The culling of long-term and established staff at V8 Supercars has continued with the immediate axing of Promoted Events General Manager Kurt Sakzewski.
Sakzewski has been in the events management role for the last three years having initially started in the company’s motorsport arm in 2002.
The job saw Sakzewski act as the event manager for the Gold Coast, Townsville and Sandown events as well as overseeing the operations and management of the sport’s other assets at Bathurst, New Zealand, Tasmania, Sydney, Ipswich and Phillip Island.
Sakzewski had recently become the management and media “face” of the Gold Coast and Townsville events.
The loss of Sakzewski will be particularly felt at the Gold Coast 600, which lost its Community and Events Manager, Jayne Manwarring, in November and will lose its ticketing and accreditation staffer Bernadette Grogan in the coming days.
Ken Jeffress, whose knowledge of the V8 Supercar operations and financial structure dates back to its inception, is also expected to leave the organisation in March.
V8 Supercars has moved the majority of its senior management to Sydney over recent months under the watch of new CEO James Warburton.
A skeleton of remaining staff will officially move from its previous base at Nerang to much smaller facilities in Southport on the Gold Coast during the next couple of days.
Sakzewski declined to make comment on his departure when contacted by Speedcafe.com.
V8 Supercars director of promoted events, Mark Perry, confirmed Sakzewski’s fate in a note to teams and key stakeholders.
“Following a review of our structure and resourcing late in 2013, I am writing to communicate a change to our team structure and resourcing going into 2014,” it read.
“I confirm that we no longer will have the role of General Manager- Promoted Events going forward. Therefore, effective today I am writing to advise that Kurt Sakzewski will finish up with the business.
Perry added that Sakzewski had made “an amazing contribution to the business over a number of years in the key areas of motorsport and more recently events”.