With the tension mounting as the 69th Australian Speedcar Championship at Avalon Raceway quickly approach’s you could be forgiven for thinking that Kevin Swindell’s title defence would be stressful enough. Spare a thought for car owner Steven Graham who has been battling red tape and bureaucratic bungling at its finest as he tried unsuccessfully to freight Swindell’s title winning Speedcar back from New Zealand following a recent tour.

Believe it or not almost four weeks after leaving New Zealand shores the pride of the Graham family remains locked away in a shipping container in Sydney as it awaits the required permit to be released. Graham has exhausted all avenues available and has been forced to prepare the spare car for defending champion Swindell as he begins the drive for back to back Australian Speedcar Championships.

Dealing directly with the transport minister Anthony Albanese and the Department of Transport and Regional Services (DOTARS) you could have expected that help would not have been far way. An obviously frustrated Steven Graham still remains unclear about exactly who is responsible for one of his most frustrating experiences.

“Well it depends who you talk to as everyone is pointing the finger at everyone else but basically the freight forwarders are responsible I believe,” said Steven in disbelief.

“By the way they did the paperwork when the car has come back into the country, customs are now asking for a DOTARS car importing permit from Canberra.”

“The freight forwarders are only telling me now that customs never used to enforce the permit for cars that have been shipped out and are coming back in but they are starting to enforce it now.”

“I have tried absolutely everything to get this car back but nothing has worked.”

The immaculately prepared Speedcar was freighted to New Zealand in December in preparation for a whistle stop tour by one of the sports biggest drawcards. Meanwhile Swindell raced for the Graham’s at Avalon in December at the Beasley Memorial. Although the car used at Avalon was brand new it was built as a spare and with the New Zealand tour pending the car was basically stripped with parts taken with Steven when he met Swindell in New Zealand on Boxing Day.

“When we came down for the Beasley Memorial that was a brand new car because the car that Kevin won last years title in had already left for New Zealand. The New Zealand car is the one that we wanted to run this weekend because we know it so well and it has been so successful for us,” Graham lamented.

“Last week I really got the New Zealand car out of my head and started to get this car how it needs to be so hopefully we will be right.”

“We had an engine problem at Geelong in December so when we got back from the Beasley race we pulled the engine out and pulled that apart and when I went to New Zealand I pulled all the shocks off and took them with me for spares. We basically just pulled a lot of things off this particular car.”

“That was the other big problem that all my spares went to New Zealand and all my tools and everything that I needed to go to an Australian Title was locked in this container. I have since got all that stuff cleared and we got that back last week. So now it’s just the car sitting there.”

“That’s where its stupidity really isn’t it, this import permit that they’re asking for is just for the car. Everything else is just parts. What we did was unload the container and we could take all our parts and the car was put in a separate container and locked back up again.”

“My argument is that I am not importing a car. My car is returning and I just want back what is mine. It’s not a new car but you just bang your head against a brick wall.”

Initially Steven was informed that the DOTARS permit takes 17 days to process and with 25 days now elapsed there is still no sign of the championship winning Speedcar.

“DOTARS actually comes under the umbrella of the transport minister Anthony Albanese. So I contacted his office and asked if we could hurry this permit through because I need this car for the Australian Championship. I told him it’s an International event and there has been advertising for it as we have an American driver coming out who is the defending champion, everything is booked and paid for but I don’t have a race car.”

“His response was, ‘leave it with me and I will look into it.”

“Guess what? I still haven’t heard back from the transport minister or anyone from his office to this day.”

“You can’t even talk to these people, they don’t want to know you. Basically they said that I was in the queue and don’t call us again or you will be on the bottom of the pile.”

“It has been a setback but we have overcome it. I have worked late nights here for the last week because I have wasted so much time and effort trying to get this car back and get it out.”

“You have no idea how many phone calls I have made trying to get this sorted out, its very disappointing.”

Despite the setback Steven is confident that the package Swindell will have at his disposal is more than capable of winning back to back national Speedcar championships.

