KEY POINTS:
Australian V8 Supercar series officials have decided not to fine Team Kiwi Racing for not putting a car on the grid at last weekend's Eastern Creek round.
The board of the Touring Cars Entrants Group of Australia (Tega), the controlling body of the series, has also told Team Kiwi principal David John that the team have been given further dispensation to not attend the next round in Darwin.
Under the rules, the organisers can withdraw the licence of a team that misses a second round of the series.
A relieved John said yesterday he was told of the decisions by Tega general manager Kelvin O'Reilly by telephone in the morning.
John said Tega had taken into account the extraordinary circumstances surrounding Team Kiwi's absence.
After engineering partners Ford Performance Racing terminated their contract with Team Kiwi last week, and put the team's car in storage, John had unsuccessfully tried to get an alternate car on to the startline at Eastern Creek.
Ford Performance Racing ended the contract, saying they were owed thousands of dollars, a claim John denies.
Driver Paul Radisich also dealt Team Kiwi a blow by walking out in the wake of Ford Performance Racing's action.
John met Tega board members last Sunday to argue for a reduced fine.
"We are really relieved that we are not going to be fined the A$150,000 and [to know] that there are people prepared to work through the current situation rather than slam the book on us," John said.
Tega obviously saw Team Kiwi as important to their series and wanted to work with them to get a competitive car back on the track, he added. "They obviously know we tried everything we could to get a car on the track, so it was not a matter of not wanting to be there, but a matter of us turning up with a competitive package."
That was the reason behind Tega also suggesting it was "not in anyone's best interests to push us on to the track at Darwin [next week]", John added. " ... and we won't lose our licence - the reason is to make sure we come out firing on all eight cylinders ... "
There was no time to celebrate yesterday's news.
"There's still so much else to cover ... we obviously now need to rebuild our brand and keep moving forward as we rebuild and restructure.
"As the dust settles, the truth is starting to prevail," John said.
The wrangle with Ford Performance Racing was now in the hands of solicitors.
Meanwhile, John is negotiating another engineering partnership which he said could be announced next week.
"We have a very exciting future, a great combination with three top drivers that we have and the opportunity to have involved - things are looking up ... "
Team Kiwi aims to be back for the seventh round in Ipswich, Queensland, on July 20-22.
- NZPA
