Quote:
Originally Posted by promax
you talking about the "aussie" drivers? no doubt it would be easier for an aussie driver with V8SC experience to get sponsor's $$$'s to pay for a driver in NZ.. than a local boy. i'm rather surprised a local boy (or girl) didn't climb over their grandmother for #556 drive. JMR have owned NZV8 series for a number of years.. yet a seat for arguably the top V8 had to be advertised?
i'm not sure why i should be excited over what has been going on over the last few months (or years). one of the best classes we've had in a long time has gone from feilds of 30+.. to 16 in total.. with 8 doing all the rounds. too many cars have been parked because of all the bs that has been going on.. now all of a sudden these missing cars are going to make an appearance.. cause the ST group have created a new home for them? give me a break! lol
far too many things stink over this split. parading the prototype around talking it up about how innovative it was compared to what was going on in NZV8 class was poor. especially when people that built the ST prototype were meant to be the same people building the NZV8 prototype.. if they didn't already. then to add a renamed NZV8 class to the mix *shakes head* how is that good motorsport in this country?
i don't dislike ST group. all the bs that has been caused because of the split is what i dislike. and yes.. i know parties on both sides are at fault.
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I'm talking about Murph, Bairdo, etc. Plus whatever Aussies. Murph is a crowd puller by himself anyway.
The NZV8 grids were in decline well before the split happened - in the heyday they were fantastic with lots of paint swapping, wheel to wheel racing and grids of 30+ cars that would stretch right around the corner at Pukekohe.
But even then there was a big problem with the marketing (or lack of) for the series, and there was simmering dissent amongst the ranks. TMC had a great product that could and should easily have attracted 15-20k fans to the tracks regularly, but numbers never really looked like that, and the lack of advertising meant that sponsors didn't come on board like they should. Add to that the (alleged) mis-handling of the Parker Enzed account as primary sponsor, and the NZ Truth fiasco and you can see why some decided it was time to go do something else (take a look at the 30+ F5000 grid - you might just find some ex-NZV8 drivers there...)
The new NZV8 COTF idea looked like a good one but I would suspect that a group of the most dissatisfied of the few remaining entrants were probably already thinking that TMC would not handle the new format any better than they had the current one, and were looking for an "out."
The situation that saw TMC terminate their shareholding in NZV8's Ltd or whatever it was called was probably the straw that broke the camel's back. They saw an opportunity to do things better with a great new product and the rest, as they say, is history.
Only time will tell whether they will be successful, but as an outsider you would have to say they've already done a much slicker job of marketing the cars and the series than TMC ever did with the NZV8's. They are wanting to raise the bar a long way, so we will just have to wait and see how that turns out.
On a brighter note, when splits have occured in other sports (English Premier League vs Division 1, Super League vs ARL, IRL vs Champcar, 5 Litre V8's vs Aussie 2 Litre Touring Cars, etc.) the splits have been relatively short lived. Generally the older series has suffered for a while, and the new one has done better, but then amalgamation takes place, albeit with different and more savvy people at the top. End result is usually a better product run by people who are good at what they do.
Let's just hope that this all works out well for us, the fans, in the medium-long term.
BTW, I'm sure Timaru/Teretonga would be on the cards for the ST's provided they upgrade their pit facilities.