Australian Auto Sport Alliance

The Australian Auto-Sport Alliance (AASA) was formed in 2003 as an organisation formed to promote and administer motorsport in Australia. The AASA formed due to dissatisfaction with the governing body of Australian motorsport, CAMS now Motorsport Australia, and organises race meetings independent of CAMS. A wholly owned subsidiary of the Benalla Auto Club, the association sanctions motor sport in various categories.

This history of the Benalla Auto Club often refers to the giant strides that the club has made since 1957, how the fledgling club has become one of the bigger players in motorsport in Australia, how many innovative ideas and safety measures have been pioneered at the Winton circuit and how the club has continued to be a model for other motor racing clubs and circuits in Australia.

But who would have thought that the Benalla Auto Club would have come to be perceived by some as a major threat to the sport's governing body, CAMS (Confederation of Australian Motor Sport)? Who would have thought the Benalla Auto Club could take on (and win) the battle against CAMS on matters as important as track licensing, competitor licensing and insurance, areas where CAMS once held a monopoly?

Almost since the time that Mick Ronke joined the committee of the Benalla Auto Club not long after its inception, the club began having not just differences of opinion but heated disputes with CAMS over a number of recurring matters, not the least of which was the increasing cost of a track licence, and the manner in which CAMS was perceived to ‘ride roughshod’ over the club. This was frustrating enough in the early days when the club was little more than the promoter of a small country race track, but as Benalla Auto Club became a thriving business enterprise that was generating considerable turnover, it seemed to be viewed by some at CAMS as a ‘cash cow’.

The club minute books detail the many spats the club had with CAMS. It was only when Ronke became a delegate to the National Council of CAMS that the club believed it had a chance of putting its side of the story forward or of achieving its goals. The “We are CAMS, we have the ultimate say” mentality continually irked Ronke, and he vowed to do something about it. Ronke was very much his own man, the veritable square peg in a round hole, the fly in the ointment, and his was often the lone voice crying in the wilderness about matters that affected the running and viability of the club.

By his own admission Mick Ronke got thoroughly sick of travelling up and down the highway from Benalla to the Melbourne CAMS office (and back) for a National Council meeting each month. Each meeting seemed to end with the obstinate Ronke sticking to his guns and fighting the Confederation every time he believed that clubs or the sport were being dealt a bad hand. Although the conduct of motorsport in Australia is bestowed on CAMS by the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) in France, Ronke reckoned they had no right to be so inflexible and heavy-handed, and he was quietly drawing up a plan to devise an alternative pathway.

The anti-CAMS feeling came to a head at a Benalla Auto Club committee meeting in 1993 when it was agreed, after much discussion, that the club should pursue a restructure of CAMS, indicating that it may withdraw from that body if the club did not receive more satisfactory treatment from CAMS. This, as well as the parallel and now famous Jane case over Auscar/Nascar at the Calder Thunderdome, were undoubtedly the seeds which spawned the formation of the AASA some years later.

There were three primary areas where Ronke believed he could broker a better deal for licence holders: competitors licences, event permit fees and insurance costs. Additionally, later on, the cost of track licences was also on Ronke's ‘hit list’. One of CAMS’ trump cards has always been that it could provide comprehensive insurance cover to competitors and organisers. CAMS also seemed to believe it had the sole right in Australia to provide both personal accident and public liability insurance cover for motorsport. However, there were some within the sport who disputed CAMS’ monopoly over these issues.

Ronke began tentatively looking at ways of setting up an alternative system which would provide competitors and organisers with a valid, cheaper alternative. Discussions with legal firms as to the viability of an alternative system were conducted over many months until a working model of National Competition Rules (NCR's) was produced that would satisfy the courts and the insurance underwriters in the event of a claim. But the real stumbling block could have been the insurance cover available and the actual cost of providing this. Ronke flew to England with Brian Dawson and Phillip Smiles to meet with one of the world's largest insurance brokers, Lloyd's of London, to talk with them about taking on the insurance. This delegation came away from these discussions having achieved the level of insurance cover they were seeking. The cover came at a considerable cost but the Benalla Auto Club were prepared to accept this because of the support of a number of other racing circuits who were prepared to share the cost.

Forging ahead with the idea, the Benalla Auto Club released their alternative model: the Australian Auto-Sport Alliance. Almost immediately AASA signed up their first customer: the Classic Adelaide International tarmac event, one of Australia's largest classic road events. Other event organisers started expressing interest but, when the crunch came, some end users got cold feet and stayed with the established CAMS system. Nevertheless, the Benalla Auto Club persisted, on the assumption (which later proved to be correct) that promoters and clubs would eventually come around.

The new AASA NCR's allowed competitors to purchase a competition licence without many of the difficulties that were being experienced under the CAMS method, but more to the point, it allowed clubs to run their events at the Winton circuit and elsewhere in a much smoother, userfriendly way. An added bonus for Benalla Auto Club was that Winton was in a position to issue its own track licence via AASA, something that worked extremely well, and at considerably less cost than the tens of thousands of dollars per year that the club had previously been required to pay under the CAMS system for a track licence.

Setting up a scheme to equal (and in some ways better) the long-established CAMS system was a huge task that resulted in much heartache, and required single-mindedness and persistence. The Benalla Auto Club could have thrown its hands in the air and accepted the fact that it was all too hard, but as far as Ronke, the club executive and the members were concerned, there was a moral point to be proven. To their credit they persevered, much to the perceived annoyance of CAMS who may have come to believe their ultimate control of motorsport in Australia may be eroded.

So great was the number of AASA licence applications being received that the administration and issuing of documents became quite time-consuming for the small team of Benalla Auto Club staff. However, the club believed it was worth the extra work involved because while the licence side of things made little money, the issuing of event permits through AASA was rapidly expanding over time.

Where other clubs and promoters would have just accepted the status quo, the Benalla Auto Club was a pioneer in offering an alternative to the CAMS system that had been in operation for over half a century. There was little doubt that the CAMS versus AASA battle was far from over but it seemed certain that event organisers and competitors were the big winners as the ranks of AASA-sanctioned events increased.