You’d have to think the private equity suits down at Archer Capital would have the smallest inkling of impending doom.
Archer owns the majority of the incredibly successful V8 Supercars franchise. But times are changing. V8 Supercars were built on the traditional Holden-Ford rivalry and a host of legendary drivers. Holden and Ford owners are disappearing. The series has been opened up to other brands that don’t have the same intense customer loyalty. Most of all, there has been no competitive product to challenge the V8’s dominance.
Until this month’s Bathurst 12 Hour Race. Imagine this: 50 serious cars with 150 equally (well, mainly equal) serious drivers from around the world running around Mount Panorama. How serious were the cars? Well, until the last few laps the race winner could have been a Bentley, an Audi R8 LMS Ultra, a Nissan GT-R, an Aston Martin Vantage, a Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 and a Ferrari 458 Italia.
Further back were some more Audis, Aston Martins, a few Lamborghini Gallardos, Porsche GT3 Rs and BMWs. And the racing was surprisingly intense and really aggressive. A lot of cars were heavily damaged during practice and in the race slower cars were bumped off the track. In fact the safety car was out 20 times.
Here at The Weekend Australian motoring we had two drivers showing how it should be done. Chris Pither was part of the team steering the Ice Break GT3 R. With Chris in the Parmalat-sponsored Porsche was former Melburnian turned Hollywood helicopter mogul David (CJ) Calvert-Jones and US Porsche factory driver Patrick Long.
Parmalat boss Craig Garvin would be pretty happy with his investment. Although our boys finished 11th, the TV cameras seem fixated by the flying tradies’ breakfast machine, including when Chris grabbed the limelight by intentionally spinning out on the straight.
Our other team driver, Nathan Antunes, was with Rod Salmon and four-time Le Mans winner Oliver Gavin in the Skwirk Audi. Skwirk is Rod’s online education company, and he and Nathan are regulars in the Trophy section of the Australian GT Championships. The GT Championships are for private owners only. You can watch the first race of the series this weekend in Adelaide.
If there were any justice in the world, Team Bentley should have nailed the race. But those crafty folk at Nissan must have kept some horsepower up their sleeve because in the last few laps the GT-R simply drove around the first five cars. If there wasn’t a line of people waving $200,000 outside every Nissan dealer on Monday I’ll walk naked through the Victoria’s Secret fashion parade change room. Bentley sales should go through the roof as well. Imagine pulling up outside the Weld Club in Perth in a car that made Ferraris look like Corollas.
Read on at http://www.theaustralian.com.au/executive-living/motoring/bathurst-12-hour-points-to-the-future-of-motor-racing/story-fngmee2f-1227231753064
