Racing awards court case backfires

AN attempt by the father of a promising young racing driver, Bazill van Rhyn, to force the Namibia Motor Sports Federation to crown his son as Namibia’s national go-kart champion for 2005 has backfired in the High Court in Windhoek.

If the court case that the young Van Rhyn’s father, businessman Willie van Rhyn, launched against the Namibia Motor Sports Federation, its President, Tony Rust, and the Windhoek Motor Club in early February was a car race, then the judgement of Acting Judge Collins Parker that was handed down in the High Court recently would probably have been the equivalent of Van Rhyn Snr suffering a crash-and-burn ending to his participation in the event. Acting Judge Parker not only dismissed Van Rhyn Snr’s case, but also levelled some strong criticism against the way he had rushed to court in a bid to have his son declared Namibia’s senior go-kart champion for 2005.As a result he ordered Van Rhyn Snr to pay the Federation’s legal costs for the case.Van Rhyn Snr rushed to court on a Saturday morning – that was on February 4 – and managed to get an interim interdict that stopped the Federation from going ahead with its President’s Ball and prize-giving ceremony that evening.That stopped not only the awarding of the championship title that Van Rhyn Snr claimed his son was entitled to, but also the awarding of 32 other championship prizes, according to Acting Judge Parker’s judgement.”If one may ask, what shade of right did (Van Rhyn Snr) have to interdict the giving of prizes to the 32 deserving champions, too? (…) In my opinion, with the greatest deference, (Van Rhyn Snr’s) behaviour, in the circumstances, is so grossly unreasonable and unwarranted in law that it is inexplicable except upon the ground of mala fides (bad faith) and arrogance,” the Acting Judge commented.Van Rhyn Snr claimed that, since his 15-year-old son had won most of the go-kart races in Namibia in the last year, he was entitled to be crowned as the country’s national champion in that category of motor-racing sports.Because he had however raced under a South African licence in some of the races that he won in Namibia, the points that he scored through those victories could in terms of the Namibia Motor Sports Federation’s rules not count in Bazill van Rhyn’s favour, Acting Judge Parker noted.In terms of the rules, a driver must have obtained at least half of the required tally of points – that would be 81 points – in order to be crowned national champion, he also noted.Taking into account the way that the rules discounted the points that Bazill van Rhyn could have won in the victories in which he raced under a South African licence, that however left the young driver with only 40,5 points, according to Acting Judge Parker’s calculation.The irrefutable conclusion that had to be drawn from that, according to the Acting Judge, was that Van Rhyn Snr’s court case had to fail.Acting Judge Parker not only dismissed Van Rhyn Snr’s case, but also levelled some strong criticism against the way he had rushed to court in a bid to have his son declared Namibia’s senior go-kart champion for 2005.As a result he ordered Van Rhyn Snr to pay the Federation’s legal costs for the case.Van Rhyn Snr rushed to court on a Saturday morning – that was on February 4 – and managed to get an interim interdict that stopped the Federation from going ahead with its President’s Ball and prize-giving ceremony that evening.That stopped not only the awarding of the championship title that Van Rhyn Snr claimed his son was entitled to, but also the awarding of 32 other championship prizes, according to Acting Judge Parker’s judgement.”If one may ask, what shade of right did (Van Rhyn Snr) have to interdict the giving of prizes to the 32 deserving champions, too? (…) In my opinion, with the greatest deference, (Van Rhyn Snr’s) behaviour, in the circumstances, is so grossly unreasonable and unwarranted in law that it is inexplicable except upon the ground of mala fides (bad faith) and arrogance,” the Acting Judge commented.Van Rhyn Snr claimed that, since his 15-year-old son had won most of the go-kart races in Namibia in the last year, he was entitled to be crowned as the country’s national champion in that category of motor-racing sports.Because he had however raced under a South African licence in some of the races that he won in Namibia, the points that he scored through those victories could in terms of the Namibia Motor Sports Federation’s rules not count in Bazill van Rhyn’s favour, Acting Judge Parker noted.In terms of the rules, a driver must have obtained at least half of the required tally of points – that would be 81 points – in order to be crowned national champion, he also noted.Taking into account the way that the rules discounted the points that Bazill van Rhyn could have won in the victories in which he raced under a South African licence, that however left the young driver with only 40,5 points, according to Acting Judge Parker’s calculation.The irrefutable conclusion that had to be drawn from that, according to the Acting Judge, was that Van Rhyn Snr’s court case had to fail.