Veteran Supercars team owner claiming "misleading and deceptive conduct" over contract negotiations

Veteran Supercars team owner Garry Rogers has commenced legal action against Volvo. A statement of claim alleging misleading and deceptive conduct was filed by Rogers’ motorsport operation in the Federal Court of Australia last Friday afternoon.

The applicant in the case is Rogers Engineering and Development, the company that trades as Garry Rogers Motorsport (GRM), while the respondents are Volvo Car Australia and Polestar Performance.

The action has come about in the wake of Volvo’s shock decision in May to not extend its three-year deal with GRM to race in Supercars (formerly V8 Supercars) beyond 2016.

Rogers and his legal team, Frenkel Partners (with former AFL executive Adrian Anderson acting as lead counsel) are arguing the decision was contrary to previous all indications GRM had been given about a renewal.

After the announcement Rogers made it clear the team still intended to race its Volvo S60 based Supercars again in 2017 as a bridging measure before securing new backing for 2018 and racing another brand of car and engine. But Volvo and its wholly-owned performance division Polestar have made it clear it wants to exercise a clause in the contract to buy back the cars along with the B8444S V8 engines developed specifically for the Supercars program.

GRM wrote to Volvo in Sweden in August requesting a one-year extension of the deal but that has been rejected, prompting Rogers to resort to legal action.

Star driver Scott McLaughlin also elected to swap teams to DJR Team Penske from next year, citing Volvo’s pull-out and the uncertainty that created as an important reason for his decision.

GRM agrees the engine, developed by Volvo’s global racing motorsport partner, Cyan Racing, is Volvo’s to reclaim, but argues the Chinese-owned Swedish car manufacturer has no right to the cars themelves, which are based on a proprietary Supercars chassis.

“We have taken action because we were misled,” team director Barry Rogers told motoring.com.au in a statement.

“Volvo organised meetings, spoke positively regarding an extension and then did an about face when maybe they had made this decision years earlier,” Rogers said.

“We have attempted to engage Volvo and resolve this matter in an amicable manner. Our core business is racing cars and not going to court.

“We would have absolutely no issue with Volvo if when asked regarding an extension past 2016 if they had told us ‘no’, or at least ‘we are unsure as we are going in different directions with technology’, but to the contrary we were led to believe that we had to convince the Australian arm including the dealers that this was a viable program and assist them in presenting a business case to support an extension.

“We had unanimous support from the dealer network, Volvo’s market share was growing at a faster rate than the Australian car market and we have the financial capacity to continue with the program.

“Volvo Sweden never allowed for this business case from Australia to be presented, deciding instead to announce an end to the program only three days after having myself and Scott McLaughlin in Sweden for the STCC [Scandinavian Touring Car Championship].

“Why did they want Scott? Option 1: Supercars has such a profile throughout Europe that Scott’s success in the Volvo were well known and he would provide attention to the Volvo brand if he raced in the STCC… Option 2: They were trying to lever him away from Supercars to race in the WTCC?

“Maybe a combination of both,” Rogers stated.

motoring.com.au contacted Volvo Car Australia managing director Kevin McCann for comment, but had not heard back before this story was filed.

Picture courtesy of Garry Rogers Motorsport