The three Kiwis battle for position at the first corner at Sydney Motorsport Park. Photo / Getty Images
Just a few weeks ago I watching a re-run of a race from Calder Park about 21 years ago where the forerunner of the V8 Supercars, now just plain Supercars, the Australian Touring Car Championship put on a bit of show under lights.
It may have been the old school
vision from 1997, but it was a little hard to figure out what was happening and things were all a bit dark. Not surprising really with the technology back then. So, it was with a bit of trepidation that I headed out to Sydney Motorsport Park (SMP) last night to have a gander at the first race Supercars has put on under lights. I thought it might have been a bit of a gimmick to get folks to turn up to SMP, which is notorious for not getting many fans to make the journey.
I began to get a sense this might actually be something a bit special when the the stands starting filling up, the top of the pit garages became packed with people and the merchandising area was hard work to walk through.
As the sun dipped over the horizon, the support classes were going about their business on track and the lights began to come on — both track and headlights. The Porsches were pretty cool, but it was the GTs racing in the twilight that really got the crowd going. You could have been anywhere in Europe watching an endurance race with the bellowing Mercedes, Austin Martins, Lamborghinis, Porsches and a few other makes thundering down the front straight headlights ablaze, numbers lit up and glowing bits of festooned LEDS sprinkled over the cars.
As it got fully dark the Supercars rolled out of their respective garages to circulate and line up either side of a stage befitting an East End stage production. Come the hour the stage and back drop lit with dazzling coloured lights, LEDS and spot lights that would have put a call out for Batman to shame.
