Are The V8's Gonna Be Up A Creek Without A Paddle?

[Black Widow]

Here's the link

Sydney's Eastern Creek has become a permanent no-go zone for the V8 Supercars after the sport's angry boss declared they would never race there again.

As the sport continues to push for a street race around Sydney's Olympic Park precinct, V8 Supercars chairman Tony Cochrane struck a big red line and an even bigger boot through Eastern Creek as a future V8 venue.

Eastern Creek Raceway's operators, the Australian Racing Drivers Club (ARDC), said at the weekend V8 racing had not been a financial success in Sydney and had been lobbying for some of the NSW government funding earmarked for the street race to be directed to them.

But Cochrane blamed the ARDC as the event promoter for any failure of the V8s in previous years, and promised a Homebush street race would be a huge success.

"We have no intention of going back to Eastern Creek, irrespective of what happens in Sydney," Cochrane said.

"Eastern Creek's a disaster.

"They got 1,500 corporates (to the race) in a city of five million people. In Darwin, a city of 125,000 this weekend, they've got 6,200 corporates.

"I suggest what the ARDC should start doing is buy a book on how to be a promoter. They've got absolutely no idea."

The NSW government is understood to have given in-principle support to a proposed race at the Olympic Park, though it remains unclear whether the political wheels will turn in time for a race next year.

With Eastern Creek ruled out and Oran Park in Sydney's south-west closing down after this year, should a Sydney street race not eventuate in 2009 there would be a vacancy in next year's 14-round calendar.

A Townsville street race will be held in 2009, replacing one of the events.

Cochrane said a possible Singapore race would not happen before 2010, and that leaves a spot up for grabs.

But the preferred option for 2009 remains Homebush.

If it receives the government green light, V8 Supercars Australia will foot most of the estimated $13 million annual running costs.

"We believe that if we can run a street race around Sydney at Homebush, we can make it financially stack up because we're taking the economic risk," Cochrane said.

"We're the ones writing the cheque out. If it's a loss, it's a loss to V8 Supercars Australia, not the NSW Government."

My personaly opinion, if its between the street circuit, and EC...keep EC for sure.

[JAS-25T]

Who wants to spectate at a sport when you can only ever see the bit between two corners? really.

[LZY115]

Im so over V8's and their prehistoric rules,

[Roy]

Does anyone motorsport fan actually agree with what Cochraine is doing to the sport?

Its a big call, but maybe its time another voice is heard. V8s are a formula that has been around for 15 years now, so how good can its shelf life really be. If it starts killing off the countries race tracks then fark them. I will give up going to my local rounds in protest . It will save me a small fortune to boot

[Swiper the Fox]

Does anyone motorsport fan actually agree with what Cochraine is doing to the sport?

Its a big call, but maybe its time another voice is heard. V8s are a formula that has been around for 15 years now, so how good can its shelf life really be. If it starts killing off the countries race tracks then fark them. I will give up going to my local rounds in protest . It will save me a small fortune to boot

Bring back touring car racing....simple. Taxi racing is a boring one taste event.

[djr81]

I think you will have a hard time finding anyone on here with a good word to say for him.

His stock in trade is abusing the circuit owners/managers for his own gain.

WA went through it recently, now I guess it is the ARDC's turn.

Mind you he does have half a point when it comes to EC. The turn out of spectators is dire.

[NISMO]

Coch-runt is a knob. Nothing more to it.

Unfortunately being the head of the most popular series in the country means the avergae jo blow sees him as an industry expert.

As others have said his only interest is in dollars, and assiting race tracks which in turn could mean more events could take money away from him. That is what he's scared of.

On a good note, Ford and Holden both toning down their support could be the start of the end for the series and hopefully will see more manufactures and a different formula come into it. Well, fingers crossed that's what will happen!

[Roy]

V8s are Touring Cars Paul.

But yes, maybe its time for a different class of Touring Cars. One that is based more on production cars, so teams have the opportunity to approach more manufacturers and ability to get sponsors from outside the current fold.

Be interesting to see ppl trying to run STIs up against FPV Falcons, 350Z with Mazda running the RX8 with a dah of Evo and HSV in the mix. Hang on, dont we already have just about that? Imagine the racing, instead of season to season dominance from a team, it would be race to race depending on the character of the track (Not street course)

But here is the thing. The old Grp A cars looked great, sounded great, but the racing was pretty bad. Equality amongst manufacturers was always beign debated and some cars are simply better then others.

