On May 30, Judge Rowan Darke rejected Trackcorp’s claim that council had breached a contract involving a series of events at Mount Panorama between 2007 and 2011 and ruled costs should be awarded to council.

Trackcorp was given 28 days to appeal the decision, but as they filed a Notice of Intention to Appeal on the same day (May 30), they now have until September 1 to appeal. 

Bathurst Regional Council general manager David Shirley said council was seeking to recover the costs they spent in defending the matter.

He said that as a Notice of Intention of Appeal had been filed, council were now awaiting the advice of the Supreme Court. 

“We are awaiting advice from the courts and will have to wait and see what the grounds of the appeal will be,” he said.

Trackcorp brought the action against council in 2011, claiming a breach of contract in relation to the Drive Bathurst and Sprint Bathurst events that Trackcorp ran on Mount Panorama between 2007 and 2011.

Trackcorp claimed council did not honour an exclusivity clause in its original contract by allowing a rival event, the Festival of Sporting Cars, to run similar events on Mount Panorama, and had failed to enter into good faith negotiations about Trackcorp taking up a five-year option to continue its event.

Trackcorp also sought to recoup the track hire fees it had paid for five events between 2007 and 2011 – to the tune of about $250,000 a year – on the basis that council was not lawfully entitled to charge those fees.

But in his 48-page judgment, Judge Darke found “Trackcorp has failed to establish any of its claims to relief” and ordered that costs be awarded to council – with the bill likely to top $1 million.