Superlap 2009 Gets A Green Light!

[fatz]

barrons mun

[NZM.031]

as time attack grows in popularity.. it will get bigger, and better. it was a shame that on the sunday there were bugger all spectators. and $15-$20 is a bit cheap... id happily pay $50 - $100 if the facilities and amenities were good, i.e had some sort of shade and the toilets were in good nick.. seriously, you pay some rich music star $100 to watch them perform.. how are we meant to get another race track built if all they charge to a once a year event like superlap if they charge $20 to watch some of the top cars from the top companies rack it out for one hot lap.

im even thinking about building a car to have a bit of fun at this event when they find a place for next year.. its acheivable and there arent as many ghey regulations as with other track events.. no doubt that cams will soon put their foot down.. and it will become a controlled thing.. which is what turns me off getting into any form of motorsport.

the only regulation in the open and pro class really is tyres. which are street legal semi slicks.. so its effectivley a race car that you can drive on the street which is why i went to watch this event..

every day cars, with unlimited suspension and engine mods, on every day tyres, racing around to get one hot lap.. its much better than watching a controlled group of same make cars racing for 20 laps.. conserving tyres and fuel etc. and restrictions on high power cars to make it even for low power cars.

i think it can only get bigger from here as it as alot of action for everyone, not every one likes drift, and the majority of people who do it cant afford to buy stuff from the show stands anyway so there is little business there... and not everyone likes circuit racing because those cars are in a completly different class to your average road car.. superlap, or time attack is all or nothing.. big budget, high hp cars, that can be driven to and from the track.

cheers

Linton

edit* as long as they keep those farrrking ghey mongrel v8's out of it. then it will turn to shit*

Edited April 2, 2009 by NZM.031

[Beer Baron]

yeah good points and I agree with it all except cost. I reckon maybe look at $10 bux and you'd get 3 times as many people so 50% more profit and lots more people at trade stands.

[djr81]

sadly a big production like superlap costs a lot of dough to put on.

think about what tracks like oran park charge for

track hire

garage hire

carpark use for trade stalls

corporate box use

then add

timing system

public liability insurance

advertising

wages (staff on the day, staff taking entries, staff calling people, security, etc)

merchandise

trophies

have a guess at those costs, then double it! then there is the problem that there is only so much the market will bear in terms of entry costs and spectator costs.

I would say it would get pretty close to breaking even, may even make a small profit on paper. but it takes a lot of work to make it happen and it may not be viable to run more than 1 or 2 a year as you'd lose some entries from interstate as they may just chose to do their home round, instead of the 1 big one a year.

Other than maybe corporate boxes & carpark for merchandise etc those costs are common for anyone running a trackday sprint. With a modicum of sponsorship & a reasonable number of entries most state based series appear to be viable. They do however, tend to have more entires at a lower entry fee. On the flip side most don't charge for admission, so who knows.

Question:

Is there any truth to the rumour I just made up that next years event will be held at Wanneroo so the series can be sold to prospective sponsors as truly national?

[N1GTR]

Dont forget the trade stands are all resold to the companies that use them on the day.

Corporate box (eg, the SAUNSW one) was paid for by our pre event ticket sales.

How much is garage hire?

[NZM.031]

yeah good points and I agree with it all except cost. I reckon maybe look at $10 bux and you'd get 3 times as many people so 50% more profit and lots more people at trade stands.

very true... but the price of tickets can also be an indicator of the quality of the event.. $10 and id expect to see a club level event... with no stands, no pits, no spectators, etc.. and i would brush it off as such and it wouldnt be worth the effort to go to... for me its a 2.5hr drive atleast to any race track.

$50-$100 id expect to see some top cars, top teams, kind of thing you see in japan.. i was dumbfounded when i saw the cheap sau tickts were $15... then i saw the normal tickets were only $20. i was full expecting to pay around $50.

[Tektrader69]

It needs coverage, Selling to enthusiasts is fine, BUT it needs promotion.

If not for this site no one would be any the wizer about it being on. I dont know what publicity they reckon they had.

BUT it was non existant.

They need someone to sell it to a wider audience. Why do you think V8's are popular? Its not cause they bear any resemblance to cars that people drive everyday. Its publicity that drives V8 super cars and a TV audience.

[Beer Baron]

they had big ads in car related magazines, and lots of banners and flyers at workshops etc.

I understand linton's point though about price being an indicator of quality. I can tell you the big name GTRs and evo's etc would all have money spent in the hundreds of thousands to get to where they are, so yeah you are seeing the best 'tuned' cars in aus. so maybe I do have it backwards, maybe higher ticket price would get more tickets sold.

[Beer Baron]

Other than maybe corporate boxes & carpark for merchandise etc those costs are common for anyone running a trackday sprint. With a modicum of sponsorship & a reasonable number of entries most state based series appear to be viable. They do however, tend to have more entires at a lower entry fee. On the flip side most don't charge for admission, so who knows.

Question:

Is there any truth to the rumour I just made up that next years event will be held at Wanneroo so the series can be sold to prospective sponsors as truly national?

well most clubs don't pay any of their staff. hi octane do. most clubs don't pay for magazine advertising, and many clubs don't pay the $5K for proper timing. and many clubs run at a loss, they rely on membership fees, donations and other fund raising to finance their events. hi octane doesn't want to shell out dough for people to race, they want to break even or make a profit. i'm not saying they are crying poor. I have a pretty good idea of what this event cost them, and it's a fair bit more than I thought, but doing rough numbers in my head tells me it's viable and they probably do make a profit.

