IF you went to the Australian Muscle Car Masters event at Sydney Motorsport Park last weekend having not been before, there’s every chance you would have enjoyed it.

Average weather aside, competitive grids and a wide variety of cars made for a decent on-track product while concentrating the merchandise and classic display area behind the garages was a brilliant idea, condensing the event and making it much easier to see everything.

However, those who are regular attendees saw an event that is now something of a shadow of its former self.

A combination of calendar circumstances and decisions made by the promoters have not helped what was a unique event on the local motorsport landscape.

Muscle Car Masters was a staple of the calendar: The Fathers Day date was perfect for the targeted demographic. The spring weather in Sydney was generally very good and the racing program was varied and interesting year after year.

One year there would be Formula 5000s and the next there would be the incredible Central Muscle Cars from New Zealand, for example.

The off-track offering was just as good with an enormous array of car club displays, merchandise stands and trade stalls that you could spend much of a day wandering through.

However things began to unravel when changes were made from an otherwise successful formula.

The move away from September to a later October date was not as popular as it was supposed to be: even if it fitted better with the calendar and gave it some separation from the Supercars round in late August.

When they tried to move back to September this year the date was already gone, meaning a temporary June date on the long weekend was the only option left to them.

Which, in turn, opened the door to confusion from regular fans, a lack of awareness amongst the media and categories and the chance of properly wintry weather – which was the case on the weekend.

Sadly, an event that used to comfortably out-draw the Supercars event at the same venue this year pulled perhaps a few thousand hardy souls on a chilly Sunday in Sydney’s West.

Of course, the change of date and fact that this year was always going to be something of a ‘transitional year’ had a large effect on attendance, plus there was clearly less emphasis or spend on marketing this year. We won’t compare Apples with Oranges in that case.

But it’s proof that date equity is incredibly valuable: I am sure when it returns to Fathers Day next year there will be a heavily increased promotional push to match to let people know the traditional date is back.

However, it’s more than just the date that needs some work.

MCM used to feel like a major event – a festival – that just happened to have car racing as well.

You’d spend your day ogling the off-track product only to look up and be thrilled by a crazy guy in a Lotus Cortina passing a Ford Mustang around the outside of turn four.

Now if just feels like another race event amongst a crowded schedule of race events spread throughout the calendar. And that’s a shame.

I think one of the problems the event faces is that it’s just become the same thing every year.

People pay money to go to a Supercars round each year so they can see Craig Lowndes, Scott McLaughlin and Jamie Whincup because it’s an ongoing battle – like going to see your favorite footy team play each week.

Muscle Car Masters is different: People go so they could see Group N cars one year and be surprised by something cool and historic a year later.

The last three events have all felt very similar and as great as a field of 40 Group N Historic Touring Cars are, they’re the same group of 40 Group N Historic Touring Cars you saw twelve months ago.

The same can be said for the Group A & C Heritage Touring Cars or even the Kumho V8’s – which fans can watch at Supercars rounds or on FOX throughout the year.

The other issue they face is that the days of relying on ‘star power’ celebrities from the past are, if not completely over, on their way out.

As wonderful as John French, Kevin Bartlett and Garry Rogers are, their stories have all by now been well told: I don’t think they have the same lure now as perhaps they may have even five years ago and with the greatest of respect to the legends they are, I doubt they sell many tickets on the basis of them being there.

As the market changes and those watching the sport change with it – and the heroes and the fans of the last era get older – they become less relevant to today’s motorsport fans that the event needs to attract.

Of the big names still around, Dick Johnson is busy basking in the success of his Supercars team and is probably more accessible than he has been in years.

Allan Moffat is off selling his merchandise and his book and as wonderful as the (Peter) Brock legacy is, even the merchandise truck selling his branded gear was absent this year.

You feel for the promoters, because they truly find themselves in a challenging situation and perhaps even asking the question: have got to the bottom of the barrel when it comes to this type of event? Have we done it all?

Certainly with the old legends, I think they have: and it’s not like the current stars would really add to it either: the likes of Glenn Seton, Mark Skaife and John Bowe are still far too heavily involved as competitors, fathers or broadcasters to have the kind of lure a Moffat or Johnson may have.

Celebrity heroes aside, moving back to Fathers day will be a good step but it’s not going to be an instant reset to where it was four or five years ago.

Some out of the box thinking, a unique race, format or star attraction or something else is needed to shake it up. In a market of same-same events everywhere, they should be bold and be truly innovative or experimental to try and capture some of it’s old luster.

Muscle Car Masters was a sensational event and a ‘must do’ on the calendar.

It’s time for a fresh approach and a reboot to fit a changing market and a very different motorsport landscape to the one in which it entered so successfully a decade ago.

Here’s hoping the organisers can re-ignite that spark that made the event so brilliant.

WORDS & IMAGE: Richard Craill