Minister of Sport is offering to pay the legal fees for the ACCA, and has written to the CCR Members declaring the “unequivocal support” for the GP to be staged in Victoria. Not quite “unequivocal,” it is dependent on the sponsors agreeing to health warnings. Given what happened with the ISDE when the FIM saw dissention the last thing we needed was the Victorian Government to get into the plot, and the Leader of the Opposition in Victoria issued a statement condemning the Government’s handling of the matter and jeopardizing the race for Australia.

All this is going on while we start to lay out the track and put the documents together to go to the FIM congress in Maastricht, Holland, on the 22^nd October, where the date and venue will be decided. John Thomson is busy on other matters. On the 9^th October, a summons is issued in the Supreme Court of Victoria against BPM, Barfield, and Bob Barnard personally. It goes back over any and every breach they can think of, including the rights not being assigned, which has nothing to do with anything. It goes over the non-payment of quarterly dues which by now have been paid, our “repudiation” etc.etc. in good legal fashion.

The Sponsors Association wrote to Trimby on October 9^th reiterating that they are fully aware of the Victorian Governments stance on exemptions for tobacco, and find them “inadequate and hence our position on non-attendance.” Presumably in response to the ACU of NSW suing the ACCA, God bless them, for acting unconstitutionally, a meeting of all ACCA Councilors is called for the 12^th in the offices of Mr. Apel. How convenient. They decide who can attend, and John Harvey representing the Premier of NSW is not allowed. I am allowed in to address the meeting, which takes all day, but excluded from the discussions. Having heard my side of the problems with Victoria the Councilors vote to allow me to move the race to NSW, “peace in our time.” The photos of John Thomson and I on the office steps holding an in-promptu press conference are classic body language. The lips said we are settled, the bodies said I hate your guts. And it was far from settled, as in classic political maneuvering a committee was appointed to work out the details of the settlement, most councilors had to go back home to work. See where this going? Lose the battle, win the war.

Apel makes sure negotiations go on, and on, and change. The Councilors are concerned that the committee is not doing what they thought, and Apel sends a nice “shut up” fax to them. Who is running this Council and on whose behalf? Remember who recommended them to the ACCA, the Government. The “peace” was to be settled by each party dropping the legal action and a revised contract being drawn up. I spent over five hours in Apel’s office on the 13^th, without an agreement, in fact they wanted an agreement for only the next two years, impossible. On the Monday 16^th, remember Maastricht is the 22^nd, we wrote to all the Councilors pointing out these delaying tactics and a usurping of the decisions they had made on the Thursday. We did receive a draft agreement from Apel that day which contained a number of unacceptable clauses. These included a payment to the ACCA of $100,000 by next Friday 20th. It had several odd clauses about how the future location of the race was to be decided, and it also asked for personal guarantees from two people who were no longer involved with Barfield and reserved the right to add more conditions. There were too many clauses to go in to, so we wrote to the councilors again setting out the problems with the agreement. By the 19^th our solicitors had still not had a response to our problems with their draft, and so we again wrote to the councilors, our only avenue to move things forward, and suggested that they have Thomson and co. sign a letter that says we agree to agree, we will go to Maastricht and ask for the date and venue change, really only a date change as Australia can just nominate the venue, and sort it out later if the FIM agrees. Dangerous I know but we were desperate. On this basis we receive an agreement from Apel for the ACCA to go to the FIM and ask for the new date. 

On 20^th October dear old John Cain sticks his nose in again and writes direct to Joe Zegward. According to Mr. Cain he had met every condition we had asked for. He goes on to cast doubt that we can build the track, especially during winter. He has a short memory, we built PI from March to December with very limited funds, through winter. Here we had all summer and all winter and the Government’s check book. He pledges his total support for staging the event, fat lot of good that did us in 1989.

So off to Maastricht, at our expense of course, and the NSW Minister for Sport, Bob Rowland Smith and his Head of Department, John Stathers, come with us just to leave the FIM in no doubt of the full Government support for us. Just as in Victoria the Minister was a football man, Rowland Smith was a horse man, and not much else really mattered, other than being elected of course. We have plans of the track and photos of the Greenfield site, literally. CCR Board Members are under no illusion that this track does not exist and will not exist until next year. They vote to change the date to September and the venue written in the calendar approved and issued by the Assembly later that week is Eastern Creek. Sydney actually as I do not think we officially had a name yet.     

Back home to find that land the Government said they were going to give us and purchase from private owners they are now going to change. They will divert a section of Horsley Road and we can have the swamp on the other side, and skirt around the junk yard on the hill. Now I was never totally happy with the original layout of the pit area, and the last corner, but those that saw the original said they liked it. Apparently Wayne Rainey was to complain to the team sports psychologist that it was not as good as Phillip Island, and he asked Wayne if he thought I’d forgotten how to design tracks. Wayne thought that over and then agreed, I could only work with what I had been given.

Now do not get me wrong, Eastern Creek is a fine track and some drivers and riders prefer it. If I had built it first then everyone would have been happy, but as I said, after the Lord Mayor’s Show.

