New financial figures released for motorsport’s national governing body reveal the organisation posted a marginal surplus in 2024.
A net $16,712 result for the year marks a financial turnaround of $1,077,640 over the results posted a year ago.
“This result highlights the hard work and dedication of the Motorsport Australia team in managing financial performance and ensuring Motorsport Australia is well placed to best serve the sport,” said Sunil Vohra, Motorsport Australia CEO.
“We are now in a stronger position to focus on the key areas of the sport, including grassroots competitors, development pathways, and enhanced training opportunities for our volunteer officials.”
Vohra succeeded Eugene Arocca as head of Motorsport Australia in late 2023, just a month after the body elected to increase the cost of licences by 15 percent for 2024.
Under Vohra’s watch, Motorsport Australia has also changed how it engages commercially with categories such as the Australian Rally Championship, which the Innate Event Group now manages, and no longer promotes the SpeedSeries.
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“It didn’t really make sense for Motorsport Australia to think it could play successfully in that space,” Vohra told Speedcafe in December as part of the Summer Grill.
“It’s not a core capability of the organisation, we weren’t resourced appropriately to do that, and it was creating this drain on the financials.
“So given that the market was moving away, given the financial performance, it just made sense for us to be clear about what are the core things we should do, what should we be able to do, perhaps in partnership – and we’ve got partnership models with both SRO Australia and with Innate Event Group.
“We still have a seat at the table in terms of how these things are run, but we minimise or cap the exposure for us around operating losses of these events.
“But potentially, if there’s upside in the future, because in a highly commercialised world, when you put these things with specialised operators and they are successful, well, we’d also like to be a part of that.
“So, we’ve got a small percentage stake in these partnership agreements going forward.”
In addition to reversing its position at the end of the financial year, Motorsport Australia also announced a balance sheet with net assets above $10 million.
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