Nissan: V8 Supercars is best value for money
Nissan Motorsport Global Director Darren Cox visited the 2013 V8 Supercars premiere in Adelaide and says the Australian championship gives the best value for money of their motorsport programs.
“I think I’m on record saying that this year, cost versus value, the best program will be this one. Any motorsport budget you put in front of someone, they will always say ‘it’s crazy, it’s mad, it’s big’,” said Cox.
Other than V8 Supercars, Nissan is also taking part in the Japanese Super GT, LMP2, GT3 and GT4.
“But in terms what it costs to go racing in Australia versus the value, whether that be the amount of eyeballs that are here, on TV, watching online, reading about it in the media, the value proposition is probably the best across all of our championships,” said Cox.
The four Nissan Altimas of Todd Kelly, Rick Kelly, James Moffatt and Michael Caruso had a mixed debut weekend in the Clipsal 500. The best scoring driver of the quartet was Rick Kelly with 11th in the first race and 14th in the second, despite being tapped in to a spin.
“I was really happy about the race at that point. I put a good pass on (Scott) Pye who had more straight line speed than us, which was quite obvious. For us that was really, really good and a top 10 was well without our sights at the restart. I got spun round, it was all a bit hectic out there, and unfortunately I was the bloke who ended up at the back. We are very lucky to finish 14th with a spin like that and to get away without a DNF,” said Rick Kelly.
A total of 95 000 spectators watched the premiere weekend, a figure Cox says beats the tin top championships of Europe.
“It’s great to see that motorsport is alive and well and kicking in Australia … outside of NASCAR, this is level pegging with DTM as the premier national category in the world. In terms of crowds and people paying to attend, you’re actually ahead of DTM. A lot of countries, including my own native country (England), would kill to have a championship like this,” said Cox.
