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NEWS
MOTORSPORT: Twilight V8 Supercars quite a change, mate
The first of the five planned twilight races in next year's V8 Supercar Championship will be in Adelaide – and those watching away from the track may have to tune to 7mate to see itFormat shake-up for Adelaide’s season-opener
Adelaide’s season-opening Clipsal 500 will hold a twilight V8 Supercar race meeting next March, half the length of the first Australian evening race in the championship at next month’s Sydney 500.
What hasn’t been announced is that the move to twilight racing is likely to consign V8 Supercars more to one of the Seven network’s secondary channels, 7mate, in most – if not all – states.
The move to later V8 Supercar races on Saturdays – the second of Adelaide’s 39-lap, 125km races on March 1 will start at 6.30pm Adelaide time (7pm in New South Wales and Victoria) – is being portrayed as a push into primetime TV.
While they will be in the prime viewing timeframe, Seven is unlikely to gamble on screening them on its prime channel in early evenings and risk its ratings for its news and lifestyle programming.
Dedicated V8 Supercar fans may go to 7mate to see racing but TV ratings figures show a general reluctance so far by more casual viewers to “migrate’ to the newer secondary digital channels of the networks, even though they are free.
Noticeably absent in today’s announcement of changes to the Clipsal 500 format is any big welcome from Seven for twilight racing. V8 Supercar drivers have welcomed it, with Adelaide’s Tim Slade calling it “really cool” and last year’s winner Will Davison saying it “is going to add an element of excitement”.
However, initial reaction from fans has been negative. On the website of Adelaide’s Advertiser newspaper, which was leaked the news in advance, the first comment by reader ‘Steve’ was: “Let Sydney do it as a point of difference.”
Second was a comment from ‘Malcolm’ that he would rather the Clipsal and Sydney 500 remain day races, while ‘bd’ said: “If it ain’t broken don’t fix it”.
“The format was fine the way it was,” said ‘Brian’, while ‘Robert’ commented: “Thanks for spoiling a great race. You have lost me as a fan.”
The first 250km leg of this season’s finale, the Sydney 500 on the Homebush Olympic Park street circuit on December 7, will start at 5.10pm eastern summer time and is scheduled to end by 7.30pm.
Seven has not yet indicated whether that race will be screened on its main channel or 7mate, or a combination of the two across the states.
The Adelaide twilight race on March 1 is one of five that V8 Supercars intends to schedule next season in the last year of its contract with Seven.
V8 Supercars chief executive James Warburton, a former sales boss of Seven and later the chief executive of the Ten network for a year, has the challenge of negotiating the next TV contract after the unhappiness in the sport about the existing deal done by his predecessor David Malone.
While the existing contract has kept the races on free-to-air TV the drop in revenue from the previous six-year deal, done when Warburton was the Seven sales boss and Tony Cochrane the chairman of V8 Supercars, has meant V8 Supercar teams receive no dividend from Supercar headquarters.
Having championed twilight racing for several months, Warburton said of today’s confirmation of the evening race at the Clipsal 500, billed as the single biggest change in the event’s history: “It’s appropriate that the mighty Clipsal 500 sets the tone for the 2014 season, as it has done for years. The Clipsal 500 is without doubt one of this country’s most successful and remarkable entertainment events.”
Even though the total racing distance on the Saturday remains at 250km the South Australian tourism minister Leon Bignell reckoned the day’s split format would “double the action”.
The first of the day’s two 125km races will start at 3.30pm Adelaide time.
Clipsal 500 chief executive Mark Warren said the weekend’s 500km concept “remains as the core”.
“With the new racing format fans will get to see two V8 Supercar race starts, two finishes, and the drivers going flat out with championship points awarded for each 125km race on Saturday afternoon and evening,” Warren said.
“Next year’s race will also see the debut of Volvo into the competition, which is another first for Adelaide.”
Volvo will become the fifth make in V8 Supercar racing, joining the traditional Holden and Ford and this year’s entrants Nissan and Erebus Motorsport with AMG Mercedes-Benzes.
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Written byGeoffrey Harris
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