Procar shuts up shop

[macquered]

Holy shit, didn't see this coming.

How incredibly disappointing. Last year I travelled to three Procar events and it was made abundantly clear that they have some of the most exciting racing in Australia, but hardly anyone was at any of the events. Why they don't promote it more is beyond me.

It could have been so good.

[psi999]

Edo is on holidays fishing in Darwin for another week.....

A lot of people saw it coming, money had to run out sooner or later (I heard Procar were on a strict budget, once the money ran out - no more).

Kev- lucky i did not buy that chair for the 24hr then

[itsnotagsr]

Ive just spoken to my neighbour. Apparently the GTP series will continue as most of the rounds have already been paid for and committed to. There is a group of current competitors willing to put up the cash for it to continue. If you look at the competitors - most of them are VERY wealthy, run their own companies etc.

The rumour is that it will team up with Avesco and run with either the supercars or Konicas. My guess would be the Konicas because the would need the support more than the supercars. However 9 have just been signed up as tv rights holders. So Im not sure how this will work.

Another rumour is that if the group of wealthy individuals willing to support GTP dont go through with it, there will be a one make evo 7/8 series supporting the v8s. This is due to the fact that there are currently 12 evo 7/8s plus a few more that were built before Procar said that they it would be too one sided and disallowed them. Mitsubishi (through Ralliart) are already sponsoring two cars (King + teammate) which suggests they have an interest in this form of motorsport - better than building a v8 magna supercar!

Brenno - the problem seems to be political re Palmer and several networks. Basically Ch 10 owns motorsport and the others dont see the point in investing in hosts, production etc if its the only racing they have. Ch 10 can spread this across the bikes, rally, circuit and F1 now.

Greg - Yes unlucky with the 350z, but with his luck with the 200, I will be firing him up about getting something Mitsubishi instead!

Dont know about the 24hr. My source just shrugged....

[Nero]

this is a disaster for variety. The supercars are a well marketed silhouette class that refected nothing in the production cars. GTP was great and I liked the GT's and the variety was worth watching whereas the supercars are boring!

[Jim]

each competitor usually has to pay a media fee, or they dont get shown on tv. if the front runners arent paying the fee, the whole series is unlikely to be shown on tv. last I heard it was in the order of $20k that channel 10 wanted for a rally.

[Nafe]

There is a meeting for entrants and drivers next Wednsday here in Sydney. I spoke to an APCC Team Owner this evening, and he was stunned and speechless at the sudden withdrawal.

I believe that PROCAR will disappear, and reappear under a different name, possibly with some Ross Palmer backing, but not directly linked to Ross.

[Zac]

What about the 24hr?

[psi999]

I would say it has been cut back about 23 hrs and 59 mins (give or take a minute or so )

[GTSBoy]

Don't go expecting Mitsubishi to put any money into any form of racing at all. They have been cut off from the source (of money, Daimler-Chrysler) and the Mitsu group as a whole is neck deep in debt. Mitsu-Australia will be lucky to keep manufacturing, let alone go racing.

cheers

[itsnotagsr]

GTS boy - they sponsor ralliart and also a current GTP team so I guess youre wrong.

Nafe - my mail is that this has been going to happen since Christmas, so Im not sure why he is suprised.

[Nafe]

Originally posted by itsnotagsr
GTS boy - they sponsor ralliart and also a current GTP team so I guess youre wrong.

Nafe - my mail is that this has been going to happen since Christmas, so Im not sure why he is suprised.

I thought it was Ralliart which sponsored King and Knight, not Mitsubishi directly? Same goes for the Ralliart team in the ARC. They are factory-backed, but through Ralliart, and not directly from Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi doesn't directly back competitors, just ask Jim Myhill in SA when he and Steve used to run the Magnas in the Production Cars....and I believe Jim works (worked?) for Mitsubishi....

I don't know where you got your mail from, but from what I've been told direct from PROCAR competitors and entrants, they were not given any sort of warnings. This can be seen from the fact that we have 6-8 brand new Lancer EVO8s competing, Peter Floyd's completed a new HSV GTS, not to mention the Corolla Sportivo, the Daihatsu Copen, the new XR6 Turbos.......

No one in their right mind is going to that expense if they have been told the series will wind up before it's half over....

[Zac]

Originally posted by psi999
I would say it has been cut back about 23 hrs and 59 mins (give or take a minute or so )

That's not what I wanted to hear

[itsnotagsr]

Originally posted by Nafe
I thought it was Ralliart which sponsored King and Knight, not Mitsubishi directly? Same goes for the Ralliart team in the ARC. They are factory-backed, but through Ralliart, and not directly from Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi doesn't directly back competitors, just ask Jim Myhill in SA when he and Steve used to run the Magnas in the Production Cars....and I believe Jim works (worked?) for Mitsubishi....

Youre right - Ralliart is now owned by Mitsubishi. Bob Riley sold his business. They get their money directly from Mitsubishi. Hence my saying that the are sponsored by Mitsubishi. If I remember correctly, Knight was sponsored by Mitsubishi Electric - different parts of the conglomerate, but almost close enough

Since Tom Phillips took over, being the ex head of Marketing at Toyota, he has started to look closely at where the ad money is going. He has highlighted rally and GTP as their best options, especially seeing as Avesco will probably never let them run a Magna (and whether the public accept it either).

Originally posted by Nafe


I don't know where you got your mail from, but from what I've been told direct from PROCAR competitors and entrants, they were not given any sort of warnings. This can be seen from the fact that we have 6-8 brand new Lancer EVO8s competing, Peter Floyd's completed a new HSV GTS, not to mention the Corolla Sportivo, the Daihatsu Copen, the new XR6 Turbos.......

No one in their right mind is going to that expense if they have been told the series will wind up before it's half over....

My mail comes from a competitor (until very recently - sold his car at what seems like gifted timing!) and also someone else who works on one of the leading teams. So Ive got two sources.

There are actually 12 evo 7/8s running. There were three more built but Procar wouldnt accept their entries as they deemed that there were too many already.

Yes seems like a bit strange that so many people invested money into it, but most of these cars have been built over a fairly long time period. Palmer insisted that it would continue. Maybe I should clarify that the competitors knew merely that it was no longer financially viable for the promoter, rather than specifically that they were going bust. However its not too far a stretch of the imagination to put these two together. However - given the combined wealth of the competitors, there are already plans to keep it going supposedly. I'd think that this would also depend on which tv network would want to stand by it.

[dazza]

Originally posted by Secoh
each competitor usually has to pay a media fee, or they dont get shown on tv. if the front runners arent paying the fee, the whole series is unlikely to be shown on tv. last I heard it was in the order of $20k that channel 10 wanted for a rally.

That makes a lot of sense... (Total rort really but it does make sense)

Was watching rally last weekend and you only really see the front running teams they don't even mention the others which made for a pretty boring telecast

[Jag7799]

thats so fucked.. i loved the series(whenver i caught it once every 3 months or so lol) .. it should be properly telecast and especially with the boom in imports i think it would do well