MOTORSPORT: Bathurst 12 Hour deal just the start for V8s

V8 Supercars is expected to complete and announce its deal to take over the promotional rights for next February’s Bathurst 12 Hour endurance race as soon as this week, but the category’s boss has made it clear it is only the start of a major expansionary push.

V8 Supercars self-promotes the vast majority of the events it contest each year, including the ‘other’ race at Mount Panorama, the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 in October.

But CEO James Warburton says he is determined to more fully exploit the company’s in-house events management and promotion capabilities, which include its own television broadcast production operation.

And he has not ruled out promoting events outside motorsport.

“Absolutely, I don’t think there is anything in motorsport or event-land we haven’t looked at,” Warburton told motoring.com.au.

“We are a big events company. That is what we are.”

“If you look at any of the major event companies in Australia, we dwarf them in terms of size.”

While plenty in motorsport would look upon an expansionary Supercars as bad for motorsport, Warburton is pushing the line that the category wants to be a team player, rather than ride over categories roughshod as happened in the Tony Cochrane era. He argues stability is good for all players.

To put it another way, Warburton, who runs a company now majority owned by private equity firm Archer Capital rather than the teams (who are now minority owners), has a different vision for ways to make money from the business he runs.

And bolstering the bottom line is always something a private equity owner is interested in, given the ultimate aim is to fatten the lamb and sell it off for a profit.

While the deal to promote Bathurst – negotiated with the Bathurst Regional Council and existing 12 Hour promoter James O’Brien -- has shocked the Australian motorsport community, the signs have been around for some time that V8 Supercars is in an expansionary mood.

It tried to buy the burgeoning Australian GT3 series from motorsport entrepreneur Tony Quinn late last year – as reported at the time by motoring.com.au – but that fell through at board level.

It is also now involved in the Utes category, which transitions from traditional Ford Falcon and Holden Commodores to one-tonners by 2017. There have also been recent announcements supporting a CAMS push for more permanent circuits in Australia.

“At the heart of V8 Supercars is an events company,” Warburton said. “So we administer the category through the technical side and rules and regulation, but actually when it comes down to achieving the returns for our owners and stakeholders, it actually comes down to events.

“My job is 99 per cent events focussed.

“We are the third largest employer of television personnel, in terms of what we do and the size and the scale of the crews here.

“You would be surprised at what our media production side is doing on a global basis. There is an enormous amount of respect for our television product and what we do and there is an enormous array of opportunities that we are actually looking at at the moment.

“We work 15 to 16 weekends, so we have the ability with the IP and the people we have got to work 40 to 50 weekends if we had to, to do other things. We have even been approached to run other events for other people that are not even motorsport related.”

Meanwhile, the V8 Supercars test day that clashed with the 2014 Bathurst 12 Hour and stopped V8 stars such as Craig Lowndes and Shane van Gisbergen from driving in the race appears certain to be scrapped for 2015.

V8s say it’s nothing to do with its potential deal to promote the 12 Hour. Instead, it insists it is driven by a desire to do a static media launch and hand more private testing time to teams during the season.

Also, the push is on to address the category’s tyre rules, with V8 Supercars confirming this week that a super-soft Dunlop control tyre option is to be tested within months.

The category has raced predominantly on the hard tyre this year to save costs, while mixing in some racing on a softer – but still relatively durable – option. Two new soft tyre options will also be tested.

The category’s technical department has also written to teams defending the aerodynamic parity of the category in the wake of the new Falcon FG X’s recent domination.

Holden team owners have been muttering into their metaphorical beards about the Falcon. HRT’s Ryan Walkinshaw referenced it on TV and BJR’s Brad Jones told motorsport website Speedcafe that he hoped the category would “go back and check all their numbers”.

Well it has, and despite nine wins for the Falcon in the last 11 starts and a runaway lead for Mark Winterbottom in the championship, it says there are no discrepancies.