Add Category
Trent Dezoete was 18 when he attended the LOO5ENATS burnout event in Stawell, western Victoria, with his friend and younger brother.
The event took place on Saturday, November 4, about the same time five people were killed by a vehicle crash at a pub in Daylesford 150 kilometres away.
Trent was walking to get food when a car on the burnout pad lost control and careened into the spectator-only barbecue area.
"There was a car coming and [someone] yelled out 'move, move, move', but it wasn't quick enough and this guy jumped up, got his legs up on the bonnet and then he couldn't hold on and save himself," spectator Austin Giusa said the day after the death.
"He just went under the car for about 10 seconds and he went about 5 metres and just kept skidding.
"His last words were just 'help me' and that is what is going through my head now – him saying 'help me, help me'."
The 28-year-old driver of the vehicle was arrested and then released without charge by Victoria Police, who confirmed an investigation into the accident was ongoing in January.
Safety under the spotlight
Trent Dezoete's family said they had not been contacted about any insurance claim for the accident by the organisers, Stawell Motor Sports Club, or the event's safety regulation and insurance provider, the Australian Auto Sport Alliance (AASA).
AASA was formed in 2003 by the Benalla Auto Club amid dissatisfaction with Motorsport Australia, the government-recognised national sporting organisation for Australian racing.
Motorsport Australia is backed by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the world governing body of motorsport, and is recognised by the Australian Sports Commission as "the pre-eminent body for motorsports in Australia [that] is responsible for the management and development decisions as relevant to their sport".
AASA is not recognised by the FIA but operates legally as a competing motorsport safety regulator, giving events a different set of rules they can choose instead of Motorsport Australia's regulations as well as a different insurance policy.
In late 2023 AASA oversaw two deaths within months, just two years after its business manager Stephen Whyte claimed nearly two decades "without death or serious injuries".
Those were Trent Dezoete and Shane Savage, who died while competing at an AASA-sanctioned Powercruise event in Queensland last September.
Neither Powercruise nor AASA have responded to the ABC's requests for comment.
'Different risk profile'
The AASA was founded with an explicit goal: "to reduce the cost of participation in circuit motorsport, to substantially reduce the bureaucratic red tape associated with running such events, and to provide an efficient and fair deal for all motorsport stakeholders".
Motoring writer James Ward has participated in and commented on Australian motorsport for decades.
"If you've got someone like Red Bull sponsoring your event, you can afford to go through the FIA-backed sanctioning body," he said.
"[But] grassroots motorsport, club-level motorsport, even the privately run events like Targa have become almost prohibitively expensive to run [with Motorsport Australia].
Mr Ward said prior to the death of Trent Dezoete and Shane Savage: "I don't think AASA has been tested with a really serious issue.
"Their overheads and their risk profile is slightly different to how Motorsport Australia approach these things — maybe they're taking a bit of that risk on themselves," he said.
Speaking to the ABC, Motorsport Australia's director of motorsport, Michael Smith, said that outside the framework of the FIA "there's a financial interest [regarding] permits and sanction fees".
In a submission to the Queensland Transport and Public Works Committee, the Australian Institute of Motor Sport Safety, which is affiliated with Motorsport Australia, said the competition between sanctioning bodies was "like having a competing organisation to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority which could offer 'cut price' aircraft licensing with lower standards required.
"Or a competitor to ASIC [the Australian Securities and Investments Commission] which could have lower standards for corporate governance," it continued.
AASA responded to these concerns in a 2017 statement.
"We get it. The AASA isn't the biggest, the oldest or endorsed by the FIA … but that doesn't mean we compromise on the quality, knowledge and safety standards of any of our officials, staff or competitors," it said.
Motorsport organisers pick sides
Autofest and Sprint Car Nationals manager Les Adams is one of the motorsport organisers who has moved his events from Motorsport Australia to AASA.
He knows both organisations' regulations intimately.
"We were actually the first burnout event 30 years ago," he said.
At that time, "myself and CAMS, which is now Motorsport Australia, sat down and agreed on the rulings for burnout competitions and as far as I know, them rulings are still in place."
He said that since switching to AASA about seven years ago, the rules for his events "are very similar, if not a bit stricter".
"[AASA] actually attend most of our events. If they see any wrongdoing, they’ll shut us down there and then," Mr Adams said.
Dozens more events have switched from Motorsport Australia to AASA in the last two decades, mostly at the club and state level.
"AASA used to be a really low percentage of the market and [Motorsport Australia] a really high percentage. That’s reversed now," Mr Adams said.
Choose your rules
Despite the exodus of smaller organisers, Motorsport Australia has retained many of Australia's largest events, including the Formula One Grand Prix in Melbourne, the Bathurst 1000, and the Finke Desert Race.
However, in 2023, two of Australia's biggest tarmac rally events, Targa Tasmania and Targa West, publicly split from Motorsport Australia over its review into safety and subsequent regulation changes.
Those changes included limits on average maximum speed, power-to-weight ratios, road selection, grading, in-car safety measures, course signage, the proximity of spectators to the track and protocols following an incident.
Targa West specifically cited these rule changes when it announced it would be signing with AASA.
Likewise, Mr Adams said Motorsport Australia's "ridiculous" regulations motivated his own departure for AASA.
"We’ve got pretty rigorous regulations that determine what we will and won’t sanction," Motorsport Australia's Michael Smith said.
"There’s a level of cost to the industry that we have in terms of the safety and the framework that we provide, but we’re very, very keen to ensure that safety shouldn’t be competitive."
In 2021, Motorsport Australia's then chief executive Eugene Arocca made the organisation's position clear.
"The AASA is not a true sanctioning body and should not be entrusted with the responsibility of having any involvement in providing safety in motorsport," he said.
Answers for victims
Stawell Motor Sports Club declined to comment on the accident that killed Trent Dezoete while the police investigation was ongoing.
AASA's insurance broker, Horsell Duffey Langley, also declined to comment on the progress of any public liability claim.
Witnesses speculated the vehicle that lost control had experienced a brake failure after the burnout performance had concluded.
Neither AASA nor Motorsport Australia require burnout vehicles to be fitted with rear brakes to stop the wheels turning.
"A lot of them only run front disc brakes. No rear so they spin easily," Les Adams said.