{"id":529091,"date":"2026-07-16T14:05:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/529091\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T14:05:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:05:17","slug":"motorsport-news-aasa-executive-refutes-benall-auto-club-claims-over-controversial-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/529091\/","title":{"rendered":"Motorsport news: AASA executive refutes Benall Auto Club claims over controversial sale"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"AASA
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Australian Auto-Sport Alliance is an alternative motorsport governing body to Motorsport Australia<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In a report by The Age, Benalla Auto Club vice president Ross Wood said he thought he was authorising a three-year lease agreement to Les Smith and not a sale of the governing body.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Benalla Auto Club claimed a change of company details document was not presented to the committee.<\/p>\n

Smith has refuted that suggestion, stating that key stakeholders were well-informed and abreast of the sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the outset, I want to publicly thank everyone who has continued to support Australian Auto-Sport Alliance Pty. Ltd. (AASA) over these last few weeks,\u201d Smith said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been surprising to read reports which suggest that the Committee of Benalla Auto Club Inc (BAC) claimed to have no awareness of the share sale transaction until only very recently.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is in circumstances where I was involved in discussions and exchanged documents about the transaction with certain committee members, from mid-2025 onwards.<\/p>\n

Complete our motor oil survey for your chance to win 1 of 5 Supercheap Auto $100 gift cards.
\nTake the short survey.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI also ensured that all payments in connection with the transaction were made as and when required. This included payments which were made in October and December 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I am sure everyone appreciates, the sale and purchase of shares in a company requires a considerable amount of paperwork, which must be signed by all relevant parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhilst most of that paperwork is confidential, a copy of the Change to Company Details Form, which was lodged with ASIC in April 2026, is a publicly available document.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis document not only confirms that a transfer of the shares in AASA took place in March 2026, but as has recently been reported, was also signed by the Vice President of BAC.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Benalla Auto Club also disputed the timeline of Stephen Whyte\u2019s tenure as its chief executive officer, a position it says he held until June this year.<\/p>\n

Whyte claims to have been appointed CEO in 2023 but says he stepped back from that position in 2024, at which point he took the reins of the AASA.<\/p>\n

In The Age report, Whyte continued to \u201cassist the committee with executive matters\u201d after he finished up as the CEO of the Benalla Auto Club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remain committed to doing all that I can to support AASA and am proud to be surrounded by others who share the same mindset,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis includes Stephen Whyte, who has been the CEO of AASA since mid-2024 (after stepping down from his role with BAC) and has helped take AASA from strength to strength since that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAASA remains first and foremost a sanctioning body, with a purpose of facilitating the provision of public liability and personal accident insurance coverage for the greater motorsport community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt continues to retain and manage one of the largest programs in the country, supported by longstanding relationships with reputable insurers which have been built over many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith also addressed reports that the Benalla Auto Club was planning legal action.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDespite some reports suggesting that legal proceedings have been commenced, I am not aware of any such proceedings,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am keen to bring closure and finality to these issues and would welcome the opportunity to do so, in an open and public forum.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the meantime, I remain focused on continuing to support the great work being done by AASA, along with the broader motorsport community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian Auto-Sport Alliance is an alternative motorsport governing body to Motorsport Australia In a report by The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-529091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}