IT was quite the weekend at Queensland Raceway as the Coates Hire Ipswich Supersprint produced a fascinating Supercars weekend – certainly worthy of some discussion. 

So, whilst ruminating on the weekend over a rather decent bottle of tawny Port, that is exactly what Mark Walker and Richard Craill have done.

Craill: Righto then, let us start with the obvious: You’ve been going there longer than me, but I can’t remember a trip to Queensland Raceway that had as much atmosphere and ‘vibe’ as the weekend did. A great crowd, perfect weather and while it wasn’t the most memorable Supercar racing we’ve ever had, there was plenty going on from a big-picture perspective and in the wildcard stories to make it more than interesting enough. Thoughts?

Walker: While the crowd wasn’t of the same density as the glory days of the 2003-’04-’05 era, it was a marked improvement over the past couple of attempts at QR. I doubt anything will ever resemble the crowd at the inaugural meet in 1999, when the lack of traffic plan resulted in a grand cluster that set the venue back some years. The only traffic control in place were the boy scouts, who frankly battled hard.

Mint weather with some strong date equity always helps attendance, while the fact that the Brisbane Broncos had a Thursday night fixture couldn’t have been a hindrance. I don’t know if there was a concerted marketing push though free-to-air TV, but there certainly was some solid social media promotion of the event. It’s funny – with the current TV deal, the haters hated on the fact that the sport is stuffed, and people would quickly lose interest. Do you think everyone trackside has a Foxtel subscription, or perhaps some people front up because they lack the ability to watch the races live the couch?

Craill: I think it’s a mixture of the above. I’ll happily spend $100 a month on High-def Foxtel so I can watch all the racing and also all footy in the world, but I still love the live experience and – if we’re talking about footy – try to go as often as I can because it’s still better live.

I wonder if it’s changed the demographics of the people that actually go; is it now the really hard-core, diehard fans attending and the casual fans who don’t bother going anymore because they can watch it in glorious 1080p at home? If that’s the case it’s an interesting scenario that ironically might make it more appealing to marketers and sponsors because they’re accessing people completely dedicated to the cause and thus more likely to buy the products being promoted. Be interesting to do a survey on that.

What I found interesting was that the weekend felt like a more regional ‘event’ in the way that Darwin or Townsville does. Going to Sydney next time out feels like another round tacked into a city that doesn’t give a damn and that’s the kind of event suffering at the moment.

If I were a punter sitting on the hill on the weekend in perfect weather and watching the world title fight for P16 unfolding in Sunday’s race, I’d  think I’d probably be inclined to come back next year.

Speaking of that – how good were the wildcards? I think they’ve added more than a little bit to the narriative this year.

Walker: Hasn’t it been a good idea? None of the wildcards have looked out of place this season. A highlight for mine was watching Jack Le Brocq hold out Jamie Whincup for the better part of the Saturday afternoon race, albeit with an ill-handling car. The reaction from the Gogetta corporate tent was just awesome, you would have thought they had won the world title. The Matt White Motorsport guys didn’t look out of place out there, even with some very experienced hands from the lead Nissan Motorsport team planted in their camp for the event.

Obviously Todd Hazelwood is the surprise packet of season 2017. Probably one of the best feel-good stories in motorsport, based off the back of Bunnings snags. With his new weapon for this year, he is getting the job done.

Surely those two guys would be in the mix for a main game drive next season. How silly is the silly season set to be? It looks like there might be a lot of question marks against many of the teams out there…

Craill: I think the most interesting addition to the grid could be Richie Stanaway. There was lots of discussion about links to Prodrive Racing Australia over the weekend and most of the major media outlets reported that as such. With the fullest of respect to Jason Bright, who probably only has a year or two left as a full-timer, the thought of a PRA with Frosty, Mostert, a seasoned Waters and Stanaway in a four car team is pretty tantalising and could be what they need to add to the consistency of their challenge to the Blue Holdens and Red Fords.

Finding enough seats for drivers with available talent could be the issue but isn’t a good issue to have, especially given the majority of the discussion is about available talent and not, even though it plays a role, how much money they have to bring to the party.

One of my favourite moments of the weekend was when Todd fired it down the inside of his enduro co-driver, Tim Blanchard, late in race two. It was the move that kicked off that enormous scrap in the final few laps and it was really pleasing that he had the confidence to have a proper crack and risk a collision, even though he’s going to drive that car in September. I goaded him into that during a radio chat that morning so I’m pleased he pulled it off without putting Timmy B in the fence!

