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It was difficult to know which way to look last weekend. From Suzuka to Silverstone, via Townsville, Chicago, Sachsenring and elsewhere, there was pretty much something for everyone.
There was some terrific racing interspersed with incredible emotion. These are surely the hallmarks of great competition when they come together.
On the streets of Townsville, Supercars came good and, on Saturday, produced the best racing of the year.
Having said that, I’m not sure what has been gained by the increase in race distance at the Reid Park circuit since COVID.
The racing there has traditionally been strong over the years with 64 lap races rather than 88. The extra 48 laps, over two days, equals almost 140 kilometres that could probably be better allocated elsewhere in the season.
Something to be considered when, hopefully, a restructured calendar is presented soon. The “500” mantle has now been overused. There was a time when, Sandown apart, Adelaide had sole rights to that title. That was the reason why the Gold Coast was a “600” back in the day post the A1GP debacle.
Anyway, the first race was an absolute belter to watch. Some superb, respectful, racing showcased what is good about Gen3. Only a more robust, less grippy, tyre could have added something to this show, but there wasn’t really a negative apart from the screaming competition between the commentary team.
For sure, reflect the excitement in the race with voice inflection, but the painful shrieking wasn’t necessary, for God’s sake.
One thing that I didn’t catch over the weekend, from the news stories, was why the minimum fuel drop had been reintroduced. Has Supercars identified a difference in fuel economy between the two engines? Maybe I’ve missed it, but there should be transparency over this. The rule shouldn’t be there unless there’s a very good reason.
Sunday’s race wasn’t as good, but was strategically interesting and well done to Matt Payne and the Grove group for making the three stops work. I’m surprised more didn’t go down this route frankly, as there appeared to be enough tyres. The race would have benefitted from a safety car though to spice it up for everyone watching.
Probably the best pure racing of the weekend, in my opinion, was the Xfinity race on the streets of Chicago. The Stage 1 stoush between SVG and Kyle Larson was as good as it gets.
There’s no doubt that this circuit is at its best in the dry. Wet weather simply produces the chaos that we saw on Sunday in the Cup race which was, as Shane discovered, a total lottery. The Xfinity race was, by contrast, held in the dry and gave an opportunity for the cream to rise back to the top even through a less than ideal Caution Period.
If you haven’t seen that battle between SVG and Larson, do yourself a favour and find it on YouTube.
On the other hand, rain helped make the Silverstone F1 British Grand Prix into a ripper. I was there on Friday for practice and the crowd size was unbelievable for a very average wet/dry day. Then, the volume of people on Sunday, that was evident for anyone tuning into the broadcast, was proof again of the popularity of F1 these days.
The race itself was superb and the emotion afterwards shown by Lewis Hamilton was appreciated by all, whether you’re a supporter of his or not. It’s not only the emotion of winning that was so prevalent, but also the emotion of losing shown by Lando Norris and George Russell.
That demonstrates just how big a deal it is to win this GP if you’re a Brit. Wait until Melbourne next year, if Oscar Piastri is in with a shout, for a local experience of the same. There’s every chance that he’ll be right up there.
Talking of crowds, I noticed that Supercars announced a three day crowd of 126,000 at Townsville. I’m not sure if they were all there for the Saturday evening concert, but they certainly weren’t there on Sunday for the race. Concerts are all well and good, but the sport needs to be attracting better crowds to the actual racing in order to survive.
Supercars used to be the kings of fudged attendance numbers; are we heading back to those days? Maybe I’m wrong in questioning the figures, but if I’m not the sport needs to stop kidding itself.
The other outpouring of emotion at the weekend was after the achievement of the Marquez brothers in both reaching the podium at the German MotoGP. Whilst Pecco Bagnaia showed that he is the man of the moment once again, Mark and Alex put last year’s bikes into podium positions.
And, once again, MotoGP cameras capture post race emotions better than anyone. I think it’s just the pure relief of staying upright for 45 minutes and maintaining total concentration throughout that helps concentrate these emotions so well. After all, Jorge Martin showed exactly how vulnerable riders are to any lapse at any moment. MotoGP remains the outstanding motorsports show in large part due to the superb quality of the broadcast.
All this action got me thinking once again about the pros and cons of Supercars vs NASCAR.
There’s undoubtedly lessons for each category to take from the other. But the biggest outtake from NASCAR has to be the jeopardy that surrounds each event outcome. Even F1 is revelling in the newly re-established relative uncertainty of race outcomes.
For Supercars, too often the race is too close a reflection of qualifying. Whilst, over a season, the best must rise to the top, for the category to rebuild its fan base and expand interest (given that it doesn’t have a Drive To Survive programme to assist) there simply must be a central strategy to not only improve the racing generally, but also to inject that sense of jeopardy.
Now we’re in an era of ever reducing safety car periods, as teams and drivers are operating to a high standard across the board, then a rethink is needed. NASCAR reacted to their issues some years ago with the introduction of the Stage system. Supercars must find their own fix asap as the current sporting regulations aren’t producing enough of those Saturday belters.
To circle back, did you catch the preview of the future direction of NASCAR and Supercar body evolution?
Look no further than the NASCAR/ABB EV prototype. The body is a generic Cross Over (as the Americans correctly term these size cars, rather than calling everything an SUV as we do) shape and it’s a sign of the future.
Forget the EV platform, this type of body will slip over the internal combustion engined Gen7 NASCAR underpinnings and the Gen3 Supercar ones – with or without hybrid systems. Between this and the 2025 Brazilian Stock Car prototypes from Chevrolet and Toyota, look through the keyhole into the future….
