While a lot of focus has been put on the upcoming launch of Formula One season 2014, in my world I’m waiting for the rumble and snarl of the V8 Supercar series to thunder into life again. Last year was exciting enough with the addition of Nissan and Mercedes to the traditional Holden and Ford stable of cars. This year sees driver changes, format changes, race changes and the introduction of a new marque in Volvo.
Like most professional sports the off season is marked by jostlings as drivers compete for the limited number of spots available. Drivers swap teams, and swap brand loyalties regularly, as has been demonstrated by Will Davison going from Holden to Ford to Mercedes. It used to be in years gone by if you drove Holden, you drove Holden until you died, or stopped racing, whichever came first. These days drivers and whole teams change allegiances seemingly overnight.
I used to struggle to get my head around this concept. As a fan you tend to align yourself with a particular driver or race team and that’s you for life. Aligning with a race team is fine if you’re choosing Holden Racing Team, or Ford Performance racing. If though you chose K Mart Racing, you’re probably still holding on to old Greg Murphy gear because it has nostalgic value…but not much else.
I followed Greg Murphy from Holden Racing Team to K Mart Racing to Supercheap to PWR to…actually I lose the trail there. I haven’t a clue who he’s racing for these days, last I heard he’s only doing enduros anyway. The point is it makes it damned hard to be a fan in some regards. In fact as I write this I’m wearing a Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup Team Vodafone racing shirt, and that team’s been gone for a year as well.
I know this is not a unique idiosyncrasy to V8 Supercars as well. All the Seattle Supersonic/Atlanta Flames/Cleveland Browns (Version I) fans know what I’m talking about. You go to bed one night secure in the knowledge your teams is happily off doing what the do so well, then wake up to discover Oklahoma City has a new Basketball team, and Baltimore are trying to hide behind a bush in fear. It staggered me to think that a whole sports team could just be uprooted and deposited somewhere else.
Then it started happening in my sports. Team Kiwi Racing went from Holden to Ford, the Triple 8 Team Vodafone went the other way. Garry Rodgers sold up altogether to become Volvo Polestar. Possibly the biggest surprise for me was Ross and Jimmy Stone, two of V8’s biggest stalwarts, also exiting stage right in favour of a small tattooed German lady with (at that time) purple streaked hair.
Back however to my original point, I struggled as a fan to get my head around how and why a team could make these changes. Did they not care about we the fans? Did they not appreciate we’d sunk hard earned money into shirts, hats and rabid one eyed worship into our given driver/team to have that all ripped away? Here’s the thing though…they did.
I look at how the sport has evolved, and in simple terms if a lot of these changes hadn’t happened, the V8 Supercar series would not be what it is now. In fact there’s a good chance it wouldn’t be there at all. This is nothing to do with fanbase or support. It’s simple economics. To survive teams need money. To get money, you need the best drivers. To get the best drivers you need the best cars and support teams. To get the best cars and support teams you need sponsors and factory support from the various car manufacturers. And that, dear friends, is where a lot of this human chess starts. Team Vodafone wasn’t able to get the support it needed from Ford to stay alive and competitive. They could however get it from Holden. So they left. In doing so they forced a developmental arms race which saw Holden dominate the V8 Supercar series. Ford however, losing one of its marquee brands, hit back when Holden Racing Team start Davison joined FPR and…well you get the idea.
I’d suggest this movement and change is vital to the growth of these teams and this sport. Having Volvo, Nissan and Mercedes fighting to be competitive is a great thing in my opinion. It forces Holden and Ford to lift their collective games, and again make the sport more exciting and vibrant. I’m actually on the cusp of jumping ship myself. I’ve been a loyal Holden fan my whole life…yet I feel oddly drawn to the new Volvo outfit. Scott McLaughlin is a great driver, he has a lot of potential and in simple terms Volvo are just bloody good! Good enough to sway me from nearly four decades of the red lion? Well, we’ll see.
The V8 Supercar season kicks off in Adelaide, South Australia on Thursday, February 27th with the Clipsal 500. All the off season shuffling aside, I can’t wait to see what happens when the rubber finally hits the road for another year.