November comes and Capel Court Investment Bank is putting together the deal with National Mutual Royal Bank for the full amount of the NSW government backed loan, $5.5m. This as with all legal and bank deals takes forever, there is always one more piece of paper, one more guarantee. We meet with the Surveyors we are going to use, Peter Lean of LL&H, and they introduce us to Western Earthmoving, Wal and Graham Wragg. This is not a Government project, it is private, we just do not have any owners yet, but we do not have to go through the Gov’t tender system. Nor do we go through Planning and Zoning in the normal way, it is Gov’t land, and they will speed up the approvals. We use the noise consultant, Challis, who we met during the O’Neil days, who produces a thick volume of noise predictions that means we have to build a 50-ft. high noise mound around the SW corner. Peter Russell comes over, Mick Porter is already there, and we agree on the basics for the design, separate pedestrian and vehicle tunnels, main grandstand, two story pit building, and there is to be a drag strip built in. Mick and I put together a budget about 10 pm one night in the motel where we are staying, and it comes to $20m in round numbers. This is to become a fixed price as all these guesstimates are fated to do, and it does not matter what the consortium want to add or problems occur this is it, so when it finally costs about $24m I am happy, but of course the Government are not.

Eastern Creek is to become a major political problem for the Gov’t with the opposition using their friends in the press to attack them at every opportunity. What starts as a great project gets mired down in politics, Gov’t spending the people’s money. Does not matter about the success of Adelaide or Phillip Island to bring economic benefits, it’s just wrong. Years later when the Gov’t spent the same amount on a new drag strip nearby I do not recall any problems, but then that was probably the opposition now in power. More recently a plan has been put together to reconstruct it, make it run the other direction and spend the same again, for what? There is no Motorcycle GP to warrant it now.        

We start removing the dividing fences and clearing but have to wait on environment and planning’s approval, and an anthropological survey to clear the site. I had laid out the new track on a large-scale aerial photo and taken a grader to walk with me to put a groove in the ground for the centerline. The surveyors then picked that up, and that is how Eastern Creek was designed. Gerry Marshall, the American CCR Member, arrives for an initial inspection on the 8^th of November and is happy with what he sees, and reports “that a reasonably completed race track” could be built by March 16, six months before the race. I’m not sure when this inspection was organized, but now I know why. On the 9^th Joe Zegward, Chairman of the CCR that approved the date change and why, writes that “an homologation (license) of a circuit can only come into force as from 1^st January of the year following the first inspection.” He goes on to say that on that basis the track must be ready for inspection on December 31^st. He will be nice enough to arrange that inspection for us. So two weeks after approving the change Joe now says it cannot be done, who do you think arranged that? The 9^th is a big day as we now have a draft agreement from Apel and our solicitors. I won’t bore you with the details, but the assignment rears its head again, ACCA wants to limit us to assigning only to a company associated with ourselves, they must think highly of us, or if not that then the ACCA is to have the right of first refusal. Someone there must think that this is a goldmine.

10^th November we are organizing the site office and phones, site is being cleared and we are finalizing the design of the vehicle tunnel and working on pit layout. We are conducting soil surveys and talking to Emoleum, the contact from PI is now State Manager in NSW, some good luck at last. Next day Rod Wallbridge tells me we have a final arrangement with the NSW Government and we can sign documents next week. The weekend is the World Superbike round at Oran Park and I meet John Thomson and give him the critical path schedule for the work on EC. All is good. Monday the 13^th and John is writing to the President of the FIM, Nicholas Schmidt, about “unofficial” advice that Brazil wants to move from their April date to September 16, 1990, the Sydney date. Why is John writing to Schmidt and not Zegward? As John points out the date was awarded to Australia “after democratic debate.” He assures Schmidt everything is going fine with the EC construction and plans are well advanced for staging the race. Please do not change the date.

BPM Directors agree the NSW loan conditions and sign the agreements for the loan and the ticket guarantees. A problem arises with the guarantee given to the Bank by the NSW Tourism Commission, the Department the Gov’t is using, and it does not have a large enough budget. John Harvey says he will fix it. We have a lot of visitors including Peter Clifford, Yamaha, The Premier’s Office, and Julian Butler already working on camp sites for 1990. We meet with the electricity provider to discuss how we plan to route the track around their transmission lines and give them access to the line and how to accommodate the medical helicopters flying near them.  The 15^th and CAMS are on site, this has to be an F1 standard track as well as a GP motorcycle track. The consortium does not expect to land an F1 GP, but are looking for a World Sportscar race. The track would eventually stage A1GP, which is a tier below F1. The Bank does not like John Harvey’s fix for the Tourism problem. Rider Hunt, Quantity Surveyors come up with a cost estimate of $35m and hysteria breaks out in the Premier’s Office. I have to go into the Office on the 16^th and we agree it is still feasible for $20m. John Harvey assures us the loan will be sorted out today. Still no news on the consortium to own the track. Brian Burman who owns Coffey and Partners, the soils engineers, is a front runner at the moment. We send CAMS copies of the final layout and Chris Hall has developed the speed profile and calculated the run off required, including developing a formula for motorcycles along the lines of the FIA which are in excess of the distances the FIM specify.

Friday 17^th and Premiers office tells us that the consortium is agreed and they are working out the details, and that we should get the green light to start moving dirt next week. Brian Burman wants to discuss the track hire we would pay to stage the Grand Prix, he is looking for $1m and we believe $500,000 is all we can pay. Saturday is Wayne Gardner’s wedding to Donna and all of Wollongong turns out, it is a great day. Sunday the FIM faxes the ACCA to advise that Hans Bahmer will be inspecting EC on December 29^th. Brazil has by now formally asked for the September 16^th date and the calendar is to be discussed at the FIM Management Council in January. I write to John stressing the damage this uncertainty is doing, and that we have planned to start selling tickets on January 8^th, so the Management Meeting is too late to sort this out. I point out that if rules can be “relaxed” for Brazil, then they can be relaxed for us too.

Monday 20^th and Greiner is still trying to fix the bank problem. We put together a seating plan for PBL and Mojo is working on an artist’s impression for the promotion. The Road Traffic Authority, RTA, start on building the new section of Horsley Road around the track site. 21^st and now the Government will now pay the $5m directly, whatever that means, and we have to negotiate our fee for the track construction with the consortium. We meet with the consortium on the 22^nd and it is O’Neil, Hunwick, Malouf and Brabham, not Brian Burman, and we go over our understanding of the arrangements. Everything seems OK and they are keen to get going. Then Tony Sernack calls to tell me that Bond Brewing are not going ahead with the sponsorship for the race. In the end this has more to do with Bond going bankrupt early in 1990 than moving to Sydney where they owned the major brewery, Tooheys. It just gets better and better.

Thursday 23^rd and we meet then consortium on site, and after some discussion with Sir Jack about why the pits are on the inside they declare themselves happy with the design and confirm our appointment as the construction managers. We meet with Western Earthmovers to agree their contract which is on a schedule of rates basis, i.e. they are paid for each item as measured once finally built as we know this will change as we go along. We have a long night with the lawyers and at 10pm we finally have documents we can sign to close the deal with the NSW Gov’t. Monday 27^th and we expect the approval to start, but it is delayed. Tuesday 28^th and we learn that the consortium is to be called Dovigo, another shelf company, and the track is to be called Sydney’s Eastern Park Raceway. Good luck selling that. At 2pm we finally get the call from the Premiers Office that we can start, and there is equipment lined up ready to go. We are off.

Peter has been working with a Sydney company, The McNamara Group, who have a grandstand design that they have built at three or four rugby football grounds, and we sign a letter of intent with them to build a 4,000-seat covered stand opposite the pits and at the end of the drag strip. It turns out that spectators at a drag strip do not care to see who wins, just who starts, go figure? The only down side to the day is the motorcycle magazines have the Bond pulling out story.

John Gilbert comes to site. John is to watch over us on behalf of the consortium. The trick is John lives in San Francisco and will fly over every two weeks to see how we are doing. The next trick is John knows nothing about race tracks, but is a good guy and is quite happy we know what we are doing. He thinks this is all a great joke and enjoys the holiday, and we continue to be great friends. When I comment on some of the silly things Dovigo want to do John just tells me to think of the fee for fixing it. Our engineers LLH are working on drainage, which is to be a major problem and expense. The site is a bowl, which good for spectators, but not run off. To make matters worse we are building a huge “dam” across the outlet in the form of the noise mound.

In the midst of all this my man Bill Crouch who is managing PI runs the 6 Hour race for Superbikes. I drove down Saturday afternoon and drove back to Sydney Sunday night December 3rd. What is Di my wife doing during all this? John Harvey has fixed her up with a teaching job in Blacktown and we have an apartment now in Sydney. I should mention that it has rained a fair bit up to now, and this is only to get worse. Wednesday December 5^th, I fly to Melbourne for the Australian Sports Awards which unbeknown to me Suzie Burford has entered us for. I am sharing a table with John Thomson and we are soon on stage sharing the acceptance for the “Best Organized and Presented Sporting Event in Australia in 1989” for the motorcycle GP. I went home with the trophy which I still proudly display. Back on site in Sydney the next day and Sandra Redfern presents herself at the site office, much as Suzie Burford did, and asks if we need a secretary. Yes we did, and it was one of my better decisions. Sandra and her family were not only great workers, daughter Sam has gone on to work for Aston Martin and the V8Supercars, but great friends.

Rain is slowing down work on site, all earthmoving so hard to keep going. No work on the 6^th or 7^th but we continue to set out run off areas and we restart on the 8^th. We open discussion with the NSW Police as there is considerable concern among motorcyclists about staging the race in NSW given the police attitude which is seen as harassment. The Bathurst “riot” plays on everyone’s’ mind and we want to arrange a situation like Victoria where there is no police presence on site. The officers we spoke to were very responsive and aware of the problem. They would go out of their way to welcome motorcyclists from interstate who were making noises about staying away, including arranging escorts from the border.

CAMS are making noises that “Europe,” the FIA, does not like the fast first corner, they want to slow it down, and have a typical tight corner and an accident waiting to happen as we see too often. I stand my ground and tell them they can put in a chicane when they run at the track. I prefer a fast corner off the end of the straight, and a run to the next corner which can be the tight overtaking spot, it gives drivers a chance to sort themselves out off the grid. John Thomson is on site again with John Stathers from the Dept. of Sport and seems happy with progress. It is raining again. Mitch Arai of Arai helmets comes to site and is very impressed with what he sees. We let the contract for the pile foundations for the pit building and grandstand. We finally agree our fee for the design and construction, which includes LLH, of $1.5m. This will keep BPM solvent for the year.

