"Great opportunities like this don't come along very often," O'Neill said. "Having motorcycles, especially Australia's own Formula Xtreme class, racing alongside the country’s premier motorsport series would have been a great boost to the sport at a time when one was needed."

Formula Xtreme was initially penned in by AVESCO for a number of east coast V8 Supercar rounds, but has now been left out because AVESCO had to finalise details for its support categories and the various issues associated with insurance cover could not be resolved in time.

"The loss of the AVESCO meetings will have an impact across the board from privateers to full factory teams," said O'Neill. "The teams have now lost a major opportunity to raise increased sponsorship and profile because of the potential involvement with the V8 Supercars. We had the basis of a great package for the competitors and teams alike with increased track time from the old 2 +4 events, plus fantastic prizes and major TV coverage to be aired on Channel Ten. The promotion of the sport would have taken a huge step forward if this opportunity had not been lost."

AVESCO CEO Wayne Cattach said: "I'm disappointed that the motorcycles could not be included as a support category for the V8 Supercars next year, as there was some obvious benefits associated with broadening the entertainment package to include motorcycling enthusiasts. However, it must be recognised in this current environment that insurance cover is a somewhat fragile business and the integration of permits and their attendant insurance packages has presented more difficulties than were able to be overcome, in the timeframe available.”

"AVESCO will nonetheless continue discussions with Formula Xtreme in order to explore options." Cattach added

"I believe AVESCO have been very patient in delaying the announcing of its 2002 support categories for so long so as to allow time to try and find away through the maze of bureaucratic red tape that suddenly appeared once the governing bodies of both sports became involved," concluded Mr. O'Neill.