Scott Pye has issued a call to Supercars to better market its drivers rather than being preoccupied with the cars.
The South Australian is not only a Supercars driver himself but also a media entrepreneur through his own One Nine Media business, which boasts clientele inside and outside of motorsport.
He took to social media to not only back Shane van Gisbergen’s suggestions for improving the on-track product, but also urged the championship to make its drivers the stars.
Pye drew a contrast to Formula 1, which is booming in popularity despite failed attempts to create excitement with the racing itself in the world championship.
“This might be controversial but…” began his Facebook post.
“Shane van Gisbergen made some great points earlier in the week to improve the on-track action from the drivers’ perspective.
“In addition to this, I think we need to make some serious changes with how we market the drivers and the category.
“F1 never improved the on-track action and certainly haven’t improved parity to make the show interesting or relevant again for the fans.
“The new owners have a great marketing strategy focusing on driver-centric narratives.
“It’s almost undisputed that Supercars has the closest racing in motorsport yet, by trying to keep a manufacturer battle alive that clearly doesn’t exist anymore, we have lost relevance and damaged the chance of having household names for this next generation.
“I think we could create better content that focuses on all of the drivers and the stories that go on inside the paddock and away from the track, rather than focusing on two or three.
“Social media, documentaries, marketing that focuses on drivers not the cars and a shake-up of broadcast would be where I’d start. What are your thoughts?”
Supercars’ marketing strategy for the just-completed season did indeed place a large emphasis on the then-new Gen3 race cars, which will not be a novelty in 2024.
In 2023, van Gisbergen was again voted by fans as Most Popular Driver as part of the category’s annual Gala Awards yet, ironically, now leaves Supercars to become a NASCAR driver next year.
Chaz Mostert, meanwhile, was awarded the Barry Sheene Medal as the championship’s ‘best and fairest’, an honour which is decided by journalists’ votes.
Nevertheless, he is likely to be one of the most popular drivers if intel from within the paddock about merchandise sales is anything to go by.
His Walkinshaw Andretti United team is said to be second in the market to van Gisbergen’s Triple Eight Race Engineering, largely thanks to merchandise with the two-time Bathurst 1000 winner’s branding specifically.
Pye will be a Triple Eight enduro co-driver next year, filling the gap created by Richie Stanaway’s return to full-time competition with Grove Racing.
Van Gisbergen is yet to be officially ruled out of the 2024 enduros, although his NASCAR commitments suggest that such a campaign is unlikely.
The Kiwi was beaten to the 2023 championship title by Brodie Kostecki, whose rags-to-riches story needs to be told to a mainstream audience, wrote Roland Dane in a recent Roland’s View column for Speedcafe.
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