December 14^th and we meet with the Bradshaw Group about how to build a 50 feet high noise mound which requires about 1 million cubic yards of something. This eventually becomes a hard fill site, i.e. concrete and brick etc., which in Sydney is hard to dispose of and a fee is charged to dump it, so we can offset the cost. We still have to excavate dirt to cover it and finish it in time, but it becomes a large spectator viewing area, especially to watch those starts of the drag races. The drag strip itself is an extension of the main straight with the ¼ mile all in the run-off area. That keeps most of the nasty tire compound they use off the race track. Horsley Road is finally diverted around the site and we can close the old road which ran through where the pit building now stands.

December 19^th and David White is on site and we are discussing officials for the1990 race. We have started preparing subgrade in areas and we start taking delivery of the stone for the first pavement layer on the 21st. We bring in an engineer to design the sewer system; this track is to have real toilets. December 22^nd and we sign the deal with Dovigo for the track construction and I leave to drive back to Adelaide for Christmas. The car is racking up some miles as I drive back on the 26^th and I am back on site the 27^th, Hans Bahmer is due but is not on the plane. We let the grandstand contract to McNamara, it comes in under budget.

Bahmer is finally on site the 31^st from 9am till 12:30pm. The track is there to see but is obviously just earthworks in most areas, the run offs are all laid out but there are no walls, and the pit building site and pit lane are pegged out, but again not yet built. Mr. Bahmer’s report states that the “track is now exact and clear perceptible.” The surface will be laid by 16^th March (six months as with PI) and the first race scheduled for July, which we actually did run. He is going to recommend to Mr. Zegward an inspection in March, not February, and tells us Zegward is not now sure of recommending the date change that Brazil wanted. All seems good news.

Work continues on the track, and bids are out for the pit building. The vehicle tunnel is a metal plate structure that will accommodate two lanes here, and the hole for it is being dug for it to lead into the rear of the paddock. A separate pedestrian tunnel built out of a concrete box culvert will connect the grandstand to the pit building under pit straight.  Storms overnight disrupt work again on the 8^th, and through the 10^th. Brazil has accepted September 30^th date, and I presume we launched ticket sales on the 9^th as scheduled. Christine comes up on the 11^th, yes she is still working for us and is starting on accommodation for 1990’s race. Friday the 12^th, and there is a fax from Henry Daigle with a fax attached from Zegward advising us that the Management Council is meeting on the 13-14^th, and would we like the Australian GP to be at Phillip Island on September 16^th, or voluntarily withdraw from this year’s calendar? How nice. Henry says in his covering fax for me to stay calm, he is talking to Ed Youngblood etc. and it will all get sorted. Henry responds to Zegward that EC is ahead of schedule and no we will not voluntarily withdraw thank you. The 13^th I meet with Hunwick to start discussions on the basis for an agreement for us to hire the track for the GP, discussions that were to go on for over a year. Saturday and Sunday it is raining again, and Monday Warren Willing calls with the news that the Australian GP is not on this year’s race calendar. We receive the official fax from the FIM, Bahmer’s track inspection not adequate so no homologation of EC for 1990. It went on to say we were not alone in this and the Spanish and French GP’s had similar problems. It nicely gives the ACCA until the 22^nd to nominate a track that is homologated if you want the race in 1990, and I wonder which one that is?

Did the FIM have their own agenda in all this? During this whole saga it was like fighting a war in a fog, you knew bullets were coming at you, but where from and by whom I had no idea. Who was it possible to trust? John Thomson and David White flew up to Sydney that evening and certainly made all the right noises about supporting Sydney. The Gov’t is not very happy as you can imagine and wants work accelerated to complete by the February 15^th date. Vaasan, the new FIM President is involved, why? He tells us that no change in the decision is possible, even though he understands the problems with PI. He suggests we take a sabbatical for 1990, but no one is buying that solution. We agree to try and delay the FIM until we have enough done on the track. Honda through their sponsors Rothmans tell us they are very unhappy with the FIM decision, and Ken Potter says do not worry, it will be fixed. It seems Zegward, like some others in this story, has acted unilaterally, and the CCR members have not been consulted. In fact, Gerry Marshall is to write later that he was disturbed by the Management Councils decision, and goes on to point out that everyone in Maastricht knew of the situation with PI and EC, and were willing to “stretch the deadlines” to accommodate the ACCA request for a date change and the race in Sydney. He assures us that nothing occurred behind closed doors to conflict with that. Maybe not behind the closed doors he was at, but clearly Zegward had a plan judging by his letter just two weeks after Maastricht.

