Motorsport Australia sanctioning rival claims prestigious Australian Drivers Championship title
By Bruce Williams
Date posted: March 2, 2024
Has the AASA stolen the Australian Drivers Championship?
Motorsport Australia’s (CAMS Limited) most long-standing and prestigious championship and title – Australian Drivers Championship – appears to have been kidnapped by its administrative and alternative motorsport sanctioning rival, the Australian Auto-Sport Alliance (AASA).
With S5000, which has decided the Australian Drivers Championship over the past three seasons, currently in recess and its future the subject of ongoing discussion, AASA issued a statement yesterday, announcing it intends to stage the 2024 Australian Drivers Championship – using its locally produced Hyper Racer cars.
The media release also made the connection to the championship back to 1957 when the Australian Drivers Championship was first run.
AASA’s full statement read:
“The Australian Drivers’ (sic) Championship (ADC) is Australia’s premiere open-wheeler motor racing championship contested annually since 1957.
“2024 marks an extremely significant year for the historic racing series as the Australian Auto-Sport Alliance (AASA) will be proudly applying the title to the largest growing slicks and wings open wheeler category in Australia, the Hyper Racer Championship, honouring the illustrious 67 year history of the series.
“The Hyper Racer Australian Drivers Championship will succeed the S5000 ADC, Formula 3 ADC and so on, all the way back to the Formula Libre of 1957.
Created by former Australian Formula 2 Champion Jon Crooke and his son Dean, the Australian designed and built open-wheelers are currently the only “slicks and wings” open-wheeler in active production in the country.
“The 2024 Australian Drivers Championship will feature rounds of the VMRC (Victorian Motor Racing Championship) calendar alongside additional interstate circuits for six rounds in total. The full national calendar is set to be released in the coming weeks.
“The AASA is proud to carry on the Australian Drivers Championship name and uphold the tradition of the ADC titling the premiere open-wheeler racing class in Australia.
AASA CEO, Stephen Whyte, says he is “excited to see more young and upcoming talent, especially those looking to take the leap from karting, enjoying access to this high speed, low running cost and extremely competitive class and to grow their skills and showcase their abilities against the number of Australian Champions that make up the grid.”
“Round 1 will take place at Calder Park Raceway on March 16th & 17th.”
Supplied imagary included with the AASA media release announcing the ‘Australian Drivers’ Championship.
The statement has come as a complete shock to the motorsport industry, including Motorsport Australia, and is likely to ignite heated discussion, potentially legal, over ownership of the Australian Drivers Championship – is it a trademark, who owns it, or does 50 years of running Australia’s premier open wheeler define ‘ownership’ of the title?
A search of the Trade Mark register reveals an application, made a year ago, by a Victorian based company named as Mountain Motor Sports Pty Ltd for the Australian Driver’s Championship appears to have been granted.
Did MA know about it? Could it be appealed? Is the fact that the newly registered trademark has an apostrophe in Driver’s (ie grammatically signalling a championship contested by a single driver) relevant?
Mountain Motor Sports Peter Washington spoke to AUTO ACTION to claify the situation.
“Yes, Mountain Motor Sports Pty Ltd owns the Trademark for the ‘Australian Driver’s Championship’, and we legally registered the name and the trademark with IP Australia just over a year ago,” he said.
“We went through a legal process of obtaining the trademark.
“It was a drawn-out process over a period of time, with quite a bit of angst, but under the law we were able to use it, and proved that we are going use it in the future.
“I own the trademark and have leased it to the AASA and Hyper Racer who will run the Australian Driver’s Championship series in the future.”
The ever-spectacular Kevin Bartlett powers around Warwick Farm during the 1972 Gold Star race in his superb Chesterfield-sponsored Lola T300.
Crazy stuff, recalling the dramas some years back when CAMS realised that the Australian Touring Car Championship title was owned by Larry Perkins!
And in a twist to this particular story, the Australian Touring Car Championship name and trademark is also registered to Mountain Motor Sports Pty Ltd.
The trademarking action to claim and trademark the ‘Australian Touring Car Championship’ saw a very heated legal battle between CAMS Limited and Mountain Motor Sports Pty Ltd.
The action against the registration was led by CAMS Limited’s then CEO by Eugene Arroca.
CAMS action failed and ultimately Mountain Motor Sports won the action and now owns the name and trademark.
Certainly, it is a brave, audacious move by AASA. Its low-cost tubular-chassied Hyper Racers have to date run a number of State-based club events, but to claim it should take on the Drivers Championship title and status will ignite debate around the sport.
AUTO ACTION has approached Motorsport Australia management and their communications department for comment but hasn’t received a response to date.
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