The Supercars Championship, formerly V8 Supercars, sits in an uncomfortable position as the competition prepares to launch the New Zealand event in Taupō.
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 Taupō leg, there were fears it would drain 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 Taupō, but with Erebus failing to directly address why their star driver had stepped away and several key sponsors walking amid the fallout from the well-publicised saga, concerns about how the sport handles its biggest names appear to be well-founded.
With two other champions, New Zealanders Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen, having taken their talents to the United States, racing in IndyCar and Nascar respectively, 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 current state of the competition - although Kiwi fans seem unperturbed as “unprecedented” demand for the Taupō round has seen some 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,” McMurray 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 from his post 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 Taupō 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. This goes all the way from losing star drivers, which is understandable, people move on. But also the nightmare they’ve had with the conversion to the current cars from the old ones and also the public perception of that nightmare - plus the fact they seem to go on holiday for a couple of months between each race, it doesn’t give any continuity.
McMurray 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-leader-style 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.
“The problem then is they’ll have to attract more sponsors to put more money up, they’ve got to attract the crowd to be at the races, it comes with a lot of hurdles.”
Counter to this point has been New Zealand’s appetite for the Taupō event, with more tickets added and accommodation in the region now all but snapped up. Scarcity no doubt adds to this as the Taupō 400 is the solitary event on New Zealand shores in 2024.
“Some of the drivers in Supercars really should not be there anymore. 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.
Like adding more races, he says, this is a double-edged sword. Younger drivers excite fans and bring more competition for seats in cars - yet the older, more established names are those that draw sponsorship. Finding a balance between the two is key for a successful future for Supercars.
“Younger drivers coming in shake up the pot quite a lot,” McMurray says.
“They’ve got to be aware in both disciplines [Supercars and Formula One] that younger drivers want to come through, the problem is that the older drivers there still attract sponsorship which they’ve had historically and they have contacts with loyal sponsors who keep them in the cars, you can’t blame them for that, it’s how they make money.
“You can name three or four in Supercars and three or four in F1 that perhaps shouldn’t be there.”
Despite the first 1200 words of this article telling you there is little going right for Supercars, there is hope. That comes in the form of two young Australian drivers looking set to begin a renaissance of sorts for the sport in the shape of Will Brown and Brock Feeney - who sit first and second in the standings this season respectively.
Brown made the switch from Kostecki’s Erebus to Red Bull Ampol Racing for 2024 to join Feeney and the move out of Kostecki’s shadow appears to have paid immediate dividends. The 25-year-old lacked consistency last year but looks to have put that behind him, taking two wins and a pole to sit atop the standings.
Establishing himself as a race winner last season left many fans and pundits feeling his fifth-placed finish didn’t do his talent justice.
Twenty-one-year-old Feeney also had an impressive 2023, perhaps even more so considering he had van Gisbergen as a teammate. Five race wins last year and a third-placed finish in the standings showed he has pedigree beyond his age and having had van Gisbergen as a mentor can only have benefitted the burgeoning star.
Let’s not forget the Kiwis, who are clearly still heavily invested in the sport as fans if the Taupō event is anything to go by. The departure of van Gisbergen left a sizeable hole in New Zealand’s representation in Supercars but 21-year-old Matthew Payne displayed genuine pace in 2023, culminating in his maiden win in the final race of the season.
He was the standout rookie of last year and with his team Groove Racing seeming to have found some pace in their car, he can threaten some of the established drivers in 2024.
Add Richie Stanaway, who began 2024 as a Bathurst winner, as well as Ryan Wood, who comes well-regarded by van Gisbergen, and Kiwi fans have several promising names to get behind in Supercars.
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