This past weekend, the Repco Supercars Championship was at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix. They were one of several sanction series competing at the track that also included Formula 2 and Formula 3.
Unfortunately, the series was at a disadvantage with timed races resulting in one of them canceled due to heavy rain. They held three races with all of them going 19 laps each and the last race was supposed to be 14 laps. The cancelation of the race left many of their fans angry and disappointed with how the weekend was handled.
The disappointing thing about the Formula 1 weekend was many fans did not stick around to watch them. They were only there to watch Formula 1 and that is sad considering the Repco Supercars Championship has some talented drivers like Chaz Mostert and Cameron Waters and rising stars such as Broc Feeney and Will Brown.
To give a brief history of the series, it was formed in 1960 known as the Australian Touring Car Championship and was later named the V8 Supercars after a joint venture between the Australian Vee Eight Super Car Company, IMG, and the Australian Motor Sports Commission was formed in 1996.
Over the years, the series was high in popularity featuring world-class drivers from Dick Johnson, Glenn Seton, Mark Skaife, Craig Lowndes, and more. The Repco Supercars Championship has uploaded all of these races on their YouTube channel and you can see why a lot of fans talk about how great the series was.
Fast forward, the series has seen its share of ups and downs. A decade ago, the Supercars attempted to expand its reach by racing in the United States at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, in 2013 introducing fans to Scott McLaughlin, Jaime Whincup, Shane van Gisbergen, and others. However, the series was supposed to race at COTA in 2014 and 2015 but the track scheduled other events making it difficult for the supercars to race there.
In that same timeframe, legendary racing owner Roger Penske acquired a 51% stake in Dick Johnson Racing in 2014. During Penske’s presence, Dick Johnson Racing won three championships, two of them by Scott McLaughlin. When Penske sold his shares back to Johnson, he took McLaughlin with them to the IndyCar Series.
Another driver who had success in Supercars was Shane van Gisbergen. He won the championship three times for Triple Eight Race Engineering. Gisbergen left the series after the 2022 season to join NASCAR. He is currently competing in the Cup Series for Trackhouse Racing.
These two were not alone, other drivers from Cameron Waters, Brodie Kostecki, and Will Brown have also competed in NASCAR in the Xfinity Series and the Craftsman Truck Series.
The problem with the Repco Supercars Championship is that the races are too short. This past weekend, the series had three 19-lap races and a 14-lap race that was canceled. If you add them together, that’s 71 laps. NASCAR and other racing series race more laps than that. This weekend should signal to Supercars that changes to their current business model should be considered for a better future.
The first order of business is combining the laps of some of these races. In the first races of the season, the Thrifty 500 weekend had three races (26 laps, 52 laps, 52 laps). If they had combined those laps, it’s 130 laps total that could be done in one race.
The drivers have been complaining for a long time that the races are short and they are not making a lot of money. That’s why a lot of them are exploring other racing series like NASCAR in hopes of getting better opportunities.
Scaling down the races into one would allow the Supercars to expand into new markets and possibly have races in new countries like Japan or a return to the United States. It would also likely allow them to keep the drivers they have now and not lose them later to other racing sports like NASCAR.
Second, the Supercars can no longer be a side-piece show for a series like Formula 1. If Formula 1 wants them there then they have to dedicate a full day for them to race. Otherwise, go to tracks where you are the main event of racing.
Finally, the Supercars need new leadership to help steer them in a direction where they can thrive and grow. The current leadership in Supercars is not good. They are holding the series back from growing and have no idea how to grow it. Watching the fans leave before the Supercars took to the track at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit speaks volumes as to why there needs to be a leadership change.
The Repco Supercars Championship is a fun racing league to watch. The best part about it is you can watch the season for $7.45 a month on their official YouTube channel. If the Repco Supercars Championship can get its act together, it can thrive and draw a whole new audience not just in their country, but internationally as well.
