The first whisper that Supercars and Speedway were set to team up in Adelaide was barely believable. A drop-in speedway? At an inner-city street circuit? Surely not.
Surely the logistical challenge would be too big. Surely the reliance on music acts to supplement the entertainment too strong. An incredible idea, but surely not one the SA Motorsport Board would be brave enough to even try to execute.
Then, the whispers turned into solid knowledge that the remarkable was indeed happening. Supercars by day, Sprintcars by night. Right in the heart of the South Australian capital.
All three will benefit, in particular the two four-wheeled disciplines.
Sprintcar racing is undoubtedly spectacular. Few that see it first-hand aren’t impressed. If someone is into motorsport enough to buy tickets to the Adelaide 500, the chances of them not being blown away by seeing a field of Sprintcars do battle is miniscule.
It is a near perfect spectator motorsport. It’s compact and exciting. The formats are varied to provide intrigue and good racing, but the races themselves are simple to follow. Racing at night provides a different atmosphere. The shunts are spectacular. And it all happens relatively quickly.
Finding enough universally popular music acts to fill four nights of must-see, well-attended concerts is a tough ask. Substituting two of those nights with stacked Sprintcar shows that will bring their own dedicated fan base, plus impress the less initiated that happen to see it, is a masterstroke.
For Sprintcar racing, meanwhile, this presents the perfect opportunity to claw back space in the ‘motorsport mainstream’.
The sport is incredibly well patronised by its hardcore fans, but in reality it could and should be even bigger and better.
For a long time the sport has been subjected to political to-ing and fro-ing that has, according to many, stunted its growth. Speedway City in Adelaide is closed. The move of metropolitan Sprintcar racing in Sydney from Parramatta to Eastern Creek has been a slow-moving disaster. Archerfield is closed. On the east coast, accessibility of the sport has been pressed further and further from the major population areas.
The compact nature of sprintcar racing does make it easy to televise, but while the Clay-Per-View OTT platform is stacked with live broadcasts, it is very expensive to watch.
COVID killed the World Series Sprintcars series, stripping Australia of a national competition and seemingly creating further division among the states.
From all of that, the outlier has been Western Australia. Perth Motorplex has thrived among the issues being faced elsewhere to become the beacon of local competitions. For that, Gav Migro deserves immense recognition, as does Dean Neal for his part in taking the big Perth shows to the country, for free, via the 7Plus deal.
A metropolitan venue, with management that invests in its facility (both on and off the track itself) and a free, live TV deal and the whole thing suddenly works.
This Adelaide 500 deal is an opportunity to build on that, take the next step, and showcase Sprintcar racing to both a new audience, and a once engaged audience that has been starved to the point of disengagement.
It’s a perfect example of taking it to the people. We saw it work for Supercars with the Track to Town in Taupo, and this is a chance for it to work for Sprintcar racing.
And showcasing an invite-only field of some of the best Sprintcar drivers in the world could just renew interest in having a franchise-style national sprintcar series take place each summer.
Getting this off the ground will have been a hell of a job. Thousands of tons of dirt. More reasons for the residents that don’t like the Adelaide 500 to complain. And plenty of other hurdles.
For the SA Motorsport Board, Speedway Australia, Supercars. NAPA and everyone else involved to take that risk and get the deal done is remarkable.
And if it works the way it should, it could well set a new standard for Supercars events.
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