AASA announce new Prod Car Enduro Series

[Oldtony]

I wonder are we looking at the end of V8SC?
That series has spent a long time as the "Peak" series in Australia, and judging by the increasingly frantic attempts to prop up race meetings with other entertainment, the slip in TV ratings and the inability to atract industry interest you would have to say that many promoters will be (or should be) looking at what the replacement product will be. The punter5s are getting bored.
Series Production goes back to the roots of our most popular races, so maybe a bit of retro thinking will succeed.
Personaly I'd rather see a good strong open wheeler class with some parity with an international series allowing international visits and visitors, but Australia has always loved a visible relationship between what they drove and what they watch at the races.
Even at Mt.Druitt Dodge ex Taxis got the loudest cheers!

[Fast Ford]

V8SC has clearly been formulated on the F1 idea and we know what has been going on in that series.

The way V8's are run is more about generating money for the category rather than for sustainability of it.

I actually see adding a few more categories beneficial.

As for the V8's, Even running a tube chassis and getting back to lo-fi so that racing every fortnight can be feasible.

[Axeman444]

Originally Posted by Oldtony

Even at Mt.Druitt Dodge ex Taxis got the loudest cheers!

and now it's taxi look-a-likes... so i'm not quite seeing your point? it seems they get the crowds, more than the prodies.

if the V8 crowds are dwindling, are the prodie crowds increasing and taking up the punters interest?

[Oldtony]

Just re-read my post. Sorry I wasn't trying to knock the V8SC racing series, I was just saying that it is showing it's age, (like me) and that will always happen to any form of entertainment.
My point about the multiplicity of new production enduros being pushed by promoters is that this looks like people trying to position themselves for the "Next big thing". The question is of course is will production based series be the next big thing? Given Australian fans demonstrated preference for watching cars something like they drive on the racetrack you would think it would be a favoured replacement.
The original Bathurst production enduros (following on from PI) were the events that moved motor racing fom a fringe sport into the mainstream of sport based entertainment, and involvement with TV, major sponsorsip and manufacturer interest. Before that time the only events that got more than a few column inches in the Australian media were the Round Australia trials. Again showcasing something like the punters drove.
That is why I think organisers and promoters are looking at production enduros as plan B if V8SC can't keep the interest of a wide fan base.
Here endeth the rant.

[Axeman444]

not going to help when there is 50 different series though to gather up the 10 punters who want to currently attend, will just leave bad thoughts in those punters' minds, which could be recalled once the possible V8 implosion takes place. they need to sort their stuff out and sit down together if they are to provide an effective replacement to the V8s when the time comes (if it does) ie 1 series

[Falcadore]

Originally Posted by PVDA

That smacks of a knee jerk reaction to the recent AASA series announcement.

The Shannons Nationals appeared not long after the AMRS series moved to AASA just like a CAMS 6 Hour relay appeared not long after the original one in Victoria went to AASA.

That's more than a little bit of a mis-representation of how the CAMS Nationals came into being. The old AMRS was run by Msrs Dale, Kurkpatrick and Willmington and after the final CAMS AMRS the component categories were split over which way they wanted to race the following season, most notably after some of them - in particular Formula 4000 and Future Racers were demoted from CAMS national series.

Dale and Willmington wanted to take AMRS to AASA sanctioning, Kurkpatrick, backed by the majority of the AMRS categories (Formula 3, GT, Production Cars, Sports Sedans, Commodore Cup, Saloon Cars, Superkarts, Formula Vee) wanted to stay with CAMS.

The disenfranchised categories went with Dale, Willmington and the AMRS name to AASA and they then procedded to create new categories to fill out their program like Thunder Sports, Production Touring Cars, Stock Cars, Super Tin Tops and Kingswood 3300 category. Most of these categories died through lack of interest, or in the case of Stock Cars, never appeared at all and the survivors have since moved on after a further split with AASA and became iRace.

Everybody else got behind Kurkpatrick and the CAMS Nationals, later the Shannons Nationals, were formed.

So, no, not a knee jerk reaction at all but a split. And not a 50/50 split either.

[PVDA]

Originally Posted by Falcadore

create new categories to fill out their program like Thunder Sports, Production Touring Cars, Stock Cars, Super Tin Tops and Kingswood 3300 category.

Actually they're basically the CAMS category with a different name to avoid any issues it may've created at the time, other than STT the other categories pretty much use thier generic name in both CAMS & AASA events these days.

[mtpanorama]

Hearing rumblings that this series may not get on the starting grid.....allegedly.

[davo.]

I found this website for the 6 hour endurance series. There is a questionnaire to fill out.

http://www.australianendurancechampi....com/index.cfm