User:QRGOER

Whoever wrote the entry for Queensland Raceway (QR) certainly has an axe to grind and has just as certainly not been in possession of all the facts around the demise of the original management group.

Firstly, there was a Qld State Championship race meeting in the first weekend of June 1999. The then Lakeside Raceway (LIR) management decided to promote a National Race meeting on the same weekend to compete against the QR meeting. For whatever reason CAMS allowed this conflict to happen even though they must have known it would be very difficult for QR to get the officials it needed to run the meeting as there had only been one track running about six meetings a year up until that time.

The track is not particularly bumpy but it does have three ridges caused by asphalt push in the braking zones. Two of the ridges have been measured at 50-55 mm high and 18 metres apart in the braking area for Turn 1 and the other ridge is 40mm high in the braking zone for Turn 3. It is generally considered that these ridges have been caused by the V8 Supercars in practice because of their heavy weight and relatively narrow tyres.

One of the things which seems to have been forgotten is the real reason the original management company went into administration. After the 1999 Queensland 500 significant areas of the track had been destroyed and another $800,000 was needed to fix it which they did not have. The original management team was faced with the dilemma of no cash, huge borrowings and an unuseable racetrack. It had no choice but to place the venue into administration as its main source of funds was no longer operable and the track did not return to useability for some months when the receivers (who had a far more than usual sympathy for the situation) were finally able to negotiate the track repairs.

The finance person referred to was proven to be incorrect and Qld Treasury wanted its money back. The original management team had expected (hoped?)that another department in the Qld State Governement would bail them out but the new minister did not feel inclined to do so. Four local businessmen attempted to keep the original company alive by negotiating a Deed of Company Arrangement with the government but this initiative was scuttled when an employee of the company refused to surrender his employment contract which was estimated to place a burden on the company of more then a million dollars. Only then was the company wound up with the inevitable result that the shareholders lost their money. It seems likely many of the people who purchased the Life Memberships did not realise that in fact they were buying a share in a not-for-profit company.

There are many other inaccuracies in the article which I can deal with at another time.