V8 Supercar Championship Series goes Global and Beyond

[RaceTime]

Australia's third most watched sport will extend its international reach when the V8 Supercar Championship Series moves its entire operation to Shanghai for a race at the Shanghai International Circuit next year.

AVESCO chairman Tony Cochrane today announced that a deal had been reached with Shanghai promotor the Greenland Group to stage a V8 Supercar race at the Shanghai International Circuit from June 3-5 2005.

The V8 Supercar Championship Series will race at the circuit each year for the next five years.


Full text at: http://www.racenews.com.au/?racenews=6310

[Big Voice]

Can't wait to see next years calender..ie who gets it in the neck for there round and will he also threaten to take another round out of the country in 2006 until we only see a handful of races here and the rest overseas.
I'm all for the Super Taxi's going overseas but not at the expence of the local punters chance to soak up the atmosphere.
As a side note ..the added expence to a team already struggling to secure sponsorship,or will this open up the door to international money finding it's way onto the Aussie Cars.

Only time will tell ...so sayeth Nostra-tony

[Jack racer]

Does this mean the NZ date will go back to where it was. Please!!!

[vortexo]

Puke a whatse has gone as of this year.

[vortexo]

They have 2 submissions from nz in front of them on Tues.
One from Manfield and the other was Auckland (I think)

[vortexo]

Originally posted by vortexo
Puke a whatse has gone as of this year.

Dam - I liked that track.

[GTRMagic]

You owe Crash Test 50 cents Racetime

[Just Do It!]

What you all seem to be missing is that the current race bids here in NZ for an Auckland Street Race, a Wellington Street Race, and a round at Manfield are for commencement in 2006.
Last I heard, NZ was meant to be getting 2 rounds, so it would seem that one of those bidders will not be successful - and it's likely to be one of the street races due to costs and logistics.

The round to replace China at the end of this year is a whole different ballgame, and I cannot envisage there being sufficient time to prepare for a street race anywhere in NZ - although, we Kiwis are great at improvising and getting the job done.

What would seem logical is that either Manfield, Taupo, or Ruapuna has put their name forward - and Manfield would seem the most likely, though it would be an epic effort to achieve the redevelopment that needs to be done in what is a reasonably short space of time.

Taupo would only go ahead if the extension is complete and I am not sure where that is at at this point in time.

I hope that this clarifies things and removes some of the cloudiness that surrounds the situation of an NZ round replacing the China round in November.

[Just Do It!]

When did you hear that?? It's not Mr Negative Rudman is spouting in the NZ Herald. In fact, I thought Rudman was leading the Wellington campaign, so keen is the dimwit not to see a race in Auckland!

[sizzle]

Originally posted by Big Voice
Can't wait to see next years calender..ie who gets it in the neck for there round and will he also threaten to take another round out of the country in 2006 until we only see a handful of races here and the rest overseas.
I'm all for the Super Taxi's going overseas but not at the expence of the local punters chance to soak up the atmosphere.
As a side note ..the added expence to a team already struggling to secure sponsorship,or will this open up the door to international money finding it's way onto the Aussie Cars.

Only time will tell ...so sayeth Nostra-tony

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't there a small matter of the FIA and the fact they consider the V8s to be a National Championship not an International series. And can anyone out there point to any teams dipping into the chinese sponsorship pool. All it would appear to be doing is costing teams in preparation costs with little or no return. Witness the recent cockup with the shipping to/from NZ where the shipping agent obviously forgot to listen to TC about how important the V8s are.

[Just Do It!]

Foreign rounds are paid for by foreign promoters

[sizzle]

Originally posted by Just Do It!
Foreign rounds are paid for by foreign promoters

I think you will find the promotors are not paying for the three days in poke whatse prepping the cars before they get on the ship.

[PTs Bro]

Please come to UK and show the poms what a proper race series is about............I suggest that the series should go to castle combe in UK.....Fast with just a hint of danger...........guaranteed to draw a huge crowd.

[racer69]

The first time maybe, but after a few showings would anyone but the purists be interested?

Really that goes for China, Bahrain or anywhere else TC has chosen from the Atlas.

[Just Do It!]

Is poke whatse meant to be Pukekohe??

[Bigguy]

Originally posted by Just Do It!
SNIP
The round to replace China at the end of this year is a whole different ballgame, and I cannot envisage there being sufficient time to prepare for a street race anywhere in NZ - although, we Kiwis are great at improvising and getting the job done.
SNIP

Couldn't TC ship enough concrete barriers over in one of RaceTime's Antalovs (sp) to build an NZ street circuit???

[Tracy]

Originally posted by Just Do It!
When did you hear that?? It's not Mr Negative Rudman is spouting in the NZ Herald. In fact, I thought Rudman was leading the Wellington campaign, so keen is the dimwit not to see a race in Auckland!

