Greg Murphy may have been the secret ingredient, but the recipe of the V8 SuperTourers event at Hampton Downs over the weekend was a success. It showed that large crowds will come and want to be entertained by a great motorsport package. It was the fruition of a great concept of V8 racing, drivers who are household names, on and off track entertainment, excellent planning and promotion, coupled with superb hot and dry weather.
The success of the event has to be good for motorsport in New Zealand. It does not necessarily matter whether it is V8 SuperTourers, V8 Supercars or the new generation NZV8. What was apparent is that large crowds will come given the right ingredients. It is reported that over 5,000 people attended on Saturday and over 10,000 people on Sunday. Merchandise was a sell out.
An integral part of this was having Greg Murphy back racing in NZ and realising the strength of his name and that he still is a competitive talent on the track. Watching the racing amongst the spectators reinforced this as they yelled and applauded each passing move or victory that he accomplished.
Equally important was the non-racing entertainment area. The Motorsport Company first saw the need to create an entertainment package several years ago and successfully developed the ‘Downtown’ concept for the summer series of racing where there is a separate entertainment area beside the motorsport action giving spectators alternative forms of activities within the bigger motorsport event.
The weekend event also developed this concept which included displays of drifting, karting, skid pad demonstrations and an overhead aerobatic display.
But it wasn’t just Murphy that thrilled the crowd. In the 30 lap finale spectators were fixated with every driver’s opportunity for passing and the consequences of it going wrong. The atmosphere was fantastic.
So a successful start to the V8 SuperTourers season has to be congratulated and will be welcomed by the motorsport public. It is still early days and the true success will be in its ability to keep bringing the crowds back. Given this success, it appears that they do know their target audience and that they have got the recipe right.
