Holdens new VE Commodore Racer
February 2, 2007
With the 2007 season almost upon us, the big news in the Holden camp is the launching of the all new VE Commodore.
Late last year, Holden released what is arguably its most important vehicle, the VE Commodore to the public for sale. The trickle on effect for the V8 series is that it allows the Holden teams to introduce the new body shell for the 2007 season.
The new body shell will bring with it both new technical challenges and hopefully some improvements over the 2006 championship winning VZ body.
Unfortunately for the Holden team, this year sees the traditional V8 SuperCar ‘warm-up’ at the Melbourne F1 GP, not being run this year. This has to do with a new TV broadcaster for the series. The new TV broadcaster does not televise the F1, so no race (although AVESCO, the governing body for V8 SuperCars denies this and say it was scheduling issues)
The F1 round, gives all teams an opportunity to have a ‘live’ test for the cars. It allows the teams to get a real idea of how their cars are performing, especially against others in a true race format. Testing just cannot give you a true indication.
This may give the Ford camp a slight advantage for the first few races of the series. It will surely take the Holden teams a few races to shake out the cobwebs and get ideal race set ups. In saying this however, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Holden Racing Team is quick straight out of the box.
As for Ford, with Falcon now in its third update (now the BF Falcon) with no significant changes other than minor aerodynamic improvements have been made.
With the series based on a ‘parity’ structure the AVESCO ensures that all are on a level playing field so we can only hope they have got it right. In fairness they have been testing the parity for a long time.
Cheers
Dave
Entry Filed under: V8 Supercars. .
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1.
Wes | February 7, 2007 at 7:37 am
I think you are right to point out that the reason why there will be no V8 at Albert Park is because of the change of broadcasters. Last year both F1 and V8 were shown on Channel Ten but now the V8 rights are with Channel 7 and therefore Ten will not be keen on advertising a series that is run on a rival network.
Having said that, unless Seven get somebody to show some of the AFL matches they may not be able to show V8 after all with that space going to the AFL. However, I understand that Foxtel may be able to show four AFL matches and that will free some of the time for Seven to show the V8 series. Interesting.
2.
JJ | February 14, 2007 at 7:29 am
I think there were a lot of issues surrounding the withdrawal from the GP round, of which one was certainly the broadcaster.
Long before the deal with Seven was announced however, there were discontented murmurings about the GP meeting. Everything from pit/paddock access & facilities, to the inability for the V8 teams to bring merch trucks onsite. It really became less and less worthwhile for the teams to participate, in what basically amounted to a potentially very costly test session.
With the negotiating power V8SA increasingly had, having been paid tremendous sums to bring their circus to the likes of Bahrain etc, the F1 round could never offer the benefits they needed. The priority always had to be on F1. The broadcaster change was probably the final straw in the saga.
3.
davidswift | February 14, 2007 at 7:47 am
Hi JJ,
Thanks for the comment.
Seven and Ten just announced (late last week) that Foxtel will show AFL games so it looks like the TV is safe.
I agree the GP always had grumblings of discontent by the V8 teams (similar to the Indy Round).
It will be interesting to see what this years crowd figures are for the non F1 days (when the V8’s put on their show). I used to go to the F1 only to watch the Porsche and V8 racing on the Friday and Saturday.
Cheers
Dave