It’s no small secret that Bathurst is the crown jewel in the V8 Supercars calendar, with casual fans tuning in from far and wide to watch Australia’s premier racing category spend 1000 kilometres racing around the brutal Mount Panorama circuit.
There’s no shortage of history of the famous race – the stories of Peter Brock, the famous battles, big crashes, the very mountain itself.
You can add 1992 and the most infamous event possibly ever at the track, with Jim Richards sliding into the wall as the race was red flagged for wet conditions. Driving with Mark Skaife, they were declared winners before being booed on the podium, Richards declaring that the crowd were ‘a pack of arseholes’.
But there has to be more than history which keeps fans flocking back to the mountain and TV numbers high each year – it’s the idea of endurance racing, tactics playing out over the course of a day and a story being able to unfold during the race.
With all those factors and more taken into account, it’s no small surprise that the second and third most popular races on the calendar are the Sandown 500 and Clipsal 500 raced around the streets of Adelaide in two 250-kilometre races.
While it should be mentioned that not every round should be an endurance one, shorter races simply give fans no time to get invested in the contest.
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Even at a length of 200 kilometres, the race is over inside of an hour and it gives no chance for the fans to become involved in the event.
While the concept of shorter races has been at its most vulnerable overseas, doing it in Australia has lessened interest in the category. Of course, it’s not the only reason that the Supercars have been on a downward slope over the last decade, but the format of racing has had a big part to do with it.
Even though changes were made in the 2016 season, replacing the 60-kilometre races that characterised super sprint events on Saturday’s with one longer race of 120 kilometres, it did little to change the general vibe of the thing.
Many of the 120-kilometre races will be staying in place for this season, however the Supercars have made some giant strides to getting fans back onside with Australia’s premier racing category ahead of some big changes over the next few years and plenty of uncertainty of manufacturer commitments.
At the top of that list of changes is the Clipsal 500 on the streets of Adelaide going back to its original format, not seen since the 2013 season.
The original changes saw two 125-kilometre races on each day, before the 250-kilometre format resumed on Sunday last year, with fans still not warming to the shorter distance which remained on the Saturday. Going back to the longer format on both days this year should increase interest among fans in the first race of the season.
There is no doubting the importance of the first race of the season either – it’s a chance to come back with a bang and get fans back onside with the championship, letting them know the quality of racing that is still to come throughout the season.
The event at Phillip Island, which will be held in Round 3, has also been changed to the two 250-kilometre race format which is a positive. Two of them early in the season should build momentum and Round 13 in Auckland sees four 100-kilometre races being replaced by two 200-kilometre races.
While that definitely shows the category is moving in the right direction in terms of race format, there is still a lot of work to be done with plenty of rounds still carrying the 120-kilometre race format.
What needs to be done is a little up in the air, but as a bare minimum, races should be no less than 200 kilometres, which means they are going to bring strategy into it and time for fans to become invested in the event.
250 shouldn’t be the limit outside of the endurance window either. Of course, the three races in the endurance championship are the Gold Coast 600, Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000, with the Gold Coast event being split into two races.
However, there is no reason more events can’t be held at regular intervals throughout the season of 300 or 400 kilometres. It would still be over in a little over two hours and gives more air time – as well as time for fans to enjoy the strategy side of racing play out.
Whatever happens moving forward, the Supercars Championship must continue the way they have started this season with format changes and ensure longer races remain a priority.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde
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