Why Nissan pulled out of Supercars

COMMENT

Nissan’s decision to withdraw from Supercars racing undoubtedly plays badly for Australia’s only professional motorsport category.

Having one of the biggest automotive brands in the country declare you’re no longer a place it wants to spend its marketing and sponsorship dollars is a message Supercars would prefer wasn’t out there.

Nissan got into Supercars because members of the local management team were motorsport enthusiasts and saw the linkage as a promotional boon for a brand in need of an image boost.

With that management team departed, Nissan Australia’s current bosses see it very differently. LCVs, SUVs, EVs and intelligent mobility are its focus.

Its decision to exit would have been encouraged by the lack of logical successor for the Altima, which hasn’t been sold since 2017, and the distinct lack of on-track success experienced by Nissan Motorsport.

By all accounts, Nissan Australia did a better job than any other manufacturer of ‘activating’ its Supercars investment and the team itself was similarly diligent. But two wins in five years is surely hard to work with.

Nissan Motorsport reverts to its former name Kelly Racing in 2019 and will continue to race four Altimas as privateers. It will be a tough year financially, but then they all are for almost every Supercars team nowadays.

That’s because the Supercars grid has long gone past the days of relying on car company largess to underpin its activities. Nissan’s withdrawal is the frag-end of a seachange, not an emerging trend. This is not a ‘sky is falling’ moment.

Holden spends maybe $2 million per annum on its association with Triple Eight Race Engineering. Nissan’s 2018 backing for the Nissan Motorsport team is said to be significantly less.

So, there are seven cars with ‘factory’ money on the 26-car 2018 grid and unless another brand turns up (Toyota is the current rumour) there will be three in 2019.

Clearly, there is a trend for car brands not to invest in motorsport and that’s something Supercars should rightly be concerned about it, desperate to understand and determined to address.

Supercars needs manufacturers. More than their cash, it needs their cars. Fresh body shapes on the grid inject fresh interest … just look at the commotion generated by confirmation the Ford Mustang is coming in 2019.

Traditionally, individual teams have gone out and wooed manufacturers, which pay millions to have their cars homologated and for the teams to race them. Nissan and the Kellys followed that model, as did Volvo with Garry Rogers Motorsport.

That up-front investment has proved a huge obstacle for those brands which have expressed interest in joining Supercars.

But the Mustang is being homologated in a different way; Ford approves the use of its Intellectual Property and provides technical back-up and some cash. It’s up to the Ford teams to find the money to race the cars, just as they do now with Falcon.

This is surely how brand involvement works going forward. And it’s feasible to see the championship rather than teams doing much – if not all – of the wooing.

Rather than big bucks being demanded up front, the offer should surely be flipped so it’s all about minimising costs for manufacturers to get a car to the grid.

Manufacturer investment would then be encouraged through separate commercial deals with both teams and the category. You want your logo on the car’s windscreen strip? That costs. You want presence on track signage? That costs. You want to entertain at the track? That costs.

If you’re just happy for your car to race without any promotion or activation. That doesn’t cost.

Speaking of dollars, vehicle running costs are another running sore for Supercars.

The cars are not the most expensive in the world of motorsport, but there is plenty of expense baked into certain aspects of them, especially engines and electronics.

It might sound like heresy, but why spend $100,000 per engine (plus development costs) to race when a control crate engine pumps out the same power and torque numbers for a fraction of the cost? It’s an obvious way to save a massive amount of money.

Not that Supercars will ever be cheap -- that’s not how motor racing works. If you want to race at the peak level then it’s only fair you put your money where your ambitions are … or if you are good enough commercially, your sponsors’ money.

But if the category wants to thrive, not just survive, then constantly pruning costs and improving the show must be core tenets.

Manufacturers like Nissan will come and go along with their budgets, but the crucial task is to ensure the teams – and the show – prosper anyway.