May 31, 2011
Published on tags: Superleague
Faced with the news of impending financial difficulty a couple of days ago at Draig, Synergetic owner and manager Mal McKee was shocked at what he described as, "A drowning team lashing out in revenge for their own problems", and suggested suddenly-embittered Draig were, "clutching at straws", in a "panicked attempt to find a way out of their predicament".

Mal McKee made a statement to the press earlier on Tuesday evening, and we have exclusive extracts here.

McKee was reacting to Draig's suggestion of claims of compensation. "This is the first I'd heard of it - as far as I was aware, Liam was a free agent. If there was any impropriety, it was Liam's agent's job to point it out at the time, and also for Draig to point it out." As it stands, Liam Hatchell approached Synergetic for a drive some time after the Australian Grand Prix. He had been employed by Draig as a race driver, but complained that he had been demoted to testing, having not been given a chance to prove himself in Melbourne, and had left the team after a disagreement. Negotiations were ongoing, with McKee initially signing Hatchell for a place in the Supercup. The contract was then extended for Hatchell to include a role as test driver for the Superleague a week after the Japanese Grand Prix.

"I was sorry to see Liam on the sidelines, as I felt he should be one of the drivers battling for the top few positions in the Drivers' Championship this year," said Mal, "At the same time, I'm sorry to see Draig in an unhealthy financial state. No driver deserves that kind of worry, though I'm glad to see their situation has settled somewhat."

Extract: "I'm not sure what the motivation behind all this is, but I can't see that we've done anything wrong. I'm sure we would have been informed if we were about to do anything illegal. Draig are in difficulty, and many drivers and managers alike, I'm sure, have sympathy. My question though, would be why take it out on, and attempt to punish another lot of drivers' futures in an attempt to salvage the situation? It has been two months and six Grands Prix since Australia, and it's been one and a half months since Liam and Synergetic agreed a contract. Nothing has been said about this to me until I was asked for 'evidence' from the Administration. I have been in contact with all the members of Draig in the interim, and we get on quite well. They have all had every available opportunity to mention this before."

McKee thinks this is perhaps something that should have been sorted out, and that there should have been some mechanism by which he could have been made aware of legal obligations and existing contracts. He feels, "the mechanism shouldn't exist whereby a manager can sign a driver who is already under contract with another team, if indeed Liam was under contract at the time."

"As far as I'm concerned, I don't owe anything to anyone because I wasn't aware a contract still existed. It's still unknown to me whether a contract was still in place, or whether there had been some breach. To me, this is a matter between Draig and Liam."

McKee will be seeking legal advice on the matter, and has requested information back from the GPVWC Administration. The case continues.