Motorsport on Monday: 08/12/14
Has V8 Supercars lost the plot? Sean mulls over the evidence
Close racing and V8s? Win-win, surely?
V8 Supercars is my kind of race series. If it's not yours, I defy the corners of your lips not to gently, uncontrollably sweep upwards at the sight of this.
It's a blue-collar battle between the two biggest names in the business Down Under. In Europe we don't really have a race series like it - we're jaded by boring single-seater championships so the best way to describe it is to imagine the hysteria, excitement, driving talent, speed, competitiveness and contact that oozed from the Super Touring era in 1990s BTCC racing. With V8s.
It's great. But it might not be for too much longer. The championship is now coming under threat from a few stupid decisions by organisers and a crucial withdrawal beyond its control.
What does the future hold with Ford leaving?
Case in point: imagine - just for a minute - if many of those BTCC drivers from the Super Touring era also drove for a GT team in the national championship, and that some bright spark had scheduled for the test day of one to coincide with the legendary endurance race of the other at one of the world's best tracks. Grids for each would take a serious hit.
That's exactly what's happened. V8SC rule makers decided to plonk the official pre-season test in Sydney on the same weekend as the Bathurst 12-hour. Not only that, but the V8SC test weekend was announced AFTER the Bathurst 12-hour booked its slot and made compulsory.
Then in wade manufacturers like Nissan (that has an interest in both) with driver Rick Kelly. Unlike his colleagues Craig Lowndes and Shane van Gisbergen who have abandoned their Bathurst seats, Nissan has stood strong and says Kelly will race a GT-R at Mount Panorama rather than go testing, potentially harming its V8 Supercar entry for 2015.
Test day mix-up has infuriated manufacturers
V8SC thought it might usurp fans of the Bathurst 12-hour fans, but it's backfired. There's been plenty of backlash - and rightly so.
When is V8 Supercars not V8 Supercars?
Things get worse than that though. Earlier this month, V8 Supercars announced it would open up engine regs from 2017 onwards as part of a wider revamp of the rules.
The broadening of the series' framework will allow four- and six-cylinder turbo engines to compete against the usual 5.0-litre naturally aspirated eights - so will V8 Supercars just be called Supercars from 2017?
While it'd be great to see a BMW M4 (the four-door rule will be lifted, too) battle a Commodore, let's hope not.
Big grids great, but surely the V8 needs to stay?
It might only be the Holdens that are left, too, as Ford recently announced it will be pulling out of the series after next season. Ford's decision stems from it ceasing production in Australia and therefore discontinuing the Falcon, but the above point is related to this latest development.
We've been lucky that two manufacturers have sustained the championship for as long as they did. Now Nissan, Mercedes and Volvo are all looking to nick a few Ford/Holden shrimps from the barbie and take a slice of the V8 Supercars action, the championship has realised manufacturer appeal will potentially bring bigger grids.
Opening up engine regs to include cars like the M3/M4 or even potentially current NGTC BTCC cars, if they could be tweaked enough, could deliver that.
What the championship hasn't realised is that the V8s are core to the sport and need to be protected. It thinks that by allowing anything other than a 5.0-litre V8 in, it'll bring more fans. But while it might work, if it comes at the expense of the fire breathers, it could do the opposite.
Superb series that needs to be saved, says Sean
While it'd be great to see an inter-continental dust-up between marques, if the balance of performance isn't right, we could see new technology for the championship muscle out the muscle, with Holden disappearing along with Ford to save face and money.
It would be diesel LMP1s all over again, with no one brand wanting to throw the budget at the older, conventional and potentially slower technology not favoured by the regs just because it'd please fans.
Fan power
But it's the fans that make the sport - they're ultimately the ones the sponsors are targeting and it's sponsors that pay bills. I'm not keen on the very 'bizznizz' like term stakeholders, but everyone involved would do well to remember them.
We'll see the new V8 Supercars 'Gen 2' rules at the end of next year most likely. Depending on the outcome, maybe PH should start a 'Save the V8' campaign?
[Pics: LAT]
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff