The Bathurst 1000 is V8 Supercars’ biggest event and its opportunity to take centre stage on the Australian sporting landscape.
The eight-hour drama that unfolded last Sunday delivered results that could have far-reaching implications.
The event had it all. Before the race record-breaking laps on a resurfaced track and damaged contenders provided the entrée for the craziness that would come in the 1000-kilometre endurance classic.
Race day saw the winning entry of Chaz Mostert and Paul Morris (Ford FG Falcon) start from last, crash at a corner thats deteriorating track surface forced an unprecedented hour-long race suspension, make 13 pitstops, and lead one and only lap, the final lap, as Jamie Whincup’s VF Commodore dramatically ran out of fuel.
It was pure drama seen by the second biggest crowd in the history of the event, with a weekend a crowd of 195,261, up on last year’s 183,480 crowd figure, and a peak of 3.775 million television viewers, with an average of 2.186 million.
But perhaps the lasting legacy will be in convincing the back-to-back winning manufacturer Ford that it needs to recommit to V8 Supercars.
Ford Australia president Bob Graziano was there to the see the factory Ford team win, at a time when the outfit and the manufacturer remain locked in negotiations for financial backing into 2015.
Speculation emerged over the weekend that Ford would pull its support for V8 Supercars next season, even though the Ford teams have committed to fielding the final Falcon, the FG X.
Even though V8 Supercars is looking to change the rulebook to allow the Falcon replacement, the two-door Mustang coupe, to race in the series, it remains to be seen whether the Blue Oval will keep racing when it closes its Australian production plant in 2016.
The fan outrage toward the manufacturer at the speculation only intensified following the win. After all, it was further proof of the importance of Australian touring cars and Bathurst to Ford Australia’s DNA. At a time when local manufacturing is ending, Ford needs that connection to its heritage more than ever beyond 2016.
Ford has in its 2015 line-up two Bathurst 1000 winners in its factory team, including a 22-year-old rising star in Mostert, and the new powerhouse alliance of two iconic racing outfits, Team Penske and Dick Johnson Racing, with returning former champion Marcos Ambrose leading the team.
To not support that line-up and walk away from its fan-base is hard to fathom.
The 2014 Bathurst 1000 was also a vindication of V8 Supercars opening the doors to non-Ford and Holden manufacturers.
There were four different manufacturers in the top four placings – Ford, Nissan, Holden and AMG Mercedes-Benz – for just the second time in the event’s history.
The fifth manufacturer, Volvo, led for most of the race and would have been in contention for the win had it not been for a late-race incident.
Fans have embraced the new (returning in a wider Australian touring-car sense) manufacturers, but the core of the fan-base remains Ford or Holden.
Hopefully the decision makers at Ford Australia realise that importance and are convinced by the success, on and off the track, of the 2014 Bathurst 1000.
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