Test Days, Ride Days, 2 Day Weekends....

[GTRMagic]

Interesting to see that the Eastern Creek round of the V8SC series was the first in a while to incorporate a 2 day race meeting, with the view that costs can be reduced by not needing the teams in place for Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday.

According to This Article, many teams seem to have still put people in place on Thursday, to prepare the garages that day & begin the task of scrutineering, to run the ride car program on the Friday, then the race weekend.

Then in This Article it seems that there was a full house ride day, of all cars able to participate, as well as an extra ride car for 888.

While 888 are apparently ride day-ing it again at Eastern Creek today!

While mixing and matching race weekends with ride days contaminates the message, it is difficult to understand how the reduction in official race weekend time has actually benefited anybody!

Especially not the fans!

Mr Edwards seems to think additional testing at other circuits makes more sense than private test days where the crowd gets no benefit.

Does it make sense for ride days to be 'managed' like test days are currently, to mandate them as well, limiting them to pre or post race meetings in the interests of cost reduction?

Pre meeting likely makes most sense, on the Friday, when all 25 cars are in full working health... there was a bit of car swapping yesterday for the blokes with the broken toys, with sponsors to make happy...

The question is, if the V8SC mob choose to schedule a ride session, just like the practice ones, on a Friday, would the crowd be happy to watch their favourite pilots, or indeed their cars with whoever might be behind the wheel?

In the interests of mandated cost reductions for the teams...

There may be some development needed in the tyre rules also, to get some fresher sets of tyres available for these ride days, to promote safety maybe new rubber becomes mandatory, and new rubber again for some of the test sessions, which then gets returned to Dunlop, and does not form part of the regular tyre banks...

There has to be a way to improve the amount of track time, in whatever form, of the V8SC circus, to change the show around a little, to keep the teams in the location only as long as necessary, to reduce costs, and to make sure sponsor commitments are satisfied...

Or not?

[GTRMagic]

Does This Article mean to make Mr Warburton sound indecisive, or does he have to many stakeholders bashing him up to be direct with the appropriate response?

[rik]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Does This Article mean to make Mr Warburton sound indecisive, or does he have to many stakeholders bashing him up to be direct with the appropriate response?

Talk about mixed messages!

One day they reduce friday practise to a minimum and ban co-drivers, the next bin Friday altogether but teams just do ride days on monday instead to give co-drivers a run. Nothing much saved there.

Then talk about banning private testing and making Fridays a test fest. But won't admit this is for Fox Sports! No doubt people will just do a whole heap more 'shakedowns' instead of private tests.

[Umai Naa]

Seems to change every year.

One year, it benefits those with an endless pool of rookies, the next, an endless pool of new chassis.

[GTRMagic]

You might argue that a reduction in/removal of private test days and maybe ride days could be designed to impact on the revenue stream of a certain Qld race circuit that thinks it holds the aces....

Maybe

[anthony81901]

Does seem amazing that a sport that has signed a $40 million per annum tv deal, pays drivers high-six figure salaries, and seeks to portray it as one of the nation's leading sports is seeking to scimp and save on a bit of accommodation.

Can't imagine that there is anything too flash in down-town Benalla or Wangaratta, but let's push out the boat and say it is $300 per night, add another $100 to keep the crew fed and watered and assuming it 10 personnel per car, its $4k per night, bugger all when it is quoted it costs $3 million to run a car. And probably less for teams that have contra deals with hotel chains.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by anthony81901

Does seem amazing that a sport that has signed a $40 million per annum tv deal, pays drivers high-six figure salaries, and seeks to portray it as one of the nation's leading sports is seeking to scimp and save on a bit of accommodation.

Can't imagine that there is anything too flash in down-town Benalla or Wangaratta, but let's push out the boat and say it is $300 per night, add another $100 to keep the crew fed and watered and assuming it 10 personnel per car, its $4k per night, bugger all when it is quoted it costs $3 million to run a car. And probably less for teams that have contra deals with hotel chains.

Absolutely right... But now you are letting facts interfere with what seems like some sort of political agenda

[mayhem]

If that was a condensed two day weekend, how did they still manage to have 2 x 1 hour blocks of nothingness on sunday (sorry, painted road cars doing sponsor laps doesnt cut it as entertainment) as well as 30 minute blocks of nothing on Saturday?

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by mayhem

If that was a condensed two day weekend, how did they still manage to have 2 x 1 hour blocks of nothingness on sunday (sorry, painted road cars doing sponsor laps doesnt cut it as entertainment) as well as 30 minute blocks of nothing on Saturday?

