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V8 Supercar driver Garth Tander believes a proposed “grand slam” for the sport could prove a boon in terms of international promotion.
The category’s governing body announced on Thursday that a revamped Gold Coast event is expected to become the third leg of the V8’s own grand slam – along with the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, the Bathurst 1000 and the season-ending Sydney 500 at Homebush.
And Tander believes the idea could deliver V8 Supercars a market beyond Australian shores – but only if someone is still a chance of securing the projected $2.5 million prize going into the last event of the year.
“To be honest I don’t need that motivation to win those races,” Tander told AAP.
“It’s probably not something that we need as drivers but I think it can be potentially good for the sport and generate pretty serious media interest if someone does get close to winning it.
“If someone comes down to that last race of the grand slam … and they’re in with a shot of winning it, then it’s got the potential to generate some serious media, not only here in Australia but internationally.
“From that point of view it could be a good thing for the sport.”
In revealing their plan to make the Gold Coast event the third leg of the grand slam, V8 Supercars Australia also announced October’s races at Surfers Paradise will be just the third endurance event on the series calendar.
While final details are yet to be confirmed the Gold Coast “Carnivale” will feature two 300km races, with drivers teaming up in pairings similar to what they do at the Phillip Island 500 and Bathurst.
Tander was just relieved the V8 field will be heading back to the Gold Coast, after last year’s SuperGP event descended into farce when the international A1GP series withdrew just a week beforehand, leaving the V8s as the only main attraction.
“It’s great that the Gold Coast event has got a future and it’s got V8 Supercars as the main act,” Tander said.
“It fits well, we’ve just done Bathurst, just done Phillip Island, Gold Coast is the next race in the queue so it fits well as the series is in enduro mode, it fits well into the calendar.”
Tander also believed it was fair to call the new Gold Coast event an endurance race despite the 300km races being shorter than those at Phillip Island and Bathurst.
Classifying the event as an endurance race will allow V8 Supercars to satisfy the Queensland Government’s wishes of having an international element on the Gold Coast, with 17 overseas drivers to be brought in as co-drivers for the weekend.
International drivers already confirmed to take part as co-drivers in the two Gold Coast V8 Supercars races include Australia’s Le Mans 24 Hour winner David Brabham, former Gold Coast Indy winner Scott Pruett (US), England’s Mark Blundell and Brazil’s Christian Fittipaldi.
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