Globalising V8 Supercars

[fpv_gtho]

There's a couple of things i'm hoping to get out of this thread:

Firstly, who on UCP, outside of Australia and New Zealand, actually watches the V8 Supercars. Channel 10, the people who broadcast the series, quite regularly mention networks around the world who also broadcast the series and i was just interested to see who actually is interested or pays any attention to the series outside of where they actually race. To add to this, the V8 Supercars have a non championship meeting for the Australian Gran Prix 2 weeks before the official start of the season, as well as a championship support event to the Indy 300 on the Gold Coast after Bathurst, so do these races get broadcasted overseas with the footage of the Indy and F1?

Secondly, would anyone like to see the V8 Supercars race overseas in say Europe, the UK, Canada or the US? Theres an official round thats ben running for a couple of years now in New Zealand and China missed out this year on their planned Shanghai round as AVESCO decided the event was being too rushed to be on time so it was rescheduled for next year. Bathurst and Phillip Island are widely regarded as the best racing tracks in Australia but how would you like to see perhaps the V8 Supercars racing at Laguna Seca or somewhere in the UK?

[henk4]

I don't know of any european network dealing with this. A satellite dish might help though. I for myself have never watched the V8 supercars, but there is a network "motors" that does some occasional australian racing, I think I saw the Touring GTP or GTS class, (discussed in another thread) but also something involving Fords and Holdens, but i really can't remember it was called Supercars.

[fpv_gtho]

yeah i remember that, it was the GTP championship which is basically the closest thing to competitive production class racing here. well Bathurst i would say gets broadcasted moreso than the normal rounds for obvious reasons. channel 10 is also the broadcaster of the F1 (although late at night on sunday), i think they have highlights of WRC and the MotoGP as well as the Australian superbike championship and australian rally championship so when they claim their australias home of motorsport theyre not kidding.

[Matra et Alpine]

Not seen any over in the UK - sorry.
'course that might just mean that Sky are broadcasting it at 3am !!!!

Anyway on importing other forms of motorsport, I'm not an advocate.
I'd rather see the other tracks as well as the cars

There is a European V8 series already - I think loosely based on NASCAR and we built an oval for the series at Rockingham. I don't think it's a success.
Saw the European Supercars ( V6 IIRC ) at Knockhill and it would have been more interesting watching grannies in their scooters on an ice rink.

[fpv_gtho]

well one of the major attractions to V8 Supercars is although theyre loosely based on the mechanics of NASCAR's, they dont require long straights, oval circuits or banked turns to race. as briefly mentioned before, they were going to go to the Shanghai GP track later this year but the plans were too tight to be run smoothly. if anything they go better at GP tracks like Phillip Island and Albert Park so they wouldve shined at Shanghai. over here ive seen the BTCC's on Fox Sports which is cable so i wouldnt be surprised if that was the case in Europe and N.America

[Coventrysucks]

I have watched the V8s on Channel 5 here in the UK. That was in 2001 and 2002, but I haven't seen it scheduled last year or for this season, but seeing as how I don't have a TV for most of the time, I haven't really been looking out for it.

Despite the fact that it was on at about 4 in the morning, it is some of the best touring car racing I have seen, great fun.

I think that it would do well amongst petrolheads, but the fact that the cars are exclusively antipodean, and the races are all held in Australia would keep it from becoming as popular as the BTCC for instance.

I think that there should be a new global touring car series. It would be fantastic, but very hard to implement, as to get the best racing you would want the best drivers from touring cars, but this would probably damage the national series.

Maybe If they changed all of the touring cars to an international standard, rwd and V8, with caps on weight and power. Even then there would be disparity between companies in terms of money invested. There would also be conflicts with the cars that are used. GM wouldn't really want the Holden Commodore racing against the Opel Vectra.

[Matra et Alpine]

....the Opel Vectra.

Which is 2litre straight 4 or V6 in European racing.
The European Touring car series never took off for the same reasons a world series would fail........
Different countries have different history of competition and different preferences. Most of all different tracks. I'd love to see a DTM car struggle round Cadwell Park or Knockhill
I prefer to see American Nascar on banked oval with capacity crowd, I like Bathurst - even if it is fixed for local manufacturers - and best of all light, nimble cars round the twisty tracks of the UK.
One size never does fit all !!!