On that, did we see more of the making of Simona de Silvestro on the weekend? Phillip Island showed she had legitimate pace and recorded some strong results, but her elbows-out racing on Sunday was another KPI ticked in her rookie season.

It was good to see her get the first out and punch on like a good touring car racer, something she’s not had much of a chance to do yet.

Walker: Having spent a couple of events as Simona’s PR bunny, I have zero doubts that she is the real deal. For a rookie season, she hasn’t had a rookie quota of tearing up equipment, but I guess that comes with her experience base. She’s prepared to listen and to ask questions, whereas I think a lot of other new competitors to the class have had too much ego to do that.

One of my favourite recollections of Simona at Bathurst last year was on the Thursday afternoon when she was bundled off to the press conference, where she was seated next to Jamie Whincup. The two introduced each other, and the presser ensued. Afterwards, when Jamie was hopping into his golf buggy for a ride back to the top end of town, Simona flagged him down, and proceeded with a barrage of questions about driving around the Mountain. Whenever there was down time over the weekend, say before a media appearance or at a meal, she would pick the brain of any other experienced driver in the vicinity.

She works well with Blake Smith, who knows his stuff, and the Nissan Motorsport squad moved Rick Kelly’s data engineer Giovanni Colombo across to the Harvey Norman entry, who is a gun in his own right. It shows that the team are serious about making her deal work. Coming up, she has prior experience at Sydney Motorsport Park from the season opening test, and clearly at Bathurst. David Russell is an underrated talent, they should put on a good show in the Enduros.

I’m keen for the throwback round at Sandown, any good retro liveries the teams should be working on?

Craill: That’s a great story about Simona; she could turn out to be one of the best things for Nissan in a long time – Richard Emery and his team at HQ in Melbourne have been the best supporters the sport has had for a long time but the results haven’t flowed so her storyline has been a positive to keep them in the news.

I love a good throwback livery. I’d suggest DJRTP do something cool with the Shell cars, but then I think this year’s livery is something they’ll throwback to in the future so perhaps not. Good looking rigs.

I’d love to see a cool Castrol throwback to the 1990s Perkins era, or what about a classic Garth Tander Valvoline livery to celebrate his return to GRM?

Sandown is a cracking event.. one of the best and the heritage stuff has added to it and made it even more fun.

Which is what it’s about, isn’t it? So to wrap things up, give me your three favourite moments on the weekend and why.

Walker: One: The battle this year at the top is bringing the passion back. It’s Ford versus Holden, and on their day, any of those top teams can take home the bacon. The fact that the crowd were 100% involved in any position change at the top provided top atmosphere. QR’s strong suit is its spectator sight lines, and that really enhanced the experience in punterland.

Two: Everyone around the paddock was saying all weekend that Scotty McLaughlin has it this year, and I hope he does. The sport needs an injection of big personality, Scotty has that, but obviously not the championship credentials to back it up. His run of pole positions is amazing, when every second week he is coming out on top of sessions that are split by thousandths of a second. Mature drive on Sunday banking points, too.

Three: The world championship battle for 16th on Sunday. Just super. Fast straights, tight corners, and some wide open paddocks to fire off into meant that the elbows came out.

Craill: Hard to trump those but I’ll have a crack: One, Qualifying for Race 15. Top 5 cars covered by 0.097s, the Top 10 by 0.22 and the top 20 by 0.5. Yes it’s a short lap and yes it has only six corners, but the competitive level in this years’ championship is frankly ridiculous. Sunday was looking the same before McLaughlin blew everyone away.

Two: Craig Lowndes. He’s never gone away, but wasn’t it nice to see CL back at the pointy-end in both qualifying and the races at the weekend. It’s been a year since his last win but in his last six races Craig has gone 7-6-6-10-5-6 which points to building some ominous form ahead of his favourite time of year.

Three: BJR have established themselves as a mid-to-front of the pack team this year, with more consistently strong performances at more different race tracks. Todd Hazelwood topping the extra driver session in Tim Blanchard’s Cooldrive car backed up that legit pace. Good to see for the little team from Albury that could.

WORDS: Richard Craill & Mark Walker
IMAGES: Mark Walker