Well, that's kinda the problem too. If V8SC continues with its formulaic approach to race weekend formats, they do need some depth of other classes to call upon to fill the holes.

Clearly GT & Carrera Cup werent adequate fills for the Eastern Creek weekend.. where were Utes, Aussie Racing Cars, Dunlop Series?

Maybe they will fill the hole better next year.

[Umai Naa]

So many holes in the program, yet they still insisted on time-certain finishes.

[Alan52]

Starting the Sunday races at 9.30 or 10 would have helped getting rid of the gaps.Starting the races at 8 meant that 4 of Sunday's 8 races were over by 10am.The time certain calling of the Sunday morning TCM race( 5 hours before the telecast began) was a joke.

[ford71]

Time certain finishes are my biggest gripe with the series over everything else.

There's easy solutions to avoid them. We should never have a race distance comprised. The fact that we saw 2 on the weekend while punters tell of long blocks of no track action makes it all the more ridiculous.

I thought the TCM finishing a lap early may have been due to beached cars. Not that I agree thats the right call either.

[one five five]

Don't V8Supercars decree that there needs to be a certain amount of 'dead track' time before their races and after their races?

For what reason i'm not sure, does it build suspense or something?

Originally Posted by ford71

Time certain finishes are my biggest gripe with the series over everything else.

Wasn't it said a few years back that time certain finishes were there for the International satellite feed, nothing to do with anything locally?

[eduardo1]

Originally Posted by one five five

Don't V8Supercars decree that there needs to be a certain amount of 'dead track' time before their races and after their races?

For what reason i'm not sure, does it build suspense or something?



Wasn't it said a few years back that time certain finishes were there for the International satellite feed, nothing to do with anything locally?

The rationale is that every minute of the day is scheduled and, while they may not be entertaining, there are elements that are contractual obligations. Those ride days will be legally binding as part of the T&Cs of a competition or purchase or promised to a sponsor.

To get everything completed, to get everything to run smoothly, everything has to run to time.

Hence, time-certain races are necessary.

BUT - that doesn't mean that the scheduling can't be massively improved and that time-certain races should be the theoretical equivalent of the number of laps.

ie: if a 10 lap race should take 18 minutes under all green flags, then schedule it for 10 laps or 25 minutes - whichever comes first. Add some buffer into it.

I was at EC - it had very little atmosphere, a small crowd and there was not a lot of track action during the day. Porsches I can understand running early on Sunday because they had a second race. But GTs could have been later in the day.

Have all, or most of the non-racing early in the day and just have back to back races from 11am.

[ford71]

Originally Posted by one five five

Wasn't it said a few years back that time certain finishes were there for the International satellite feed, nothing to do with anything locally?

I've not heard that one.
As stated above, some buffer can be calculated into the days schedule, and the schedule must surely have enough flexibility to adjust start times so it either never happens or is very rare. 2 shortened races in one day is crap. Those 2 races are why people are handing money over and taking the time to attend.

[bathurst]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

You might argue that a reduction in/removal of private test days and maybe ride days could be designed to impact on the revenue stream of a certain Qld race circuit that thinks it holds the aces....

Maybe

That's where I'd put my money. And impact the BAC too

[Tourer]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

You might argue that a reduction in/removal of private test days and maybe ride days could be designed to impact on the revenue stream of a certain Qld race circuit that thinks it holds the aces....

Maybe

It may impact the track you mention (& others) but designed to achieve that is unlikely. Doing testing and bigger ride sessions at race meetings has been talked about for years by V8 teams but has never quite had enough support. Maybe now it has?

Teams spend a fair bit on testing and if some of those costs can be amortised into race meeting costs, there may be a cost benefit.

Mind you, it's also been suggested in other forms of motor sport too (including F1) and never been adopted so it might not happen here either.

[Razor]

I think it's a good idea. Still have the two day race meet but keep Thursday as a ride day for corporate sponsors, Friday as a test day then of course keep Saturday and Sunday as race days. For Thursday and Friday, a set or two set of new tyres would be good as well rather than running on old, potentially risky boots. For fans, it would be a cheaper alternative to see the cars out on the track for a little while after work with a discounted ticket price.

[GTRMagic]

And the Melbourne teams are off testing today at Winton, WP & NisMo running today, continuing tomorrow, where they will be joined by FPR & BJR...

FPR & BJR waved off today as being a weather risk. Wonder if the crews had to be put up in accommodation overnight ($$$$$) during the wait?

While Erebus is running tomorrrow at Queensland Raceway...

False economies all over the place...