The evening of the 16^th David White is floating the idea of going back to PI, and we meet again the next morning with the Gov’t where I tell them in no uncertain terms that PI is not an option. Now this gets confusing, as on Friday 19^th Henry Daigle writes to the FIM and tells them the Council has resolved to run the GP at Phillip Island. He also writes to me to say that notwithstanding we still do not have a new agreement, the Council has requested Barfield to run the race at PI on the 16^th September. Response please by January 22^nd. Now I should point out that September in Sydney is very pleasant, the summer is the wet season as we were finding out. PI on the other hand is miserable, as the riders and spectators found out in 2010, and at the end of the winter all available parking areas are going to be saturated. So, even if the tobacco problems went away, running the race in September is commercial suicide. The ACCA issue a press release to the fact that the Council “held a meeting this morning,” this is the 19^th, when no meeting occurred to my knowledge, and decided to stage the 1990 at Phillip Island, “as per the direction of the FIM.” The FIM immediately issue their own press release confirming the race at PI, “a majority decision of the ACCA Councilors.” Made in the best interest of the sport. I have in my diary that we met with the ACCA councilors on the Sunday morning the 21^st at the Parkroyal in Parramatta. Had they been in Sydney three days without one of them letting me know, not possible I think. At the meeting I show them a letter from the sponsors association, which describes the management Council decision as a “big shock.” It seems that Vaasan called Nick Greiner earlier in the week to discuss not staging the race in 1990, a solution the sponsors oppose. They state that exceptions have been given in the past and go on to say “Of course under no circumstances should it be accepted that the race goes back to PI, because the majority of the sponsors will be effected very seriously by the new restrictions on advertising. And after all, the FIM already agreed that the Australian GP could be held at EC.” The sponsors were due to meet with Vaasan on the Monday to “try to convince the President that it is absolutely imperative for our sport to safeguard the few good events we have on our calendar.” I have no notes of that meeting, but it had to have resolved to appeal the Management Councils Decision. So much for the ACCA councilors voting.

Tuesday the 23^rd, Placetac forcibly took possession of the PI track overnight. I wonder what prompted that? Their excuse was that we had breached the lease, but a judge was to give us back possession that same day. Work continued flat out on EC, with the concrete wall contractor starting on site. Westerns were placing the top and bottom courses of pavement, and the pedestrian tunnel was going in and the vehicle tunnel had the first roof section installed. Monday 29^th and Emoleum is priming sections of the track and on 31^st started laying the bottom course of asphalt.

While this is going on The Victorian Minister for Sport has written to John Thomson, following up a letter of the 18^th. They are concerned about Australia losing the event, but who caused all this? He goes on that he has been talking to Mr. Zegward who “has information which conclusively shows that the principal teams, sponsors, and riders will attend a GP at PI.” If he has then why does he not share that information with the ACCA or us? So let us all get together and start to discuss arrangements for 1990 at PI. January 25^th and John Thomson is meeting with Apel to decide whether to proceed with their legal action against us or defer it for another month? John recommends to Councilors to defer it.

 Friday 2^nd February and a cyclone is coming, rain stops play on the circuit and we are deluged all weekend. I am at home Sunday morning and at about 10am Henry Daigle calls and says I must come to Melbourne. I tell him I’m going nowhere and why do I need to? A very important person is there in Melbourne to talk to me who has just flown in from overseas, totally unannounced, but somehow all the ACCA Councilors just happen to be in a meeting there. No Henry cannot tell me who it is, so I say sorry, not wasting my time jumping on a plane to Melbourne. It is Vaasan, he has flown to Australia to tell the ACCA to withdraw the appeal, and no one knew he was coming? And why did he come? Was he so concerned about losing the Australian GP? As I said, not much of this makes sense even now.

So the councilors decide to withdraw the appeal. They issue a press release which says Mr. Vaasan has given them a written assurance that if they do and run the race at PI, then Australia will have a race in 1991. How can he do that under these great rules they keep quoting us have to be upheld? Henry Daigle writes on the 7^th, officially telling us of Vaasan’s surprise visit, and that their solicitors will have a contract to us “within a week.” We have been waiting on this for two months and now it can be done within a week! We capitulate, there is no more we can do. We either not stage the race which would mean losing it for good, or run it at PI. To add to our woes we had 12 inches of rain at EC that last weekend, we could have raced boats out there. In the midst of this John Corsmit, the FIA inspector turns up with CAMS and is OK with the track except for a couple of minor tweaks. Tenders closed for the pit building construction.

It rains all week so nothing is done. I meet with David White at the airport to discuss the new contract and arrangements for making PI work this year. David calls me on the 15^th to say he is no longer negotiating our contract, in his words “he has been stitched up.” By whom I wonder? I to this day am not sure who’s side David was on in all this, but maybe he was just on Victoria’s side with no malice to me, who knows. He certainly has not suffered from it and has just been elected as a VP of the FIM.

Back at EC we are backfilling the vehicle tunnel and still laying asphalt. The piles for the grandstand and the pit building are continuing. Rod Wallbridge has gone to Melbourne to meet with Tom Hogg of Cain’s Office about the GP at the Island, but does not get much joy, other than support as last year with services, and possible VHPF money to replace the tobacco signage. It is still raining in Sydney, but somehow we continue, Emoleum is planning to start the top course on March 12^th, and it will be a continuous three-day operation with multiple pavers, so the 16^th would be achieved.

Wednesday 28^th I leave for the FIM meeting in Geneva where the deed is done and PI reinstated on the calendar for 1990, but EC has a date in April for 1991. Vaasan meets me and completely insults my professionalism. He warns me not to run a bad race just to show that I was right! I tell him, more politely than I want to, that I would never do that, it is my reputation at stake here.      

