SURVEY: Support category racing is more important to fans than ever

The importance of support categories at Supercars events is on the rise, according to Speedcafe.com’s 2021 Motorsport Survey, presented by Kincrome.

The latest edition of the comprehensive survey canvassed the views of around 12,000 respondents on a variety of topics in Australian and global motorsport.

A broad demographic was able to paint a picture of the ‘average’ fan and where one’s preferences lay on certain topics.

We asked respondents what the most enjoyable part of attending an event is, aside from the Supercars racing, and the results showed one particular area of growth: support category racing.

While the 2020 edition of the survey registered support category racing as the most enjoyable part of an event to 30 percent of people, that jumped to more than 36 percent in 2021.

It comes amidst shaky times in the event sector throughout the last two years with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not only have there been constant and dramatic schedule changes, but event formats have been up in the air, necessitating greater flexibility amongst main game teams and especially the support categories.

Despite the hardship, survey results show fans are loving supports more than ever, to the extent the support card can influence a patron’s attendance of an event.

‘Accessing the Supercars paddock/pits’ saw a drop in the rankings of importance to attendees at 28 percent in the 2021 survey results compared to over 30 percent the previous year.

The social aspect of attending an event is still up there, with nearly 17 percent of respondents ranking it as the most enjoyable part of being at a race track.

More than 96 percent of respondents were happy with the access to teams/drivers at Supercars events, with 50 percent rating it ‘good’.

Nearly 30 percent said it ‘could not be improved’ and 16.8 percent were so pleased with the access they rated it ‘excellent’.

Lastly, on the topic of events, we asked whether you would be wary of attending large-scale motorsport events with crowds in the context of the endless COVID-19 pandemic.

A large portion of the results were definitive one way or the other.

The more significant piece of data was that 47.8 percent of people answered ‘no’ to being wary of crowds at large events.

On the other hand, 36.8 percent answered ‘yes’ to the same question, demonstrating one of the many lasting impacts the virus is still having on the sport, even as we desperately stumble towards what is supposed to be post-COVID life.