V8’s Muscle Out F1 for Pole
July 24, 2007 by George Skentzos
Melbourne will no longer be home to the opening race of the Formula One Grand Prix, organisers instead opting to move up the V8 Supercar series into pole position.
Next year’s Australian Grand Prix (AGP) will be held in Melbourne on March 13-16, and will be the second race on the F1 calendar, after being season opener for 11 years.
Australian Grand Prix Corporation chairman Ron Walker supports the decision.
“It’s not the greatest thing to have the first race anymore. We don’t get the team merchandise on time so there’s literally no team merchandise here for sale for the first race, now we’ll have all the team merchandise.”
He says merchandise a lot. Although it’s not at all surprising considering the 2005 Grand Prix cost Victorians $69.8 million, $6.7 million more than the benefits were worth.
Coverage of the V8 Supercar series has been all but desirable, with the Pukekohe round having been cut short by 7 laps to televise an AFL game. However Walker has said the shift would enable the V8s to be included in the race program and would not reduce coverage of the event.
Organisers of the V8’s have also rejected calls for a night race, and will instead push back the start time from 2pm to 3.30pm to accommodate international television audiences. With growing worldwide popularity of our roaring V8’s, in lieu of a night race, the new time is a great compromise as it works well for American and Asian audiences alike.
An Australian Grand Prix Corporation spokesman has said Bahrain was likely to host the first race next year.
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Its very good for both categories. Apparently V8 supercars have submitted track plans for Homebush 2008/2009 this week. Stay tuned.
Can’t wait for the V8’s to come to Homebush, finally I’ll be able to watch a round in the flesh!
the melbourne GP circuit would have to be one of the worst as far as spectator viewing goes.
i mean i was down there for the last one and you cannot see any thing or even go anywhere unless you have a corporate ribbon around your neck.
it wasnt all that bad though as due to the bad facilities for the porsche’s they had to work on the cars amongst the “poor” spectators meaning i got a photo and autograph with jim richards! (nice bloke)
Channel 7 have done an absolute crap job so far this year. No one has any idea of what their saying except Crompton, who was the commentator wanker that said resently V8 Super Cars had Bridgstones on them,???????They have NO idea of how to broadcast this Series,it aint the FOOTBALL guys and I am tired of you interrupting the race with Football shit reminders !!!! The cameras are blurred,they cant keep up with the cars when there racing you miss the stacks.PLEASE BRING BACK 10 !!!! So what happens to the Clippsal 500 ? Same date or moved foreward,the F1 was more like a test series for the cars as NO one received points from it in the V8s . So Melbournes streets are roped off for both races then,how long is that going to be and take ? Bet the Melbornites will be pissed!!!!!!!! Don’t get me wrong I like the F1s the noise is AMAZING!!! But how many fans go to see the F1s and how many for the V8s? Not enough coverage is given for the V8s or any motor sport on the telly in Aus,we could learn from the Yanks in this one {not much the Yanks can teach us mind you} V8s have very little posture in this country compared to bloody football and cricket !!!!!!Times need to change ! Oh and that’s a pic of Craigs last years car isn’t it? Hes Voda Phone now!!!!! Coverage of the V8 s has been poor this year especially for S.A viewers and now their considering overseas before Au’s. Some of the S.A viewers have had no coverage except highlights,wow that’s great!!!!!!! Gee I guess us in W.A may have to stay up to watch it after 10.00 PM ????? 7 is a JOKE!!!!!!!
Why so serious about things that don’t matter at all, it’s all a waste of time money and resources.