While I am away The Victorian Minister of Sport again writes to Henry Daigle offering to help “resolve the current uncertainties surrounding the conduct of the 1990 GP AND BEYOND!” His solution is to suggest “that the ACCA acts decisively and promptly on the issue of appointing a promoter.” This suggestion is based upon the fact that the new contract has not been resolved and signed, and I wonder why when Apel was their chosen lawyer. He goes further to suggest that if the ACCA were to appoint a new promoter then the contract should be for more than one year and preferably at PI.

It gets worse. He goes on to offer the ACCA financial support if they so act, and ensure that “all planning permits and licenses are expedited.” They will even find them a major sponsor. He addresses the concerns the ACCA might have about the availability of the PI track to a new promoter, advising the ACCA to get legal advice on our situation with Placetac over the lease, and assuring them that whatever the outcome of that “the track will be available for use for the 1990 GP.” And how can he do that if he is not colluding with Placetac to break our contract. How low will these people stoop to destroy us?

Back in Sydney it is still raining. Work has begun on the PI race, and this time the liquor license is going to be approved in 4 weeks time I am told by the caterer. We meet with the NSW Gov’t about the 1990 race at PI, not much they can do but obviously a major political problem, and for us we just have to keep paying the interest on the loan. We are also talking to QANTAS about air travel for the teams and the equipment that will be coming from Europe this time, not Japan. The Hungarian GP is two weeks before ours. PBL does not want to do anything with PI until the ACCA contract is signed, you know the one that would be completed within a week. There is still a race to run at EC though as we have an ACU of NSW championship round booked for July and we meet with them to start planning for it. The show must go on. Alan Jones comes to look at EC, the driver not the rugby coach, and tells me I need more right-angled corners. I told him the last time I looked cars do not go around corners in a right angle. Warren Willing comes and looks and is very happy with it.

I go up to the Japanese GP and meet with Trimby about the freight for this year. The teams will deliver it to Frankfurt and we will fly from there. I see Vaasan again and he reaffirms that the race in 1991 will be in Sydney. On my return I try stirring up Rod to get the contract signed with ACCA.  The NSW has been a problem with this, objecting to some of the wording, but they agree to drop them and Rod has told the ACCA we will not pay legal costs. I advise John Thomson on Friday 30^th that it is unreasonable to expect us to pay the ACCA $70,000 by Monday as we have had no cash flow for nine months. He did agree on that and said he will talk to the “others.” It seems the ACCA has more ethics than the Victorian Gov’t and are negotiating for us to continue as promoter. April 4^th the ACCA revised contract is signed, but it is still raining.

We prepare for ticket sales for PI. Mojo has a new poster, which is great, and a new TV ad which is not, seems to emphasize the grunge factor of camping in the dirt. Anyway, we are not in a mood to argue. I went home to Adelaide for Easter and then back to Melbourne as we have a round of the ACCA Championship at PI. Rod has negotiated the same deal with the Victorian Gov’t as was offered, i.e. a guarantee for ticket sales to BASS, but nicely also guarantee the ACCA so they can take over the promotion “if Barfield is unable to stage the event for any reason.” The teams and riders etc. can display their tobacco sponsorship, but the signage conditions still apply.  The Sponsors Association confirms that their members will not be taking signage at the GP on that basis, but a sort of truce is drawn in the expectation of Sydney in ’91, and the threat of the teams not coming is dropped. We still have the problem of staging a race at the wrong time of year, and as one motorcycle magazine put it, “if you bring a car onto PI you will be as popular as a Russian submarine in New York harbor.” Sells a lot of tickets that does.

In Sydney, we have finally backfilled the vehicle tunnel and paved the last piece of the bottom layer of asphalt. The structural steel is going up on the pit building and it is the end of April. Trimby comes to inspect how we are going and offers to stage an IRTA official test at EC the Wednesday after the PI Grand Prix, and we all think that is a great idea. We need to cover the cost of freight and accommodation, but we can sell tickets and Marlboro will sponsor it. “Take a Peek at Eastern Creek” is on. Top course of paving starts on May 9^th, a month late due to the weather, and it is completed on the 12^th. We now have a track and they move into pit lane and the paddock. The Victorian Treasury and BASS are stalling on ticket sales and they finally go on sale on the 17^th May.

The first signs of problems with Dovigo, apart from not agreeing a contract to rent the track, is when they bring their caterer to look over the place, and he seems to think he will do the food and beverage for the GP. We raise the issue of a “clean track” with the Gov’t people. Dovigo are confusing potential sponsors by telling them that Dovigo had the right to sell signage and sponsorship to the event. As we later found out their contract with the Gov’t did give them, that right, but we thought they were just being difficult. This led to very bad relations and an inevitable showdown. In the meantime you cannot sell a car if two people say they own it, buyers are a bit wary of that, and sponsorship is no different. The economy was still way down so it was hard enough anyway, but this made it impossible. So much for being in the corporate heart of Australia. I involve John Gilbert to try and resolve this issue, but with no more success than before.

On the bright side ticket sales are going well. I have not committed to so many grandstands this year, and we release blocks of seats as they are sold out. Vic Health Promotion, VHPF, are still positive about replacing the tobacco signage with something else, we have suggested that anti-tobacco signs are not very tactful in the circumstances.

