Liam Curkpatrick is set to step down from his role as Chief Operating Officer of ARG.

Curkpatrick has been a mainstay of national-level motorsport for a number of years, joining ARG in 2019, but is now looking to spend more time with his young family.

He was promoted to the role of COO following the departure of Matt Braid as CEO last October.

“I have been with ARG since its inception in 2019 and originally took on the role as TCR Category Manager,” Curkpatrick said in an email to competitors, seen by Speedcafe.

“Since then ARG has grown to include 6 categories and 5 events and achieved a lot along the way of its rapid growth.

“The business is in good hands and has a bright future ahead.

“I will still be in the background guiding the tram through the transition and where needed.

“I appreciate the opportunities ARG has given me and Garry & Barry Rogers for not only their commitment to motorsport but their faith in me to be part of their business.

“I have great confidence in the existing ARG team and look forward to seeing a successful TCR World Tour and Supercheap Auto Bathurst International in a couple of months.”

Curkpatrick’s departure coincides with mounting speculation surrounding the future of ARG.

A subsequent email, which included the same quotes from Curkpatrick, to the media noted that the change is not related to any other restructuring of the business, and had in fact been planned prior.

ARG currently manages TCR Australia, S5000, GT World Challenge, Touring Car Masters, TransAm, and V8 Touring Cars, and promotes the Race Tasmania, Bathurst 6 Hour, and Bathurst International events.

However, suggestions have been made that some, if not all, categories will be handed back to Motorsport Australia at the end of the year, with S5000 in particular understood to be on the chopping block.

The events meanwhile are due to continue.

ARG underpins Motorsport Australia’s Speedseries, which featured at Sandown last weekend and recently announced an eight-event 2023 calendar.

“We just get on and get work done,” Barry Rogers told Mark Fogarty on this week’s Speedcafe Newscast.

“If you said from our point, and I would say Garry and I, we just put the head down and bum up and sometimes maybe the communication might not be as it should be.

“But criticism, I’m not sure. You read bits and pieces, or people tell you about bits and pieces, including what we should be doing, helping people go to Tassie, all these sort of things, which we do anyway…

“I really can’t follow a lot of it, to be honest. There’s a lot of ill-informed comment out there. People should pick up the phone and talk to us and maybe be a bit more accurate in what’s actually being reported.”