The club behind Winton Motor Raceway and the embattled Wakefield Park is set for its first Annual General Meeting after a year of upheaval, tonight.
Benalla Auto Club’s (BAC) woes with respect to Wakefield Park, which is closed for the foreseeable future following a damaging New South Wales Land and Environment Court (LEC) decision, are by now well-known.
What is less common knowledge, at least outside the club, is a spate of staff departures in the last 12 months or thereabouts, and a number of resignations from the committee just after the previous AGM.
It essentially began with the exit of Chris Lewis-Williams, a development which was presented as a resignation when announced on November 4, 2021.
As it turns out, that was a case of his contract not being renewed, a decision which was only made relatively late in Lewis-Williams’ term, after he had been seeking clarity on his future for much of the year.
Shortly after he left, the operations managers of Winton and Wakefield Park in Bruin Beasley and Dean Chapman, respectively, both decided to resign.
The former has since resurfaced at the Team 18 Supercars operation, while the latter extended his tenure at Wakefield Park as a contractor in order to see out the LEC case but is no longer engaged in any capacity by BAC.
Furthermore, while Chapman became the public face of the fight to save the Goulburn circuit, it is doubtful that he bears any real responsibility for the makings of the crisis which could very well see it close for good, much of which was set in train before his appointment.
Regardless, his and Beasley’s were but two in a rapid series of resignations which also included those of Prue Payne, a race secretary whose LinkedIn profile still lists her occupation as ‘Events Administration Manager at Winton Motor Raceway’, but who is known to have left; BAC administration manager Glenys Collins; and Deborah McLaughlin, who also worked in the Winton administration office.
Then there was the split of the Australian Motor Racing Series (AMRS) and its boss, Matt Baragwanath, in the first quarter of this year, as revealed by Speedcafe.com.
Stakeholders were advised then that Rowan Harman, former Touring Car Masters Category Administrator, was one of the new AMRS contacts and he also helped deliver the Supercars event, which BAC promotes, in May.
He too has now left, having seen out a six-month contract and opted to return to Melbourne.
As yet, there is no replacement CEO, something verified by the current Vice-President of BAC, Bruce Robertson.
Speedcafe.com was referred to Robertson, who became the Vice-President at the previous AGM, when it raised certain questions with BAC’s media representative.
“There was a conscious decision by the committee to not appoint a CEO post-Lewis-Williams, but not from a permanent point of view,” he explained.
For nearly a year now, BAC has also been functioning with only six committee members, following the aforementioned resignations.
Normally, it would be comprised of 11, those being the four who form the executive (President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer) and seven ordinary members.
Indeed, Rule 55 of BAC’s Constitution which became effective on March 5, 2016 (believed to be the current version, and certainly that which is featured on BAC’s own website on the Constitution page) states, in part, “the committee members are re-elected on a rotation basis: four (4) in one year; four (4) in the next; and three (3) in the following year.”
However, Rule 53 does state that the number of Executive and ordinary committee members “will be not less than two (2) and not more than seven (7) ordinary committee members.”
That is, notwithstanding the resignations, BAC is still compliant with its Constitution in terms of the number of committee members.
It would continue to be compliant if, as Robertson says will be the case, members are elected tonight such that the committee will number 10 people going forward.
He did advise, however, that he took up the position of Treasurer on an acting basis, due to that committee member being one of the resignations, and there being no willing and suitable replacements.
Furthermore, he claims there is no impropriety in such an appointment.
“It’s nothing illegal; we checked it with corporate affairs in Victoria [presumably meant to refer to Consumer Affairs Victoria], and no harm anywhere,” stated Robertson.
“So, I’m in the position where I was the acting Treasurer for the period as well as being the Vice-President.”
It is nevertheless interesting to note that the spate of committee resignations so happened to occur just after the AGM in which Robertson was elected Vice-President last year.
“If those people were going to resign, why wouldn’t they have resigned prior to the AGM so that they could be legally replaced?” he remarked.
“It’s all a bit weird.
“I’m not tearing myself up about it; I mean, if I’m the toxic element, I don’t care. I was voted by the members into the Vice President’s position.”
Sources have put it to Speedcafe.com that Robertson wields significant influence within BAC, notwithstanding that Barry Stilo is the President, and those suggestions are consistent with the fact that enquiries about governance and the like at BAC were referred to him to respond to.
However, while there are further suggestions that his is a power play driven by antipathy towards Motorsport Australia, he rejects a theory of BAC trying to turn away from that body.
For context, the AMRS and Australian Auto-Sport Alliance are part of the Benalla Auto Club Group of Companies (BACG).
AMRS is essentially marketed as a cut-price version of the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships, and similarly AASA as a discount sanctioning body compared to Motorsport Australia.
“Where did that come from?” he asked about that theory.
“BAC owns AASA but we’ve never publicly come out and said there will be no CAMS [Motorsport Australia] events.
“We’ve never come out and said, ‘We don’t want their events anywhere’; we’ll take the money.
“But are we going to compete in the sanctioning business and do things better? Absolutely.”
In terms of financials, Robertson says both 2020 and 2021 were cashflow positive, notwithstanding an accounting deficit due to depreciation of the race circuits.
Regarding 2022, while noting that BAC reports financials on a calendar year basis, that is expected to be more similar to a pre-pandemic year.
The AGM takes place tonight.
