V8 Supercars.

Jeff Young

GT40s Supporter
Have several friends down there either racing or crewing on touring cars (not the Aussie cars) -- all said the same thing, best racing of the weekend was the Aussie Supercars.

Great series.
 

flatchat(Chris)

Supporter
Its on now -- 7 Mate (the Telly)
The grand stands look pretty bare and the commentry seem to be working hard
Aussie podium chicks look better tho :shy:
 
I watched it for about 5 min, the first thing i noticed was the empty stands, and the long shot of the empty car park, i'd say at a guess there was about the same number there as they get in Dubai, makes you wonder where the monies coming from?

cheers John
 
Hello Pete I am in Texas at the moment had a fantastic time racing not as good as hoped follow the leader needed some more category's racing as well to fill the day great circuit lots of food and piss but no fucking shade but you could walk through the pits no charge I will come again If I can get a leave pass off the cook. Chris
 
i wish I could have made it to Austin. But don't despair Pete, a first-time US venue with probably the best attendance to be expected. But with the TV coverage next year might be better attended. I at least got to enjoy the racing from my TV. I hope ALMS is better attended this fall.
 

Pete McCluskey.

Lifetime Supporter
I'm not despairing at all in fact I agree with Tim, the V8's are more circus than motor sport. I was just curious how they appealed to you blokes.
 
If you think your series is a circus you really need to watch CRASHCAR ..... THAT is a circus. Seems these days if you want a series to prosper you need to play to the casual enthusiast, not the educated/experienced one.
 
I don't really know anything about the v8 supercar series but I would like to. I caught some of the race and it seemed like it had all the ingredients to be exciting, but I think the course they were running on mitigated some of this. COTA is just to big and open and I think that played into not providing many opportunities for passing.

This article makes it seem like the event was a huge success: DAGYS: A Bright Future For V8 Supercars In America

But as stated in the above posts, the stands looked pretty sparse. I don't see how many average Americans would be interested in this race. Even though Ford an Nissan are brands that many people can identify with, we don't have Falcons or Commodores on our shores. I don't know if the cars could be competitive in this racing, but maybe they should allow cars like Mustangs, Cameros and Challengers in, and get some American teams involved. Those pony cars have such a huge following here and are pretty much what people think of when you say "V8".

I think if they did that, it would be a lot more popular here.
 
I went to the races both Sat & Sunday. Sat was hot & humid and the attendance in the stands was down 'cuz they were hot. I have turn 15 grandstand seats, but spent most of Sat on the grassy hill overlooking turn 19 cuz it was cooler. Sunday attendance (and the weather) were both a lot better. Stands had more people. Sunday afternoon the stands were thin until just before the V8 race and then people came from everywhere. It was a good race weekend (but then, when isn't). Sunday crowd felt about the same as the GrandAm a couple of months ago. I ran into lots of Aussies and the local news said there were about 5,500 up to see the race with a total of about 65,000 people attending for the weekend.
Racing was a little more subdued than I have previously seen on the TV, but then each team was restricted to only bringing 2 small containers of parts, etc so I think they were saving the cars until the last race. The schedule was a little odd, with 1-2 hr breaks between some of the races, which included the Porsche GT3 cup and a couple of other races series, then they had the two V8 races back to back (with very little break) on both Sat & Sun (4 V8 races total). Seems to me that it would have been better to break them up, give the teams time to regroup, and also fill the dead time during the day. There were also lots of yellow flags which, with a short race, made the actual racing time much shorter.
BTW, they ran the short COTA track - not the long F1/GrandAm Track. Although it kept the cars coming by more often, it made for difficulty passing.
All-in-all: it was a good weekend at the races. Some photos follow.
John
 

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Pete McCluskey.

Lifetime Supporter
Yes I think so, Ford Australia have lost $ 600 million in the last five years and have only survived thus far because of Government handouts.
The small population of Oz cannot sustain a car manufacturing industry given the high cost of labour and the lack of export opportunity in our region for right hand drive cars. IMHO .
 
Does anyone think this series is going to do well and expand in the USA? I browsed over the series rules, and as they are now, I don't think it will.
 
In my opinion:
Snoozercars are an ambitious business and will do whatever they have to, even sell Granny.
They will continue to progressively clone NASCAR's model until one day NASCAR may find it is no longer welcome at tracks or on TV - I suspect that is Stuportaxi's end game dream anyway, however impossible. They have ambitions to be the world tin top class (as usual at the expense of all other racing). If things go really well they might even get to buy the NASCAR brand.
Who knows, with F1 bent on ruining itself, Supertrain might even have designs there. ;)

I look forward to them leaving this little pond so that we can get back to some real and diverse racing. It has been too long.

Tim.
 
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Got to agree with Tim on this, the undercurrents of political barrow pushing that has gone on over the NZ round and venues is sickening. Its not motorsport the way it should be by a long shot.
 
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