The third round of the 2015 V8 Supercar Series has been run and won over in Perth, and there were interesting storylines on and off the track. Here are three thoughts from a weekend where, rather strangely, Holden didn’t see the top step of the podium:
1. The Saturday sprint races need to go. What is this? 1999 all over again? For a while, the series trended away from what was traditionally a three-race sprint format in the late nineties and into the new millennium, replacing that tired format with longer races, but now we’ve come full circle?
I honestly don’t know why. There are few more boring things than a 45-minute sprint where drivers require neither tyres nor fuel. It’s particularly brutal on tracks like Barbagallo and Symmons Plains, where passing is at a premium. If the pole man makes it off the line cleanly, he’s rarely headed in these short events, as we saw on Saturday with Ford’s Mark Winterbottom getting the jump in both races, which he turned into twin victories.
Frankly, these short Saturday races boring to watch, and unless you’re either in the paid employ of the V8 Supercars or one of those ridiculously rabid fans who believe every move the series makes is a good one, you probably agree with me. The best racing the series has to offer is these longer Sunday events, where strategy and the prowess – or, often, lack thereof – really come into play, and hold people’s attention.
I thought Sunday’s race was a markedly better than Saturday. Let’s hope this is the last year of the nonsensical Saturday afternoon sprints.
2. Crowds are down. There were a lot of patches of green grass around Barbagallo on the weekend, and no matter how the series spins their attendance numbers, the proof is in the TV pudding. When those cameras pan across the empty paddocks and sparsely-filled grandstands, it’s hard not to see the decline. I know the numbers released by the series said that the crowds in Tasmania had a slight uptick – you have to ask yourself how creatively these numbers are accrued – but it seems to me that the last two race weekends have been notable more for small crowds than good racing.
Of course, the last two weekends have been exclusively on pay television, and we are well aware of the furore that has engulfed racing, with so many fans of this working-class sport unable to afford pay television, or are simply in a region where it isn’t available.
So, does the fact that some fans can only see a small number of races on free to air television this year mean that they’re choosing not to follow the sport at all, thus not turning up to their local race meetings? It’s a plausible scenario. The other reason for a lack of crowds could well be the on-track product. I wait with great interest to hear the ‘official’ attendance numbers for the weekend.
3. Erebus Motorsport’s win was great for the sport. I’m a Ford man, and as much as I loved seeing Triple 8 wiping the floor with the Holden crew back in the day, I took a step back, looked at the bigger picture and realised that it wasn't good for the overall health of the series. One guy winning everything isn’t good. Look at NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, where television numbers and race track attendance dropped markedly at the same time as Jimmie Johnson went on a championship-winning spree. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
When Will Davison overtook Craig Lowndes for the race lead – and, ultimately, the win – yesterday, as much as I wanted to see the immensely likeable Lowndes win his hundredth race, I knew that, for the health of the series, it was a good thing. Erebus came into the sport as the first non-traditional team, and Will Davison took a massive leap of faith, leaving Prodrive Racing Australia to join a fledgling squad without real manufacturer support. It hasn’t been a cheap enterprise for Betty Klimenko, but moments like this must make the struggle worthwhile.
Davison and Erebus have been fast at times this year, but really didn’t show their winning potential until this weekend, and the test now is to back up as the season goes on. It’ll be great when the AMG-Mercedes, Nissan and Volvo squads are regularly up front, competing for race and championship wins. Variety is the spice of life, after all. The best racing series’ in the world – I’m looking at you, World Endurance Championship – are all about diversity.
See you all for Winton in a couple of weeks!
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