Super X Australasia goes under

In the now infamous minutes from the February board meeting of Motorcycling Australia (MA), it was stated that “supercross is currently not operating well”.

That missive is probably now bordering on an acute understatement, because one of the companies behind the Australasian Supercross Championship is now in the hands of liquidators, owing unsecured creditors a total of $1.206 million.

Super X Australasia Pty Ltd (hereafter referred to as Super X) formally went into liquidation on March 25, prepared under section 497 of the Corporations Act 2001.

As at that date, sundry debtors for Super X totalled $117,531, and the company had $5457 cash on hand.

On the creditor’s side of the ledger, among those organisations owed money include the Australian Taxation Office ($212,894),  Supercross Australasia Pty Ltd ($62,021), Crusty Touring 09 Pty Ltd ($432,156), Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre ($252,250), Energy Australia Stadium ($36,417), Action Sports International Pty Ltd ($54,166), Stadium Catering ($36,363) and MA ($62,370).

However, Supercross Australasia, Crusty Touring and Action Sports International all belong in the same ‘stable’, with Crusty Touring now also in voluntary liquidation. Global Action Sports Pty Ltd, fronted by Michael Porra, the man behind the whole Super X ‘revolution’, also shares the same registered office as the other three.

As far as MA is concerned, its board has endorsed a one-off payment of $30,000 plus GST to clear the 63K debt, and is flagging $7000 plus GST for permit and rider fees to be paid prior to each round for the 2011 championship.

To that end, we recently announced that long-time Australian Motocross Championship promoter Kevin Williams had been appointed the new general manager of Super X, but it remains to be seen what form the series will take in 2011, with a number of stadiums still owed huge amounts of money from last season.

A calendar is still to be released, but will we now see a watered down version of Super X and a return to the smaller boutique stadiums?

Stadia such as Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne could be viable options which served supercross so well in the past, particularly in the 1990s when the Supercross Masters was such a huge feature on the motorcycle racing landscape.

In 2007, MA granted Global Action Sports (GAS) a 10-year licence to promote the Australasian Supercross Championship and in 2008 the first instalment was held, with two-time world SX champion Chad Reed the poster boy – and partner of GAS.

Reed and GAS have now parted ways, and the 2010 season saw Super X lose much of its halo, with smaller crowds at most venues – the absence of Reed (other than for round one) leaving an irreplaceable void.