[nafe!]

The Audi vs Merc battle didnt interest you?

The initial first couple of hrs was enthralling with the top 5 cars putting on a show but it was always treading on thin ice and just waiting for attrition to take its toll on the race.

The Audi vs Merc interested me but in reality with 2 hrs to go the writing was on the wall. The merc was running half a lap behind and everytime it made inroads the audi responded just enough to keep the gap pretty distant.

Watching something like 18 cars or so at that point spread out over the 6.25km of bathurst, a large amount of them being run my amatuers was something i was over by that stage of the day. Going home early became a much more attractive proposition.

No chance on last years event and that would have been a very good crowd in 2010.

Considering the completely abysmal conditions in 2010 it was an amazing crowd and they claimed a attendance of around 18,000 that weekend as well.

A lack of what you mentioned above was not the reason for the events change of direction.

I am well aware that the change of direction was to try and make it a more exciting event, with manufacturer support and therefore a better profit making event.

My point was that the event was actually going fantastic as it was. 2 years later and only 10 gt3 cars in the field with a spectator attendance barely above 2010 levels its not exactly a roaring success is it? And doesnt that also justify that Production cars attracted the same amount of crowd numbers?

My personal position is that i would have prefered to see the race stay as a production car race. Unless people actually attended they cant understand that the race was brilliant in its previous format, so many entrants, so many possible winners and without gt3 cars to show them up were loud and fast enough to put on a great show.

It has changed though and probably wont go back to its old format unless something dramatic occurs.

Im happy for it to be a gt race, but this promoter knocked back multiple entries including a rare(for this year) australian entry (Mal Rose), had little regard for the timing of the aus gt round at clipsal half a year prior to event occuring as he was purely focused on internationals.

I think the timing of the event and amendments to the supp regs would be a good start.

I completely agree. Timing needs to change significantly, at least a month before or after clipsal. In the end how many runners from the dubai 24rs race did we get? The local gt entrants could have fielded more then enough cars to make up for the loss of a couple of cars from overseas had the oppertunity been there.

Reducing the entry fee to the production car runners, giving them better television coverage and perhaps treating the race in 2 halfs, one for the outright gt win and one for the outright production car win would also see the production guys coming back. (we all know that some things cant be overcome, eg sponsorship hurdles and some ego's but its a start)

Im not sure how the event ended up on speed but that was a bad move in my opinion, perhaps once again focussed purely on trying to get internationals to look at the race. Plenty of people do not have access to this channel, and plenty more do not even watch live streams on the internet so it needs to get local tv backing with the option to still allow networks like speed to broadcast it as well.

And ive said it before but actually promoting the event would help. No one i spoke to outside of motorsport circles even know what the event was, that anything was on at bathurst last weekend etc.

There was no radio or tv adds, i dont believe that i saw any actual promotion online for the 12hr race and magazine coverage is also a maybe?

You want more entries? You have to get more spectators to justify the argument to sponsors. And unless you have the cars the spectators wont come...This year was an improvement on last year but both years were a big dissapointment compared to the fields and racing of 2010.

It has the potential makings of brilliant race but i think its either going to take a very long time to get there, or never get there at all.