Construction of the grandstand is held up by building approvals. Even though this stand design has been built several times before, for football, the fact that it is on a racetrack causes the Council to worry about fire. The last grandstand fire I know of is Bradford Football stadium in England, but that does not deter these gentlemen. The stand itself is concrete and steel, so it will not burn, but there are all those cars out there with petrol in them. The Council actually is happy with it, just not happy to have to approve it, so the solution is to go to the Planning Court, where we are all sure it will be OK’d, so the Court will then be responsible. The best laid plans. The Judge asks for all sorts of information, like “what is the probability of more than F1 car crashing in to stand at the start of a race with a west wind blowing.” I am not making this up. Nil was my answer, we will not have F1 cars on this track. I could have gone on about safety fuel cells etc. The end result is we have to build $500,000 of stairs on the rear of a $2m stand.

End of May comes and we still do not have any answers from Dovigo or the Gov’t on the track hire.  John Gilbert finally calls, but it is not god news. John Stathers from Dept. of Sport tells me to do a deal with Dovigo and then go back to the Gov’t to tell them how it affects us. You can see how that will work out. Craig Malouf comes out and denies a “clean track” was part of the original discussion. How could it not be? Without that assurance we would have had to broken all our existing contracts and lost that revenue. We continue to meet, but it actually gets worse the more we talk, they now want a % of the gate. June 11^th, we have the ACU of NSW out for a familiarization day. There are the usual complaints but overall positive.

The dispute with Placetac which led to the aborted repossession of PI track is due to go to court, but Placetac want to negotiate a settlement. Rod and our lawyer come to Sydney on the 21^st June and met with Dovigo, and we go over the situation at PI and the EC rights. June 22^nd and Alan Grice is on track in a “Search for a Champion” 5-day test session. Work continues on the grandstand now the building approval has been sorted, the pit building, race control, scrutineering and the medical center, and the Dovigo office which is a two-story high-end brick building, not in the budget. Sewer, phone, power all going in and bathrooms being built. July 22^nd and we stage the Shell Oils Round, not pretty but the track is done and safe.

We continue to meet with Hunwick and Malouf. They tell us they have sold the signage and sponsorship to Patrick McNally, but we can have the signage money back but half of the sponsorship has to go to Patrick! They’ve stopped asking for a % of the gate, and say that agreement is still possible on catering, merchandise and corporate. Thanks a lot. I met on the 23^rd with Stathers and Harvey, but John Harvey seems to be losing his influence. Greiner is probably not pleased he got him into this mess. We keep PBL in the loop, but they are stuck until it is resolved.

Wednesday 25^th July and we meet with the Victorian Traffic Accident Commission, TAC, the third-party insurer, who have been given the signage that Rothmans had with the 250cc sponsorship as part of the VHPF covering the loss from tobacco. I do not know where these people were during the last GP, but when they start to ask about TV figures and demographics they start to get very excited, and ask us what the naming rights would cost. Now TAC are running a major campaign against drink driving, under the slogan “Drink and Drive, Bloody Idiot.” That is how we ran the “Bloody Idiot” Grand Prix as some journalists still call it. They pay us $750,000 for the rights, not the same as Bond, but considering the timing it will do us.

Monday 30^th and Craig Malouf makes us an offer we cannot understand. He confirmed they had done a deal with Patrick, although I do not believe that was ever contracted, and they would give us some of the money that was actually all ours in the first place. Friday 3^rd and we still do not have a written offer from Dovigo, and John Stathers finally agrees to get involved. John Harvey assures us our “problem” will be fixed. Stathers has told Malouf to get us the written offer and then we can respond to it formally. We send the response on August 9^th, and there is a major sit down on the 13^th and we offer $750,000 to buy out the McNally rights, if they existed, and they come back with $1m which we agreed. All month I am going back and forth between the Island and EC, making last minute arrangements for the Grand Prix and the Test Day. Then off to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix to do what we did in Japan, deal with last minute freight, travel, and accommodation issues with the teams and media.

I travel with Bill Gibson, who has his son David who is a student already there, and his other son Peter and Serge from his staff so they can go to Frankfurt to pack the freight. It is again the bright spot of the year. First up Bill and I are trying to find the hotel. We found the street which fronts the Danube, but no hotel. We ask a passer-by who waves his arm over the river wall, and down there is a boat, a floating hotel! Hungary had just come out of years of communist rule and was very cheap. We go to eat in an outdoor restaurant on the promenade where we can watch the girls go by. The Maître de sees a bunch of westerners and basically throws the party at the best table out to make way for us. We have trouble with the menu, who wouldn’t, and he mimes “leave it to me.” He serves up a great meal with wine for about $12 each, and David, who is studying to be an accountant wants to argue he is ripping us off, he has been here a week and knows. We beat him up and happily pay the man. Now we have an Avis rental car, which is not like any Avis you have seen, filthy dirty and hubcap missing, and David wants a team building effort to wash it. Scrub that idea. Then there is the trip to the castle, which is on top off the cliff. I nearly get us all killed, pull out of tee junction with a car bearing down from the left and I have it in second gear not first up a steep incline. Change and lose time or just pray. I chose the latter, but the boys in the back of the car had very big eyes as the car went past them. When we parked there was the Hungarian in his brown dust coat parking us. We decided on the group photo, so I gesture to the attendant with the camera for him to take it for us, and he promptly stands with the rest of the guys. I just had to take it. The race was great, Mick Doohan’s first GP win and Gardner breaks his scaphoid bone in his wrist.  

