How will motorsport recuperate from this fiasco?
author: Leon Botha
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R400m? How and where?
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It was almost a personal déjà vu when I started reading the first articles, and sometimes almost hidden snippets, about the Phakisa Freeway (Freebie) as long as 3 years ago. I closed my eyes, but not unlike when the Dot Com bubble burst two weeks before we launched our international website with one of the best ideas ever on internet, not unlike the uncontrolled crime wave in Arcadia where I had a lot of money invested in a restaurant, and not unlike the announcement of Kodesa in the so-called the World Trade Centre when they turned a trade centre into a political circus, while we had millions invested to trade – this one would also not go away.
“Please Lord make this one go away” – I thought by myself, “as motorsport can hardly afford what was going to happen here. We still have to convince the government one day that they will never regret investing in a WRC event, we needed them to have faith in motorsport, not being taken for a R400m ride.”
The first time I ever heard of Hartslief was in the late 70’s when we tried to buy Kyalami on an auction. My hand went up for the last time on our limit of R1.3m and a representative of Hartslief offered R1.4m and with no further competition – they bought Kyalami that was worth a lot more. We never knew how high they would have been willing and able to go, but the rumours then were that he had “Arabic oil contacts” – now who will look for shit with those guys? (At that stage SCC had a fair amount of money, some other individuals had a bit, but typical when I suggested we combine strength they did not trust anyone or wanted control, while they did not have the money to buy control. Kyalami would still have been a race track today – with development – but still a spectator and race fan friendly track. …….but that is another story for another day.)
When Phakisa started and Hartslief’s name popped up again – I thought, “Well, well, well – now that same money is going to build us a grand Grand Prix track and we will probably see a success story even though the track was a bit far from the real action and “easy money” of Gauteng.
Then if I remember correctly, the first cracks appeared when there was a dispute between Phakisa and the MSA – the latter refusing Phakisa events, and Hartslief and Peter Lindenberg got into a bit of a tussle over who will have SASCAR events and who not.
Knowing what sort of guarantees were required to stage a motorcycle Grand Prix, and keeping the location of the track in mind I could not see them showing any kind of profit – even if they tried. In the beginning still naively not too worried as the Arabs had plenty where that bit to build the track came from.
Then my hair stood on edge when I heard that the Free State government was actually funding this “Hartslief” venture. This was actually before the construction of the track began in 1997 when Judge Mervyn King, then the chairman of the Automobile Association of South Africa, warned the Free State government in vain that the track would lose money if it went ahead.
Hartslief's plan was so convincing that the government preferred it despite the warning from such a “simple” man as the judge. They went ahead, paying to build, maintain and promote the track while allowing income from TV rights and from the gate to go to the promoters of the events. (My goodness!)
To add insult to injury, Hartslief, was paid about R800,000 a year to “run” this fiasco from his – I presume – comfortable home in Colorado Springs USA.
The money involved is now conservatively estimated on R400m “invested” to get the track where it is today, while a handsome return of R7m can be recorded in the books.
The name of Steward Pegg, Info scandals, and a couple more pop up in my mind – the Kyalami name being sold to an arse without two cents to rub together, etc, etc.
Would an early warning that NO events will be allowed at Phakisa not have helped?
They say it is easy to have 20/20 vision in hindsight, but there were so many warnings, so many early signs, how could the government have landed themselves in such a mess? Is Hartslief that good – was this the ultimate sting?
The question is, do we the motorsport fraternity simply stand back and try to avoid any smear from this mess, or do we need to come up with some plan to get the taxpayers money back? Will motorsport actually be able to remain blameless?
Why did I write this article? Why get up a 02h30 to worry about Hartslief’s doings?
Yesterday I experienced the first shot at motorsport from a sponsor we approached 2 weeks ago, where they indirectly said that they would rather avoid the sport for the time being as their management and share holders feels that the connotation between motorsport and the wasting of money – be it taxpayer’s or shareholder’s – is too much in the lime-light at the moment.
An announcement disassociating motorsport per se from this mess is required in my opinion, but even if that is accepted, will we ever be able to get the government to believe us when we do come up with a realistic plan such as staging a WRC event?
It is my humble opinion that we should take a stand, and either come up with solutions, even partial solutions will be better than none at all.
Is this an opportunity where we can be the saviours of plenty tax money, or is it simply too big for us to handle? Can we afford to stay out of it? Th estay away option will surely be the most attractive - but will that seal our fate as well?
We would like to hear what you – our readers think. Have you a solution, except insure it, then create an electrical short that blows up the track because the wire went through a nearby dynamite factory.
I am sure that Bobby Hartslief will have perfectly acceptable answers to all the questions - or did he miss some of the action while running the show from overseas?
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