Has Supercars hit speed bumps?
V8 Supercars, now known as the Supercars Championship, sits in an uncomfortable position as the competition prepares to launch the New Zealand event in Taupo¯.
Reigning champion Brodie Kostecki has been embroiled in a spat with his team Erebus Motorsport and, with a resolution only having been reached on the eve of the Taupo¯ leg, fears were it would deplete Supercars’ star power even further after the departure of other big names.
Kostecki and Erebus have come to an agreement and the Australian will make his return in Taupo¯ but, with Erebus failing to directly address why their star driver had stepped away and several key sponsors walking amid the fallout from the wellpublicised saga, concerns about how the sport handles its biggest names appear to be well-founded.
With two other champions, Kiwis Scott Mclaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen, having taken their talents to the United States, racing in Indycar and Nascar, Kostecki’s absence from the grid at the start of the season meant that just two former Supercars title winners lined up for the 2024 opener at Bathurst.
Concerns have been raised by several prominent voices in the sport about the state of the competition — although Kiwi fans seem unperturbed as “unprecedented” demand for the Taupo¯ round has seen extra tickets issued.
New Zealand’s top motorsport commentator Bob Mcmurray says there are a number of issues contributing to the troubles of the series and highlights the TV product, handling of the sport’s biggest names by organisers and competition format as glaring concerns that must be addressed.
“I don’t think Supercars is handling any of their situations particularly well,” he says.
“Aside from the fact that the cars can be quite exciting . . . they don’t have a good look in anything that they’re doing at the moment.”
Younger drivers coming in to make a name for themselves, like van Gisbergen’s teammate last year Broc Feeney, is what attracts many to sport, not just Supercars. Household names often begin their careers as unknowns to all but the closest followers; Mcmurray says there needs to be an opportunity for those future stars to develop.
“You will get superstars coming out of young drivers that come in. I mean, Shane [van Gisbergen] and Scott [Mclaughlan], they weren’t born superstars in Supercars, they became that.”
When one of those stars does come along, most recently in the form of 26-year-old reigning champion Kostecki, there has been more discussion around the reported bust-up between the driver and his team than last year’s success on the track.
This culminated in Kostecki sitting out the first two races of the season without a return date in sight until recently and Erebus general manager Shannen Kiely stepping down after the Melbourne event.
On the debacle surrounding the handling of Kostecki, Mcmurray says “that’s a drama that should no way be happening”.
Mcmurray, who spent 33 years with Formula One team Mclaren in various roles, says what fans are getting as a TV product is not fit for purpose and the gap between events leaves too much time for disengagement with punters.
“They seem to be floundering a bit, the TV product is not good enough to be on TV — that seems to be the problem. I think it will come right, I think people will get used to it but I’m not sure that the competition is good enough at the moment.”
Between the Melbourne Supersprint and Taupo¯ 400, there will be a gap of 28 days, with the Melbourne leg of the competition raced as a support category for the Formula One Australia Grand Prix. There is an argument to be made that organisers are asking motorsport fans to buy into a much larger event, either by buying tickets to two events or spending the best part of a week in front of the television to watch both.
This is nothing new to sports fans, who routinely spend five days in front of a screen or at a stadium to watch things like a cricket test. From a marketing perspective, though, having your event precede or be the curtain raiser for the pinnacle (as was the case with Supercars and Formula One in Melbourne), you are likely forcing fans to choose between events to attend and are less likely to attract casual fans.
With the greatest respect to Supercars, if a casual fan has a chance to watch Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, they are more likely to choose him over Will Brown (both are leading their respective code’s championships).
Mcmurray says this, along with the failure to retain the star drivers and a bungling of conversion from old to new cars, makes it hard for fans to stay invested in the competition.
“I’m not sure that that the whole Supercars show that they’re trying to put on is right.”
Mcmurray points to a lack of continuity with large gaps between races.
He theorises that Supercars could comfortably double the number of races per season to give fans more bang for their buck, but concedes it is not a simple initiative.
“First of all, it’s not on often enough. That’s the first thing. Then you get sprint races, the cars aren’t built for that, they’re built for longer races. The sprint races tend to be follow-the-leaderstyle races. I don’t think they’ve injected the right amount of enthusiasm into the watching public with the product they’re putting out at the moment.
Counter to this point has been New Zealand’s appetite for the Taupo¯ event, with more tickets added and accommodation in the region now all but snapped up. Scarcity no doubt adds to this as the Taupo¯ 400 is the solitary event on New Zealand shores in 2024.
“Some of the drivers in Supercars really should not be there any more. They’ve outlasted their stay and they should be gone — and that’s the same in Formula One where some of them haven’t outlasted their stay, they’re just not good enough,” Mcmurray says.
"They seem to be floundering a bit, the TV product is not good enough tobeontv..." Bob Mcmurray