MOTORSPORT: Great Race? Or the (final) Hour of Power?

Ford Performance Racing deserves every congratulation. It copped heaps for its previous failures and under-performance over a decade, but it answered its critics on Sunday in the best – and really only – way possible.

It was a richly-deserved victory for FPR’s long-time team leader Mark Winterbottom and a third success for veteran and loyal FPR co-driver Steven Richards. Nothing should detract from their collective achievement (the day after a lukewarm pledge from Ford Australia to continue supporting FPR, probably only for a year).

It must be said that the driving of all those in the top order in those final laps yesterday was superb.

However, there are broader questions to be asked about the Bathurst 1000.

We call it the Great Race, traditionally with great justification. But is it a great endurance race, or is it now a great sprint race in those last 30 laps (less than 200km)? More the Hour of Power than a great enduro?

There has been a growing feeling in recent years that the Bathurst 1000 is not what it was as a day-long event.

And, watching Sunday’s race with three veterans more experienced at it than I, that feeling grew even stronger.

Mid-race one of us four was close to bailing out. Two of the other three (not I) were in sympathy, although we all stuck with it.

But were the first five hours anything more than shadow boxing?

Apart from the sight of the kangaroo that took out the Nissan Altima driven by David Russell, without Todd Kelly getting a turn at the wheel, were those five hours entertainment?

Television networks won’t telecast the Bathurst 12-Hour because it’s simply too long, although SBS will screen the last three hours of next February’s event.

Surely we won’t get to a point where something similar happens with the 1000.

It’s a long way from that point yet, but the news on the TV front is good and bad.

The audience for Seven’s telecast yesterday was the best for the Bathurst 1000 in six years, but not as good as it was back in 2007 – the year Seven took back V8 Supercars from the Ten Network.

And it’s never been as good in recent years as the best years on Ten. Nor, we strongly suspect, in its days on Seven with Mike Raymond heading the commentary.

Surprising this year was that Saturday’s later Top 10 Shootout drew a much smaller audience than last year’s – a worrying omen for V8 Supercar CEO James Warburton’s push for twilight races at several rounds next year (and the late Saturday race at this December’s Sydney 500).

The average audience on Seven in the five major state capital cities for Saturday’s Shootout was 764,000 – 171,000 less than the 935,000 last year, but still up on the previous two years.

Sunday’s race averaged 1.263 million viewers in the five capitals – 10,000 more than last year and the third year of improvement since the low of 1.046 million in 2010.

However, in 2007 the figure was 1.357 million.

In 2006, on Ten, it was 1.40 million – that was the event that came just weeks after “King of the Mountain” Peter Brock’s death.

Back in 2002 the number was 1.49 million – a quarter of a million more viewers than yesterday.

These figures were all from OzTAM, Australia’s official TV ratings agency.

Yesterday there were more viewers in Melbourne (an average of 383,000) than Sydney (376,000), with Brisbane – which often heads the two bigger cities on V8 Supercar telecasts – third at 313,000 (10 per cent down on last year).

Bathurst 1000 five-capitals average viewers on Seven:
2007    1.357 million
2008    1.249 million
2009    1.182 million
2010    1.046 million
2011    1.212 million
2012    1.253 million
2013     1.263 million

The comparative five-capital averages for the recent NRL and AFL grand finals were 2.179 million (NRL on the Nine Network on Sunday, October 6) and 2.717 million (AFL on Seven on Saturday, September 28). The football games also had another 100,000 or more watching through pay TV.   

The Bathurst “picture” is not complete yet – until we see fuller national average numbers with the regional component added, and the peak audience for those thrilling closing laps.

Before that though there are a few other observations to be made about Sunday’s event. It remained a two-make race, despite the entry of the Nissans and AMG Mercedes-Benzes this year.

The newcomers were no challengers to the Fords and Holdens; the best Merc finished 14th and the best Nissan 18th – and they had been “nowhere” in qualifying.

And there are not enough cars in the race – the 29 (one more than other V8 Supercar rounds) do not provide the spectacle of the days of 40-plus.

As predicted here last week, the wildcard entry – a Triple Eight Holden Commodore driven by international stars Andy Priaulx and Mattias Ekstrom – was well worth it.

They exceeded most expectations, Ekstrom was simply brilliant for a first-timer at Bathurst, they led the race for quite some time and finished in the top 10.

Hopefully other top teams will field similar entries in future.

The other particularly meritorious performance beyond the top guns was that of young Scott Pye and veteran and only-occasional V8 Supercar racer Paul Morris – sixth at the chequered flag, barely 20 seconds behind the victorious Ford Falcon.

As great as the tussle between Winterbottom and Jamie Whincup was in the final laps it was something of a pity that it had to be Whincup fighting “Frosty” for the victory.

As pointed out here last Friday, Whincup places greater store in winning the season’s championship than the Bathurst 1000.

So we knew he would not risk all to take victory at Mt Panorama, that he would settle for the good points haul for second place rather than perhaps end up with next to none.

It was a surprise that he lunged at Winterbottom as hard as he did as they exited Mountain Straight the last time.

When that failed the race was shot for Whincup, unless Winterbottom made a mistake – or the Ford failed – in the remaining 5km.

That didn’t happen, but we can’t help thinking whether the dogfight might have been even more intense had it been Craig Lowndes or Garth Tander battling Winterbottom rather than a little further back in third and fourth.

Oh well, there’s always next year – when we’ll look forward to another Great Race.

Hopefully a genuine day-long race, rather than a final Hour of Power.

V8 Supercar team standings – 1. Triple Eight Race Engineering 4772 points; 2. Ford Performance Racing 4548; 3. Brad Jones Racing 3997; 4. Holden Racing Team 3844; 5. Tekno Autosports 3481; 6. Garry Rogers Motorsport 2925; 7. Nissan (Norton) 2300; 8. Nissan (Jack Daniel’s) 2209; 9. Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport 1800; 10. Erebus Motorsport 1777.

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