[djr81]

What was good about the old Group A cars was that you could see the drivers driving the cars. None of this sitting on the floor in the back seat behind 40 tonne of roll cage & netting. I understand the safety reasons for doing it, it is just a shame you can't see anyone anymore.

But Roy is right most of the Group A racing was pretty dire. Reliability was awful too. Not to mention anything production car based is expensive & inevitably someone will cheat.

The thought occured to me on the weekend aswell. V8's are starting to look tired...

[NISMO]

Yeah, personally haven't really watched a V8 weekend for a couple of years now.

There are a lot of successful touring car series around the globe, but the biggest problem here is that V8 supporters are so narrow minded that the racing doesn't really matter. The only thing that matters is if Ford beats Holden or vice versa.

"woohoo, Holden won, I have a VK so my car is the sh!t. yeah man!"

The majority of V8 fans have no interest in seeing good racing.

[Roy]

But it is good racing. Name an OS class of Touring Car Racing that is good? I mean, good looking cars quality racing?

[Angus Smart]

f**k the V8's. tho i do agree the racing is pretty close to fair. both makes are rather even in all aspects!

but they have not dont much at all for racing in Australia. they seem to suck the money out of the sport for everyone else

tho i do agree, Ec is not good for spectators, i hope they do cop funding from the government, and this second track they were thinking about does go thru..

Edited July 8, 2008 by Angus Smart

[djr81]

Well to be brutally honest can anyone name a domestic race series other than the FFords that has genuinely good racing?

[JAS-25T]

Super GT - OS

[Roy]

Super GT is pretty crap racign from what i have see. Good looking cars, but bad racing

Aussie Racing Cars, GT cars. there are a few around. I cant name an OS series of tin top racing that is better then what we have? There is no obvious solution that will allow good size competitive grids.

Other then allowing teams to use other shells converted to rwd and perhaps a different engine config.

[JAS-25T]

But all you're considering is the biff during racing. Just cause other classes race without bumping into each other ala superlap controvesy style, doesn't mean it's crap.

End of the day, big dollar teams win and the rest, well.............as they say, no one remembers who came second.

[djr81]

Well my argument is that when you get a good series at the top level one team will usually dominate at any given round. So the chances are the races are going to be processional anyway.

So what to do?

Simple: make sure there is enough diversity in the field to provide some technical interest in the category. The best example of this was the old Cart series. Prior to the split it had multiple chassis constructors, multiple engine suppliers & was interesting & financially viable because of it. You can never make the same argument for a spec racing series, of which V8 is one.

[JAS-25T]

Correct, only differences are in the panels

[zebra]

BTCC Is pretty damn exiting even if the cars arnt...and lets face it the majority of Aussie tracks are pretty lame we will never have a brands hatch or a Nurburgring so no matter what seeing cars dawdle around QR with no real challenge apart from compulsry pit stops is Boring as bat shit!

FIA GT is good to watch but Megga expensive and the racing isnt all that great.

My vote keeps the V8s but combine them with with turbo AWD cars like EVO's STIs etc....throw some 350z's in the mix with Porkas, Ferraris, Corvettes and Vipers. Get rid of the lame one make tyre thing and make the races longer...opening up the series to other manufactures will open the gates for teams from other countries to join which intern will allow the events to be held in places like brands hatch etc (cmon deep down we would all love to see the v8s ripping up a circuit like Brands)

Edited July 8, 2008 by zebra

[LZY115]

V8s are Touring Cars Paul.

But yes, maybe its time for a different class of Touring Cars. One that is based more on production cars, so teams have the opportunity to approach more manufacturers and ability to get sponsors from outside the current fold.

Be interesting to see ppl trying to run STIs up against FPV Falcons, 350Z with Mazda running the RX8 with a dah of Evo and HSV in the mix. Hang on, dont we already have just about that? Imagine the racing, instead of season to season dominance from a team, it would be race to race depending on the character of the track (Not street course)

But here is the thing. The old Grp A cars looked great, sounded great, but the racing was pretty bad. Equality amongst manufacturers was always beign debated and some cars are simply better then others.

This occurs in a lot of other popular racing events but they overcome this by penalising the car with the advantage by increasing weight / decreasing horsepower etc.