Motorsport: Tribes begin to blur in blue and red rivalry

Craig Lowndes. Photo / Getty Images

V8 Supercars is all about colour. Not so much the technicolour blur as the cars howl past, festooned with sponsors logos, but more the colour of each car's soul - the blue of the Ford oval and the red of Holden's lion.

While V8 Supercars Australia is pushing hard with its Car Of The Future concept to attract more manufacturers to the sport, the basis of the category very much remains a battle between Holden and Ford.

From its beginnings in the late 1960s, almost 30 years before the advent of V8 Supercars, the intrinsic conflict between the sport's two V8 mainstay manufacturers has been the core reason why hundreds of thousands of spectators turn out annually.

In times gone by, just wearing the wrong colour at a V8 event while wandering among the wrong crowd could end in tears or, at the very least, a furnace-like verbal assault. It was an era when generations - entire families - would nail their respective colours to the mast and stick with one manufacturer for decades.

Fists were known to fly at circuit carparks over which brand you supported and, if you turned up in something other than a Ford or a Holden, you were branded an interloper - and were a fair target for both sides. It was like the old joke about the Hindu gentleman bailed up by a street gang in Ireland during the Troubles. When he protested that he was Hindu, the gang leader said to him: "Yeah, but are you a Protestant Hindu or a Catholic Hindu?"

The rivalry between supporters of the two makes was never more evident than at the annual pilgrimage to Mt Panorama for the Bathurst 1000 over the past 20 years or so. Inadvertently making your way across the perceived "badlands" of the circuit from Reid Park all the way back to McPhillamy Park was tantamount to suicide if you crossed the thin blue, or red, line into the opposing camp's fiefdom.

No opposing fans were actually burned at the stake - but plenty of vehicles were.

In the past when a driver changed codes, to use an oval ball analogy, fans would not only burn effigies but also boycott the sponsors' products. It was regarded as sacrilege and, as far as fans were concerned, they could burn in hell.

Craig Lowndes was one of the first V8 racers to brave the wrath of Holden fans when he, to some folk, sold his soul and jumped ship to race a Ford in 2001. When he moved back to racing a Holden in 2010, there was little doubt not too many of the new generation of fans spat their early morning lattes out in indignation.

"I suppose I lost about 50 per cent of my support when I changed over but probably gained 50 per cent from the other side," said Lowndes in a previous Herald on Sunday interview. "It was one of those things back when I did it that wasn't all that common - not like these days.

"I'd spent six years with Holden and it was about time for a change of team but it all of a sudden it became bigger than that; it became a change in manufacturer as well.

"There's a definite mix of fans out there now who are personality-driven and not manufacturer-biased."

By the turn of the century a whole new generation of fans, while still passionate about their respective makes, were beginning to mellow a little and Peter Brock's death in 2006 brought all V8 fans closer together.

"We were at Bathurst the year Brock died and you could see it affected everyone," said V8 fan Yvonne Babe. "In our house, my husband and I are Ford fans while the two children are Holden fans."

"Things have changed over the years and the rivalry isn't so fierce," said Yvonne's husband Stuart. "It's because of the driver. Fans tend to follow drivers and teams now. We like the Vodafone team and have always supported Craig Lowndes because he's a good driver, even now though he drives a Holden."

Fans strolling through the gates at Hamilton will more likely be wearing far more of the two manufacturers' colours than that of a team's sponsor. But those numbers will be down from previous years as a new generation of fans gravitate towards the driver rather than the car he's driving.

The days when V8 racing wasn't about motorsport per se - and more about the blue oval versus the red lion - are on the wane. The cult of personality is the vogue as we enter the new decade. Sponsors also tend to lean towards the car's pilot rather than the badge.

Team owners are more interested in the size of cheque a driver can bring to the table, rather than any long-term allegiance to any one manufacturer.

Although a lot more diluted than 10 years ago, the blue/red rivalry still exists. Even to the extent there's a Facebook page where opposing supporters can sign up and have their say.