Swindell’s recent form has been outstanding with his performance in New Zealand capped by a back to front drive around the outside of what was generally speaking a single groove track at Auckland during the 50 Lap World Speedcar Championship.

“Yeah that was great, it was like a win really. Starting out of 17 I thought we will be lucky to go anywhere with the way the track was in the heat races. There wasn’t a lot of passing going on and it was a bit of a one lane track until he found a groove on the outside and made it work.”

Following the New Zealand tour Swindell returned to Oklahoma to contest the prestigious Chili Bowl Indoor Speedcar event that attracted over 265 entries from the world’s best drivers. Following a week long series of qualifying events that saw Swindell win his preliminary night he then scored the biggest win of his career when he won the 50 lap Chili Bowl Championship on the final night.

“That was huge for him to win that. He is a very good driver and very talented. It’s great for the Speedcars to have the Chili Bowl champion here, it couldn’t have worked out better.”

Australian Speedcar Title Schedule.

Wednesday 17th Feb 2010
Machine Examinations 12 – 4pm
Official Practice – Free Entry for Spectators 6 - 8pm

Thursday 18th Feb 2010
Ford Discovery Centre – Corner Gheringhap and Brougham Streets, Geelong
Drivers Briefing 4:30pm
Function and Calcutta 5:30 – 10:30pm
Tickets Still Available for the dinner phone Julie Williams 0427 102 128.

Friday 19th Feb 2010
Engine Starts 6pm
Racing Starts 7pm
Each driver will contest three heats

Saturday 20th Feb 2010
Engine Starts 6pm approx.
Racing Starts 7pm
Each driver will contest a remaining heat, B-main, Top 8 Pole Shuffle and 40 lap Championship Final


2010 Australian Speedcar Title Nominations – Avalon Raceway, February 19 – 20, 2010.

A1 Kevin Swindell (USA)

V3 Peter Ghent
V5 Darren Power
V8 Mark Craven
V10 Travis Mills
V13 Andy Pearce
V17 Robbie Gordon
V21 Craig Hume
V33 Craig Smith
V97 David Crabtree

SA2 Matt Coombe
SA5 John McKay
SA7 Tim Crouch
SA9 Ben Dillon
SA71 Davey Ray (USA)

NT11 Les Robertson

Q5 Adam Wallis
Q7 Grant Draney
Q13 Brett Foreman
Q14 Mick Harders
Q24 John Davidson
Q29 Brad Mosen (NZ)
Q41 Brendan Palmer
Q55 Brad Sloan
Q68 Syd Whittaker
Q75 Robert Mackay
Q91 Brock Hallett
Q96 Chris Singleton
Q99 Brock Dean

WA12 Vaughan Manders
WA14 Neville Lance
WA21 Dene McAllan
WA24 Dayne Kingshott
WA54 Jason Roser
WA56 Spare Car
WA76 Keith Giles

N6 Ant Brien
N7 Nathan Smee
N9 Scott Glazebrook
N25 Spare car for N7
N11 Harley Bishop
N53 Rod Francis
N69 Mark Brown
N70 Michael Rinkin
N76 Troy Jordan
N78 Troy Jenkins

Website; www.avalonraceway.com

For more info contact Jeff Drew 0418 160 985 / Gavin White email gwxp@speedway.net.au


AVALON RACEWAY SEASON CALENDAR 2009/2010

February
Wednesday 17th - Speedcar Australian Title Practice

Friday 19th - Speedcar Australian Title, Super Sedans

Saturday 20th - Speedcar Australian Title, Modified Production Sedans

March
Sunday 7th - SRA Eureka Sprintcar Series Rd 10, Formula 500 TRI Steel Victorian Stampede Series Rd 5, V8 Dirt Modifieds

Saturday 20th - AMCA Nationals, Junior Sedans, Street Stocks, Wingless Sprints

April
Friday 2nd - Easter Sprintcar Trail Rd 1, Super Rods, 4 Cylinder Demo, Fireworks