The word on the street is that Minardi boss Paul Stoddart has scored a painful own goal with his antics down under.

According to reports even the people of his native Melbourne are angry at the recent debacle which saw the FIA dragged into the courts, its governance challenged, if not ridiculed, and the very future of international motor racing in Australia put at risk.

The backlash isn't restricted to the media, members of the public are furious that Stoddard has jeopardized their city, indeed their country's place in the motorsport community.

What hasn't helped is that after the arguing, the accusations and the legal challenge, Stoddart eventually withdrew his injunction and within a few hours has a race legal car ready for action.

Although the issue appears to have gone quiet, it is unlikely that we have heard the last of the matter, certainly as far as the FIA is concerned.

To all intents and purposes Stoddart went to Australia spoiling for a fight, prepared to use any methods at his disposal, even if it meant the cancellation of the event. Then, having got his injunction, and the attention of the world's media he found a solution that could have been achieved many weeks ago and with none of the fuss.

What's interesting is that in September 2004, the Team Dynamik V8 Supercar team went to the same court that Stoddart applied to - the Supreme Court of Victoria - to apply for an injunction to delay a race stewards' inquiry into an alleged breach of regulations. The team's application was rejected.

The issue revolved around a breach of the series' testing regulations.

Announcing his decision, Supreme Court Judge Mr Philip Cummins rejected the injunction claiming that Team Dynamik had "voluntarily agreed to a judicial system which is designed to ensure legal technicalities are minimised," referring to regulations drawn up by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS).

He added that it was "premature" for the court to intervene, and said that the material in the case was a matter purely for experts in the field, namely the stewards.

"CAMS is pleased that the Supreme Court of Victoria has reinforced the sports authority over its own judicial system and confirmed that all avenues of the CAMS judicial system must be exhausted prior to any party being able to seek the transfer of any matter to the civil law jurisdiction," said CAMS Motor Sport President, Colin Osborne.

"All participants pursuant to the rules in the AVESCO Operations Manual agree, through their entry into the Championship, that they will not become a party to any suit at law against the FIA, CAMS or AVESCO or TEGA until all remedies allowed by these rules have been exhausted.

"Put simply," he continued, "participants in all CAMS motor sport agree to abide by CAMS' judicial system prior to entering into a court of law.

"This is consistent with the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile's (FIA) International Sporting Code which CAMS, as the sole National Sporting Authority for four wheeled motor sport in Australia, is responsible for regulating."

So, talking of precedents...