CAMS review of circuit racing - Changes to national championships and series

[Evan Bottcher]

Interesting read, it's definitely put the cat amongst the pigeons.  A big rationalisation of the national level championships.  Formula Ford dumped to state level series status immediately, and Formula 3 will be the same from 2017.  Carrera Cup dumped as a national championship.

http://www.cams.com.au/media/news/latest-news/racing-towards-2020-and-beyond

The obvious conclusion being made in the motorsport media is that CAMS needs to make a success of their own investment in the new national F4 championship so they are demoting the other open-wheel formulae.  Ditto the suspension of the gold star from F3 this year.

The new structure:

CAMS Australian Championships
CAMS Australian Touring Car Championship (V8 Supercars Championship)
CAMS Australian GT Championship
CAMS Australian Formula 4 Championship
CAMS Australian Endurance Championship (Details to be announced)

CAMS Australian Series
V8 Supercar Development Series
Porsche Carrera Cup Australia
V8 Ute Racing Series

CAMS Authorised Series
Sports Sedans
Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Australia
Kumho V8 Touring Cars
Aussie Racing Cars
Production Car Series
Touring Car Masters
Toyota 86 Pro-Am Racing Series
Radical & Sports Racers Australia Cup
Formula 3 (2016 only after which provision will be made for Formula 3 cars at State Level)

[105gta]

It's a shame that our (Australian) up and coming super stars won't even be recognized at a national level. Making it even harder for them to get sponsorship deals to go overseas and compete to become the next Alan Jones or Mark Weber.
No longer will we have an Australian Formula Ford Champion ready to take on the world but a winner of the Australian version of Formula Ford.
All so a 'regulatory body' can keep Motorsport as a profit making venture, which as we probably all know will eventually filter down the ranks to the point where club Motorsport will be out of reach for the majority.
We will have to import drivers to even race in the V8 supercars as we won't have any of our own, as already happens with Bathurst. The Great Australian Race with more and more international drivers every year.
Just my 2 cents....
Ben

[Barry Edmunds]

In years gone by, back in the days when Bathurst was run with a full field of 60 production cars lining up on the grid for the Great Race, teams somehow managed to find 120 drivers with very few internationals. A very different era today though. With a full field in this current era of 36 cars, how hard is it to find 72 drivers capable of going the distance and without breaking or destroying the car. Very difficult without the appropriate experience available to newcomers and where do newcomers to the sport get the necessary experience?
A major problem with Australian motor sport, and one that has existed for many, many years, has been the proliferation of classes and championships. It seems that there have been all manner of new categories created over the years with little regard to the viability or the costs involved. A rationalisation is certainly long overdue but I'm not sure if these latest moves will solve the problem/s.
One issue that the sport's controlling body has never been able to satisfactorily address, or accept or even understand, is that in Australia there is motor racing and motor sport with an ever increasing gap, not just financial, between the two. Motor racing for the F1, V8's, WRC level commercial events and motor sport for the lower level club and state competitions. In an ideal world competitors would gain the necessary experience and race craft from the lower level competitions to enable them to progress to the commercial motor racing world of V8's, WRC and/or international competition and be the next Alan Jones, Mark Webber or Daniel Ricciardi. Motor racing has never been cheap or inexpensive but today it seems that ability backed up by a hefty budget is the only way that a young driver can get noticed.
Rationalising the categories and championships may solve one problem but could very well lead to others.
My couple of cents worth contributed to the discussion.
Barry