MOTORSPORT: Viewers tune back into V8 Supercars

While Sunday's rain kept the attendance at the track down a little on recent years, TV figures for the first home round of this year's championship showed excellent improvement both days.

Sunday's TV audience in the five major Australian capital cities was up 29.2 per cent on last year, and Saturday's was up 24.55 per cent.

Watchers at the track and on TV saw some great action, even if both races had to be cut a little short of the scheduled 250km because of delays after crashes.

Sunday's TV audience averaged 615,000 viewers in the five capitals -- 139,000 more than last year.

Saturday's audience averaged 421,000 -- 83,000 more than last year.

This author has often noted declines in the number of viewers for V8 Supercar racing, and a year ago pointed out here a dramatic drop in the audience for the Clipsal despite the quality of the racing in Adelaide last year.

The V8 Supercar community can rightfully be delighted with the sharp upturn at the weekend.

Even though the latest numbers are short of those in 2007, '08 and '09 (the first three years of the V8s back on the Seven Network), and the combined number for the two race days (1.036 million at the weekend) is still more than 200,000 below what it was in '07 (1.250 million) the audience has headed north now instead of south.

And, even more importantly, the improvement was most noticeable in Sydney -- the country's largest market.

Saturday's TV audience in Sydney was up 82.54 per cent on last year, while Sunday's was up 65.52 per cent.

Brisbane also was up strongly, and Melbourne on Sunday, while Adelaide was the only market to show a drop -- a sizeable 23.66 per cent on Saturday -- but it is the interstate audience for an event in that city that is important.

There were signs of an upturn in the TV from the opening round in Abu Dhabi, although the numbers this correspondent saw were incomplete.

These figures from Adelaide are a good set of numbers for all V8 Supercar stakeholders except perhaps Ford -- because what the viewers are seeing is Holden domination of Ford in the races.

Holden has won all four races so far this season -- two of them by Jamie Whincup for Triple Eight Race Engineering/Team Vodafone and two by Toll Holden Racing Team -- Garth Tander on Saturday in Adelaide and James Courtney in the second race in Abu Dhabi.

Holden filled the top five placings in Adelaide's Saturday race and four of the top five on Sunday, with Orrcon Ford Performance Racing's Mark Winterbottom the only Ford among them in third place on Sunday.

Winterbottom is closest to Whincup in the championship standings, albeit 144 points -- almost a race win -- behind already, and his Trading Post FPR teammate Will Davison had pole position on Sunday, but in the main it is a Holden whitewash.

V8 Supercar Championship points after four of 27 races -- Jamie Whincup (Holden) 567 points, Mark Winterbottom (Ford) 423, Garth Tander (H) 363, Alex Davison (F) 348, Fabian Coulthard (H) 345, Craig Lowndes (H) 336, Shane van Gisbergen (F) 327, Rick Kelly (H) 321, Will Davison (F) 306, Jason Bright (H) 294, James Courtney (H) 280, David Reynolds (H) 276.
 
Brabham and Honda looking good for Le Mans
Expatriate Australian David Brabham's new Honda Performance Development sports car made a stunning debut in America's Sebring 12-Hour at the weekend, finishing second just a week after it was unveiled -- a sign that it could be a serious challenger to the diesel Audis and Peugeots at this year's Le Mans 24-Hour in France.

Sebring was won by an older-generation Peugeot 908 -- driven for ORECA by French trio Nicolas Lampierre, Loic Duval and Olivier Panis -- while Highcroft Racing's new HPD ARX-01e was 31.868 seconds behind.

Brabham shared the driving of the petrol-powered HPD with Frenchman Simon Pagenaud and Scotsman Marino Franchitti, brother of IndyCar star Dario Franchitti.

One of the new factory Peugeots finished third, almost 13 seconds behind the HPD, while the new factory Audis were five and six laps down respectively in fourth and fifth places after repairs.

However, one of those Audi R15+ TDIs -- driven by Scotsman Allan McNish, Dane Tom Kristensen and Italian Rinaldo Capello -- was the fastest car on the track for most of the final third of the race as it clawed back two laps.

The second factory Peugeot finished 17 laps down in eighth place.

Brabham and Highcroft were thrilled with the HPD car, especially looking ahead to its only other confirmed race this year -- Le Mans, which Brabham won with Peugeot two years ago.

He said it had been a "monumental effort" to get the HPD car on the grid at Sebring.

"It was only about a month ago that we got the go-ahead to enter," he said. "The car was built, sent to Florida, we ran it for the first time last Saturday (March 12) with a systems check and then got stuck into testing on Monday.

"It was not really the ideal preparation for one of the biggest sports car races in the world, but the result we picked up is absolutely stunning."

Co-driver Pagenaud is committed to Peugeot for Le Mans but reckoned the HPD would be a huge threat to the diesel cars there.

"To just unload for the first time last Saturday (March 12) and now be on the podium with the best teams in endurance racing is quite amazing," Pagenaud said. "It really is quite incredible what the Highcroft team has accomplished. We had outstanding power from the Honda engine and the guys at Wirth Research did a fantastic job on the aero package, which gave us both low drag and a lot of downforce.

"This car could be a very good contender at Le Mans. I will have to keep an eye on it and be careful when I am back in the Peugeot."

Highcroft boss Duncan Dayton had said before Sebring that the 12-Hour would be used as just a test for the HPD car.

"Somebody made a joke at the end how it was great that we invited 55 other cars to come our test, which made for a great race," a very happy Dayton said.

Carl Edwards, the fastest qualifier, was a close second in his Ford, ahead of five-time champion Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet), Matt Kenseth (Ford) and Paul Menard (Chevrolet).

Young Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne got caught up in two multi-car accidents.

Ambrose said he "had a good day" in his Richard Petty Motorsports Ford Fusion "considering it was rough".

"We fought hard to stay on the lead lap and got some damage late, which hurt the handling of the car, but I'll take it," Ambrose said. "If we have a difficult day and finish 15th that's not too bad. We just kept digging all day and did the best we could.

"I like this track. I'm disappointed with 15th, but when you have a difficult day like that, you've just got to walk away saying I've got a straight car and decent points."

Kurt Busch, sixth in his Dodge at Bristol, still leads the series by a point from Edwards, with Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman equal third, ahead of Menard, Kyle Busch (17 points behind his brother), Johnson, Juan Pablo Montoya and Dale Earnhardt Junior.

Ambrose is 18th under this year's new points system, 45 behind Kurt Busch but one ahead of round two race winner and four-time champion Jeff Gordon.

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