Eric Thompson: Warring factions should ease off

Any attempt to split the championship will have long-term damage. Photo / Dean Purcell

There's big trouble brewing in small town New Zealand motorsport. It appears New Zealand V8 racing is heading the way open wheel racing went in America until recently. You guessed it - looks like we're going to be getting our own ChampCar v IndyCar series face-off.

I want to make it abundantly clear that I don't have an opinion on either camp, as they're both about as dysfunctional as each other as far as I'm concerned.

My main worry is the health of V8 racing in this country and what a split will do to MotorSport New Zealand. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. The CART/ChampCar/Indycar split just about destroyed single-seater racing in America and it was only because the US is so big and has a huge population that the various series managed to survive.

What the warring V8 factions fail to realise is New Zealand is way to small and has no money to bank roll two championships.

Motorsport is supposed to be about racing, but it always ends up in a swinging dick contest between small-minded men with big egos. My sympathies go to MotorSport president Shayne Harris who has to either sort it out or broker a deal.

As head of the governing body of racing he can't be seen as playing any part in any commercial decisions. However, what does muddy the waters a bit is MotorSport New Zealand owns the title (NZV8 championship), the television rights and the commercial rights to the championship.

Harris will have to be at his political best if he's to resolve the issue once and for all.

At the heart of the problem are disparate ideals on how the V8 championship should be run with each camp blaming the other of not promoting the sport. The two factions - NZV8s association VEGA and the promoter of MotorSport New Zealand, The Motorsport Company - are at each other's throats about profit sharing and self-interest.

Over the past few years the V8 championship has struggled to fill their grids and at one point had to drop the development series due to lack of interest. What on earth do the principles in this recent pissing contest think is going to happen if the sport is split down the middle? What fan is going to turn up to watch a dozen cars racing each other, and, what about the television exposure?

The coverage at the moment is a travesty and appears to be done under duress by the station. This potential split could just be the raison d'etre for them to pull the pin - totally.

Motor racing is expensive and because of our small population, exposure for sponsors is limited at the best of times. What the two parties in this standoff fail to realise is the long-term damage that will happen if there is a split. Sponsors will put it in the too-hard-basket and take their money somewhere else that isn't akin to a schoolyard spat.

I don't envy Harris one bit. He's got to be thinking if this isn't sorted out soon it may just filter down through the other classes and before you know it, motorsport will be back racing around some farmer's field out the back of Eketahuna.

To the warring factions, may I suggest you leave your egos at home, sit down and have a grown up conversation, rather than finger pointing, and have the sport at the heart of the issue - not your back pockets.