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From memory the total amount of viewers who logged into the online streaming of the event was 22000, and in the early evening peaked at 2000 concurrent viewers. (thats higher then some f1 streams viewed in the oceania region)
I was at the event this year and i can say from my experience as a spectator that the weather was atrocious. We narrowly got home prior to rivers flash flooding on our return trip. It poured throughout the day and the previous nights non stop rain had already turned the place into a mud hole.
I can tell you that we very seriously considered not attending the event due to the rain and probably only attended thanks to my positive experience from last years event. Despite the weather we didnt regret the decision!.
Can anyone tell me of a bathurst event in the recent decade that has come anywhere near getting v8supercar attendences? I am simply not aware of it ever occuring. Even the Bathurst 24 hr races got bagged out for their low attendence rate despite the potential of the event and its competitors.
I think anyone who has attended motorsport in australia in the recent decades will tell you that v8supercars is the only australian based circuit category that gets large attendences.
From our experience of looking for accomodation i can tell you that the local economy was obviously benefiting from the event with most reasonably priced accomodation sold out. The families, friends, and support crews of the teams from every category that raced over the weekend alone would have made a large contribution to the local economy.
Your not talking about closing a major road and disrupting local businesses either.
At the moment i love the bathurst 12 hour race as it is. I think it would definately benefit from a number of factory efforts with more famous drivers in the mix, but otherwise anyone who has actually attended and can judge it off that experience not a stripped down sterile 3 hr coverage package will tell you that it is a fantastic race.
The production cars you see racing are representive of their show room counter part. There was a strong representation of profesionally prepaired cars in most of the classes in the field. There were some very well known "big gun" drivers racing with a very diverse mix of genuinely talented amateurs, up and comers, veterans etc as well as the usual gentlemen drivers.
The events secured its future for next year as far as i understand, and ill be making another trip up. Bare in mind that we travelled 3 hours each way in rubbish weather to attend the race so that in itself is a indication of how good it is if we are willing to do it all again.
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