I return to a cold and wet PI, in fact in the lead up to the race I go through all my clothes as they are getting so wet and muddy. Di has stayed in Sydney teaching, something she tends to do, but Gwen who worked for Rod has come down to help at the race and saves me by doing my washing. Channel 9 are having trouble placing their cherry pickers for the cameras, it is so wet the moment their wheels go off the track they sink. No problem says the Army, we have a tank retrieval vehicle that can pick it up and move it, except the tank retrieval needs retrieving about 100 feet outside the paddock. Channel 9 gives up and builds a scaffold. We have a grader tidying up the paths and it is bogged to the axles at the pinch point in the fence down by Turn One, and will stay there for about two months until it dries out enough to dig it out. In the meantime, during the event we get the OK for spectators to climb over the spectator fence and walk around that spot and climb back over. What fun this is.

It actually can get worse. At dinner in the local Italian Restaurant on the Sunday evening prior to the race weekend there is a noisy group outside expressing how they feel about me taking the race away. One comes inside and on the pretext of using the bathroom pours a Coke over me. My good friends from the security hustle him away, but it is just the start. There are all sorts of threats, and when I leave the track and during the event I have two “minders” following me around. Not a very nice feeling. I do not know how people live like that.

The Wednesday comes around and the Charity Ball is on again. I have a poster signed by all the place getters at the ’89 race which goes for $1000 at the auction. I am the only one of the team on site and there is no plane this year, just a limo for me. A lovely lady decides she will come back with me to the Island and we enjoy a pleasant couple of hours ride home with thankfully a discreet driver.

The crowd this year is nothing like ’89, but is still good for a GP, around 70,000 Sunday, but it is miserable. Thankfully Goodsports has made us some great jackets for the event which I still treasure. It has Doohan on the front from the cover of the program, and the artwork from the poster on the back, all embroidered. Saturday comes and the new Premier of Victoria, yes John Cain has been deposed by one of his own party, “mother Russia,” Carolyn Hirsch, has been invited I guess by the TAC, I had not invited the Premier, look what happened last time. But Carolyn is a different animal altogether, more politically astute and pragmatic. She not only enjoys the race, but recognizes both the value to the State, and more importantly, that most of the crowd are probably her voters. She is good company too, and when Carolyn asks if she can come back tomorrow I of course invite her to my box.

Saturday evening and the concert is on, but we have not organized it this year, an outside promoter did and sold tickets to anyone. He has a good crowd, but mostly from outside the race fans, and they proceed to cause trouble and trash the town. Next morning the race fans go and clean up unasked just to let the town folks know this was not them. Great fans.

Sunday comes and Carolyn is talking to me about what it would take to keep the race at the Island. This is a different Premier, but unfortunately more ethical than her Minister of Sport, for when I tell her I have a contract with NSW and if she will pay the legal fees I am happy to stay. Despite Victoria paying the ACCA legal; fees you recall, and inciting the ACCA to break the contract, Carolyn says she cannot be seen doing that. But come and see her after the race. Gardner causes me grief as he gets a ride in a Blackhawk during the 250cc warm up and asks for a low level pass down the main straight to wave to the fans and nearly blows the riders off the track with the downdraft. Trimby and Co. are beside themselves and as the Promoter it is my fault. I had to get the head guy from the Army in to placate them.

The races are great. Rainey has already sewn up the 500cc title, but the 125cc and 250cc are on the line. Erv Kanemoto tells me it “was the best days racing he had ever seen.” Three guys can win the 125cc, and Capirossi and his Italian mates decide he is going to win, so they gang up on Spaan and Waldmann, who is hit at the start and breaks his gear lever off, one down one to go. Spaan is boxed in as Capirossi gets away, and becomes so frustrated he leans over and punches one of the Italians in the helmet halfway down the main straight! Caught by Channel 9 of course. Capirossi wins and takes the Championship.

The 250cc is between Kocinski and Cardus, and John leads from the start. Carlos is so mad he rides his bike back into pit lane before the end and throws it down before stopping nearly running over his lovely wife. Kocinski wins the Championship. The 500cc race is a rerun of ’89 except this year Doohan is in the mix and is looking to take over the team leadership from Wayne following his first win at the last race. Wayne has the broken scaphoid, and early on has a moment and breaks the fairing on one side, so it is hanging down. Schwantz has kept it upright this year, at least at the start, and it is another amazing race. It looks all over for Wayne with a handful of laps to go, and you can see Wayne saying, “I’m not ready to move over yet” and blows by Doohan on the straight to take the lead. Doohan has his legs going every which way to keep the bike upright. Wayne wins in a repeat of last year and the now traditional track invasion follows.

No champagne on the rostrum for me this year, but not quite the same dread of the next day as I think we actually made some money on this one, mainly by spending less, and there was the prospect of bigger and better things in Sydney. As the PBL slogan said, “Getting Serious.” But the interest clock was still running on our loan.