[djr81]

well most clubs don't pay any of their staff. hi octane do. most clubs don't pay for magazine advertising, and many clubs don't pay the $5K for proper timing. and many clubs run at a loss, they rely on membership fees, donations and other fund raising to finance their events. hi octane doesn't want to shell out dough for people to race, they want to break even or make a profit. i'm not saying they are crying poor. I have a pretty good idea of what this event cost them, and it's a fair bit more than I thought, but doing rough numbers in my head tells me it's viable and they probably do make a profit.

Well I would suspect that the advertising was the killer. I was looking at some of the rates for the not so popular mags - well my flabber was aghast at the prices. Paying for staff to do what would otherwise be voluntary would hurt too. It is staggering how much work needs to be put in to get things organised these days.

[fatz]

last time i hired op for a weekend it was 4k

prior to OP management fatz tax

lol

good times

[Z1LLA]

My photos from the event are now up on www.fullboost.com.au as well

[Bozman1]

last time i hired op for a weekend it was 4k

prior to OP management fatz tax

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

haha was that in the 70's haha must have been the south.

GP for a sunday, double that plus more plus insurance ++++++++++++

[fatz]

last time i hired op for a weekend it was 4k

prior to OP management fatz tax

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

haha was that in the 70's haha must have been the south.

GP for a sunday, double that plus more plus insurance ++++++++++++

3 years ago

[Merli]

If they really want this to take off, they need to make it more of a spectator sport.

For a start, how about a BIIIIIG timing board in the infield, showing LIVE feeds of the times the relevant cars going roundy-roundy are clocking?

How about some driver interviews? Between rounds, grab a driver at the pointy end of the field, bring him out into pit-lane and do a quick 2-3 minute chat on the PA system.

Otherwise, and lets be honest...... it's just like watching a normal private practice day (with trade stands and hot chicks running around in skin tight lycra booty shorts).

The <cough.cough.drifting.cough> promoters have got it right. They turned the stupid sport into a spectacle.

[benm]

I agree with Merli, the drift australia have got it right because its a spectators sport.

The only difference between Superlap and any other weekend at Oran Park is their was a commentator and half a dozen trade stands with higher quality cars.

Linton you can't charge $50 to watch this event, the V8SC even struggle to get a decent crowd at that sorta money.

[boxheadmr]

well most clubs don't pay any of their staff. hi octane do. most clubs don't pay for magazine advertising, and many clubs don't pay the $5K for proper timing. and many clubs run at a loss, they rely on membership fees, donations and other fund raising to finance their events. hi octane doesn't want to shell out dough for people to race, they want to break even or make a profit. i'm not saying they are crying poor. I have a pretty good idea of what this event cost them, and it's a fair bit more than I thought, but doing rough numbers in my head tells me it's viable and they probably do make a profit.

Proper timing does not cost $5000, it is $500 or $400 for the day

last time i hired op for a weekend it was 4k

prior to OP management fatz tax

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

haha was that in the 70's haha must have been the south.

GP for a sunday, double that plus more plus insurance ++++++++++++

Prices vary depending on who is hiring and what permits and/or officials it is run under, Fatz used to pay more then initial drift used to pay.

[Beer Baron]

If they really want this to take off, they need to make it more of a spectator sport.

For a start, how about a BIIIIIG timing board in the infield, showing LIVE feeds of the times the relevant cars going roundy-roundy are clocking?

How about some driver interviews? Between rounds, grab a driver at the pointy end of the field, bring him out into pit-lane and do a quick 2-3 minute chat on the PA system.

Otherwise, and lets be honest...... it's just like watching a normal private practice day (with trade stands and hot chicks running around in skin tight lycra booty shorts).

The <cough.cough.drifting.cough> promoters have got it right. They turned the stupid sport into a spectacle.

I would absolutely LOVE to see a big timing screen showing each car and say their last 3 laps as they are going round, but not even F1 have that and it costs $600+ for a good seat at that. They would need a much more advanced timing system and some good software to run it all. it would be so good though, I've wanted that at just about every motorsport event i've attended.

boxhead: as for the timing equipment cost, i've never personally hired or paid for it, but that was the price I was told. I'm sure it costs more than $500 though, for starters there is 100 transponders which are not cheap plus the timing equipment and people to manage it all.

to be honest I think they do pretty well at making it interesting. it's a big step up from a supersprint or regular track day. the commentary is good as you know who is on the track and what times they are doing. and the level of cars they've attracted is awesome. the trade stands and chicks both add something too imo. the interview idea could be a winner too.

anyway, there are lots of good ideas floating around. i'm sure it will continue to improve. personally I thought this event was a big step up from the first one, and i'm sure the next one will be better still.

[evil_weevil]

Is there a feed back thing this year for superlap Nathan?

Merli has some great ideas, love the idea of the TV or scoreboard so people can see!

[Tektrader69]

A screen showing constantly updated split times and a leader board for each class and overall would be great. A really motivated commentator would also help. It has to be SOLD as exciting. Doesnt seem like that now. Exciting for those involved or realy interested but NOT for the rest of the public.

There would be buckets of smaller to medium businesses that do import, race and performance work that could advertise if Superlap are not greedy on the advertising price.

One way to sell this would be to make state events with a championship for top say 5 places per class in each state. All coming together for a championship each year.

This would be feasible for the three eastern states almost immediately.

If Superlap think there is NO interest interstate they would be So So wrong. IMO they are thinking and acting small.

If they want this to turn into time attack as it is in Japan. Do the work, to reap the rewards.

How about inviting a pair of time attack teams from Japan ??? That would genrate a heap of interest even in the general media.

Edited April 2, 2009 by Tektrader69