Here is the story:

From Dominion Post (27/3/04)

Manfeild up against Auckland for V8 races
By Bernard Carpinter

Manfeild is now in a straight fight with Auckland to run a round of the Australian V8 Supercar championship.

Destination Manawatu has lodged its formal bid with the series organisers Avesco, and the Auckland City Council will follow suit on Monday.

Wellington City Council carried out a $20,000 feasibility study into reviving the street race in the city, but on Thursday decided not to go ahead with a bid.

Chief executive Garry Poole said that, on top of a $10 million one-off cost to prepare the city for the event, running the race was likely to cost $8 million each year.

The economic benefit of people coming for the event was expected to be just over $15 million.

Revenue from the event itself would not cover costs, Mr Poole said.

Destination Manawatu chief executive Kathy Gibson said resource consents were already in place for running the V8 meeting at Manfeild, in Feilding, from 2006 on.

If the circuit wins the right to run the meeting for the highly popular Australian racing cars, it will need a multi-million-dollar upgrade to build the necessary facilities.

Manawatu District Council and Palmerston North City Council have indicated that they would be prepared to invest this money in order to gain a major event that would draw visitors to the region. The meeting has been held at Pukekohe in recent years, attracting about 90,000 spectators over three days.

The councils were now consulting the public on the proposal, Mrs Gibson said.

The Auckland City Council voted 12-8 on Thursday night to make a bid for a street race in the central city, in conjunction with promotion company IMG.

The council's plan includes a $3.5 million interest-free loan from the council to IMG.

However, roading authority Transit New Zealand opposes the plan because the race would close the Fanshawe St exit from the harbour bridge for three days and increase traffic congestion.

Transit's opposition could make it very difficult for the council to get the resource consents it would need to run the race.

Avesco chairman Tony Cochrane has said his organisation could run two V8 races in New Zealand in future, but Mrs Gibson said (they) had not received any indication from Mr Cochrane on this question.

If the Auckland bid is confirmed then observers expect it to win, simply because Auckland has a much bigger population and is the corporate capital of the country.

But if New Zealand gets two V8 meetings, then Manfeild is the only other contender.

[Evomike]

The reality is that it would be difficult to get it approved in Auckland. I want it to stay at Puke and would rather see the money spent there, however after attending the NZ V8 Tourers at Manfield I see that they need much more money spending on facilities (Sorry Tracy) I was a little shocked at how little had been done in the 7 years since I had last been there. So I fail to see how it can go ahead there. I understand that Puke is to close for a few months while the drainage is sorted and then it is to be completly resurfaced.

[Tracy]

Hi All

No worries Evomike - I think everyone from down here would be the first to agree with you that Manfeild needs a serious upgrade for facilities, and after seeing the plans for the changes I just hope we get them soon!

[Just Do It!]

Interesting to see that Wellington has dropped out.

When the Ruapuna rumours surfaced last year, Tony Cochrane was quick to say that based on the success of the Pukekohe event and the loyalty shown by the Kiwi fan base, there could well be two NZ rounds from 2006.
I reckon that there could be a nice surprise in for us Kiwis when AVESCO make their announcement for the 2006 NZ round.
Back to back weekends with the more gentle, and run-off abundant Manfield first, followed up on the following weekend with a street race in Auckland - just how the Pukekohe/Wellington event used to happen!

Manfield had a plan to spend $20 million and Tony Cochrane publicly said that that was the bare minimum. It's a club circuit really that hosts an agricultural field day and has horse facilities and a jet sprint course.
One has to wonder if this still holds after the recent severe flooding to the district.

Evomike: You are right. Manfield is run down. It is sad to see but reflects of dictation from the horsey set. By the sound of things, the horse track is hardly ever used and with Wellington's nearby corporate people, it can't be too hard to spin a conference and event centre into the facility and make the race track a focal point with some kind of corporate karting facility there that is all weather as Manfield is notorious for wet meetings.
It should have built in the more weather friendly Hawke's Bay which was the original plan anyway. You can go to Manfield and get soaked and drive home to Hawke's Bay to find they have had sunshine all day.

Oh and Bigguy, barging over the Clipsal street circuit gear has already been looked at too. It wouldn't be impossible to do!

[stoned pony]

Let me see... a national series that has (at least) one race in another country while ignoring one state in its country of origin.
I know Tassie is "overseas" but it also happens to be part of the Commonwealth so why doesn't TC send the taxis to Tassie (geez, almost reads like a bumper sticker, doesn't it?)
And yes guys, I do know the alleged reasons why the Taxis don't go to Tassie and it sounds like absolute bulldust to me.

[jetsetter]

I'm all for the race either going to Phillip Island or Symmons Plains but we all know AVESCO will probably give Eastern Creek a third round.