I just red this on V8supercars :
Controversy has already affected three team's preparations for the Hamilton 400 with equipment and personal gear being stolen on route from Melbourne's Avalon Airport to New Zealand.
HSV Dealer Team, Tasman Motorsport and Ford Performance Racing were affected with Rick Kelly's steering wheel, Greg Murphy's two racing helmets and rims for FPR all stolen sometime between leaving the gear at Avalon and arriving at the track.
Tasman Motorsport made the discovery yesterday and quickly made provisions to send a member of the team back to Australia for an overnight round trip to pick up another two helmets for Murphy, who was particularly upset by the theft.
The helmets arrived at the Hamilton track at 8am this morning, just five hours before practice began.
A spokesperson for the team said they are unaware of where the theft took place, but believe it may have been before the equipment had left Australia although nothing has been confirmed at this stage.
HSV Dealer Team's Rick Kelly, who was very critical of the thief, was also confident the incident and loss of the steering wheel would not have an adverse effect on his weekend.
“It is extremely disappointing, Kelly said.
“You can't use that steering wheel for anything else and everyone knows where it is from, so you can't parade around with it either.
“So whoever has got it is obviously not the brightest spark in the world, but what do you do.
“For us it is tough because it has a lot of buttons and positioning things on it that is all information for the driver, so it is not ideal to start the weekend like this but that hasn't really slowed us down at the moment.
A spokesperson for V8 Supercars said that it ensures a full police investigation will be conducted into the thefts and all attempts will be made to track down the stolen items.
“V8 Supercars will also be reviewing, and upgrading where necessary, the security arrangements for the return of the Teams' equipment to Australia next week, as well as all future fly-away events,†the spokesperson said.
Displaying 1 to 20 of 39 replies
There have been 39 replies to this Discussion Topic:
Maddy 2:44 pm April 18th 2008
That is pretty full on…I don’t remember anything like that happening before
TVF-888 2:45 pm April 18th 2008
Bastards!!!!
lucky there wasnt any QLD teams stuff gone missing
* Bianca * 2:45 pm April 18th 2008
There are some pretty sad low lifes out there !!
* Bianca * 2:46 pm April 18th 2008
QLD or not , its still a bloody dam low act !!
Jessie~Car88 :) 2:47 pm April 18th 2008
Thats weird lol
Oh well it happened to the bad teams lol
TVF-888 2:48 pm April 18th 2008
i agree Bianca, still very childish, doesnt matter what team it was.
* Bianca * 2:52 pm April 18th 2008
FPR is far from a BAD team thank you very much !!
Jessie~Car88 :) 2:53 pm April 18th 2008
Im still pissed at them for calling Jamie names =S
* Bianca * 2:54 pm April 18th 2008
NO one deserves to get ANYTHING stolen .. Jamie is a big boy im sure he is over it !!!
Jessie~Car88 :) 3:01 pm April 18th 2008
I know its a bad thing…BUt i just take longer to get over things :S
* Bianca * 3:07 pm April 18th 2008
Well get over it girl lol we have a full weekend of racing
Jessie~Car88 :) 3:08 pm April 18th 2008
Haha yeahh
Frosty’s gotta hit one of the bad guys of to get back lol!!!
Sully 3:17 pm April 18th 2008
That’s pathetic! You know, though, if someone actually stooped low enough to steal the equipment thinking they can make a quick bit of money, just wait for them to try to sell it. They’ll probably sell it to some uncercover police officer and get their just desserts that way. There’s no way this lowlife(s) will get away with it.
Tinks 4:16 pm April 18th 2008
I’m sure it will only be a matter of time before the culprit is tracked down. It’s not like they were small items that someone could slip into their pocket. The police should be able to work out during their investigation which employee/s had access and opportunity to steal the items. And as everyone above has said, they’re not going to be able to sell the items. Even if they kept them to display in their own home, family members and friends will will eventually see them and no doubt dob them in.
jamiefan25 4:22 pm April 18th 2008
that is sad. I hope They find Them.
steph88 4:27 pm April 18th 2008
thats so pathetic. if you really like the sport you wouldn’t comprimise the drivers gear, its just not on. the culprit is obviously an idiot. i would laugh if it turned up on ebay in the following weeks, because i think if you actually enjoyed v8s you wouldn’t steal their stuff, but if you wanted to sell it you wouldn’t care. grrr…
Jessie~Car88 :) 4:48 pm April 18th 2008
It would be funny if the person who stole it was oon the wbesite lol reading this =S
Doe 5:09 pm April 18th 2008
it sad that some low life will prob try anf sell it to some poor person who’s been saving up their penny’s for something special
maybe when they catch who ever did it the driver could use them as a speed hump 
Marie (JWCR driver #2) 5:49 pm April 18th 2008
I am a huge believer in “What goes around comes around”.
Murph would not be happy! Fortunately, he has very distinctive helmets which would be hard to get rid of to people who had heard of the thefts.
Unfortunately I have heard of more thefts within the motorsport industry. Damn idiots.
* Bianca * 9:04 pm April 18th 2008
Seriously what is someone going to do with RK steering wheel ??