Let me start by saying that I am an avid fan of Nascar racing. As a silhouette formula it has usually managed to maintain close and entertaining racing and the series management have always addressed parity issues quickly.
In many ways our own series is mirroring the Nascar look and feel:
V8 Supercars = Winston Cup
Konica = Busch Series
V8 Brutes = Craftsmen Trucks.
... and the vehicles (certainly in the first two) are moving closer and closer to being a true silhouette formula.
Now I am largely of the view that as long as we get the parity equation right this is not a bad thing. The Nascar series is massively successful in all 3 categories. Last weekend at Bristol saw 147,000 people for the Busch race on the Friday night and 172,000 for the Winston Cup race. Probably helps explain why the prize pool for most races now exceeds $3m real dollars in Winston Cup, >$1m for Busch and even $0.5m for a Craftsmen truck race. The total attendance last year over the 34 races of the Winston Cup series was more than the entire population of this country.
One of the things that separates the Nascar formula from almost any other race series is that qualifying position is irrelevant (apart from the money and bonus points) because you can win a race from anywhere. It is a startling contrast to our series where it is almost impossible to win from anywhere other than the first few rows. When you read the fan sites and forums it is this element more than any other that keeps them going back - it doesn't matter where their favourite driver/team/marque starts from they could still win. It would be fair to say that the opposite is the case here. I am sure many fans of the series have become increasingly disinterested - there isn't much point going to a race when your favourite driver/team has qualified outside the top 10.
I don't know how we redress that situation. It's pretty easy on a half mile or even one mile oval to pick up places from the rear of the field when the total lap time is in the order of 13 seconds! Likewise the longer races (still less than 2 hours of elapsed time) require 3 or 4 fuel stops that introduce a whole range of different strategies into the equation. Many of the short track races will have more than a dozen safety car periods during the 200 laps. Even the rules encourage this close racing. Lapped cars can get a lap back at each safety car as the leader will let them pass on the way to the line, some races have compulsory pit stops where a caution flag is thrown and everyone is forced to pit for tyres even though fuel isn't required; etc etc.
One of the other things I would dearly love to see is a series similar to IROC (International Race of Champions). This puts a dozen drivers from the different formulae (Nascar, CART, IRL and CanAm) into identical race cars (currently Pontiac Firebirds) and runs as a 6 race series on a mix of ovals and road circuits. The racing is close, the races themselves are short sprints and the fans love it. Effectively it answers the old perennial question about who is really the best driver as it takes most of the other variables out. Over the 26 year duration of the series it has been won by a who's who of drivers and the series has never been dominated by any of the feeder series. This years champ is a Busch series rookie who came from Craftsmen Trucks. I guess the cost of doing a series like this (albeit in almost production cars) means that it will never happen but it would be great viewing.
I am probably just dribbling down my shirt again. No doubt the series here won't change greatly. 2003 will bring more long races which should (slightly) minimise the criticality of start position and hopefully Project Blueprint will close the gap between the top Holden and Ford teams. Outside of that we can expect the same old inconsistent application of rules, ridiculous penalties and an increasing sanitisation of the racing. All I can say is I am thankful for the Brutes series. It is racing the way V8 Supercars used to be with plenty of elbow and close competition. They do need to make the Holdens a bit more competitive but let us hope they don't get too carried away with the rule book there. It is entertaining and that is why we pay our money to watch. The powers that be could do worse than to learn some lessons from their Nascar cousins and the Brutes series.
Cheers
Russ
In many ways our own series is mirroring the Nascar look and feel:
V8 Supercars = Winston Cup
Konica = Busch Series
V8 Brutes = Craftsmen Trucks.
... and the vehicles (certainly in the first two) are moving closer and closer to being a true silhouette formula.
Now I am largely of the view that as long as we get the parity equation right this is not a bad thing. The Nascar series is massively successful in all 3 categories. Last weekend at Bristol saw 147,000 people for the Busch race on the Friday night and 172,000 for the Winston Cup race. Probably helps explain why the prize pool for most races now exceeds $3m real dollars in Winston Cup, >$1m for Busch and even $0.5m for a Craftsmen truck race. The total attendance last year over the 34 races of the Winston Cup series was more than the entire population of this country.
One of the things that separates the Nascar formula from almost any other race series is that qualifying position is irrelevant (apart from the money and bonus points) because you can win a race from anywhere. It is a startling contrast to our series where it is almost impossible to win from anywhere other than the first few rows. When you read the fan sites and forums it is this element more than any other that keeps them going back - it doesn't matter where their favourite driver/team/marque starts from they could still win. It would be fair to say that the opposite is the case here. I am sure many fans of the series have become increasingly disinterested - there isn't much point going to a race when your favourite driver/team has qualified outside the top 10.
I don't know how we redress that situation. It's pretty easy on a half mile or even one mile oval to pick up places from the rear of the field when the total lap time is in the order of 13 seconds! Likewise the longer races (still less than 2 hours of elapsed time) require 3 or 4 fuel stops that introduce a whole range of different strategies into the equation. Many of the short track races will have more than a dozen safety car periods during the 200 laps. Even the rules encourage this close racing. Lapped cars can get a lap back at each safety car as the leader will let them pass on the way to the line, some races have compulsory pit stops where a caution flag is thrown and everyone is forced to pit for tyres even though fuel isn't required; etc etc.
One of the other things I would dearly love to see is a series similar to IROC (International Race of Champions). This puts a dozen drivers from the different formulae (Nascar, CART, IRL and CanAm) into identical race cars (currently Pontiac Firebirds) and runs as a 6 race series on a mix of ovals and road circuits. The racing is close, the races themselves are short sprints and the fans love it. Effectively it answers the old perennial question about who is really the best driver as it takes most of the other variables out. Over the 26 year duration of the series it has been won by a who's who of drivers and the series has never been dominated by any of the feeder series. This years champ is a Busch series rookie who came from Craftsmen Trucks. I guess the cost of doing a series like this (albeit in almost production cars) means that it will never happen but it would be great viewing.
I am probably just dribbling down my shirt again. No doubt the series here won't change greatly. 2003 will bring more long races which should (slightly) minimise the criticality of start position and hopefully Project Blueprint will close the gap between the top Holden and Ford teams. Outside of that we can expect the same old inconsistent application of rules, ridiculous penalties and an increasing sanitisation of the racing. All I can say is I am thankful for the Brutes series. It is racing the way V8 Supercars used to be with plenty of elbow and close competition. They do need to make the Holdens a bit more competitive but let us hope they don't get too carried away with the rule book there. It is entertaining and that is why we pay our money to watch. The powers that be could do worse than to learn some lessons from their Nascar cousins and the Brutes series.
Cheers
Russ