V8 Supercars roar into 2015
The much anticipated return of the V8 Supercars Championship roared back to life at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide over the weekend.
In a new broadcast era for V8 Supercars, the event was simulcast on TEN, Fox Sports, Foxtel Play and Foxtel Go with substantial audiences Australia wide on all platforms.
The event itself attracted the third highest crowd in more than 20 years when more than 285,000 people attended across the four days. The second highest crowd in history of 93,600 attended on Sunday, more than 10,000 up on the previous year.
The Clipsal 500 Adelaide also marked the first race weekend attended by Roger Penske and featured the Championship return of DJR Team Penske driver Marcos Ambrose.
To the delight of fans, Ambrose quickly got up to speed in qualifying for the ARMOR ALL Top Ten Shootout and finished a strong 12th on Sunday in the race.
The racing was closer than ever, with a different winner of each of the three races. The top ten qualifiers for Sunday's race were split by just 0.25 seconds, testament to V8 Supercars' parity formula.
Six-time Champion Jamie Whincup took the first race, the 90th of his career, before Kiwi Fabian Coulthard fought back to win race two.
In an epic finish to the weekend James Courtney and Shane van Gisbergen staged a thriller in the feature Sunday race, with Courtney snatching back to back Clipsal 500 wins for the Holden Racing Team.
Fan feedback on the new innovation across the Fox Sports and TEN Networks was remarkable. High definition, new cameras, camera angles, graphics and unprecedented access to the cars, teams and drivers gave viewers an experience never seen before.
In combination, the two media platforms delivered an average race three audience of 933,395. The Sunday race was the 14th most watched program and the most watched outside of prime time.
The race dominated its timeslot in the capital cities, capturing commercial shares of 40.2% in people 25 to 54, 37.9% in under 55s, 37.8% in total people and 46.5% among men.
TEN's coverage of the Clipsal 500 from Friday to Sunday reached 3.8 million viewers nationally, including 2.6 million capital city viewers. The Sunday race on TEN and Southern Cross had 776,000 viewers in the capital cities and the east-coast regional markets, peaking at 1.1 million. On Fox 5, the Clipsal 500 Adelaide was the No. 2 program on subscription television with 106,000 viewers.
Other channels also continue to grow and perform strongly. Website traffic on www.v8supercars.com.au rose more than 25% compared with 2014.
The spectacular footage of Todd Kelly launching his Nissan Altima at the turn two chicane was viewed a staggering 680,000 times reachingmore than 2.5 million people alone. Social media also exploded with massive increases in impressions and reach.
V8 Supercars CEO James Warburton said:
"It's great to go racing again in 2015 and even better with our new media partners. Our fans, whether watching at the track, on TV or their portable device were treated to some fantastic innovations, wonderful entertainment and of course fierce racing.
"Adelaide and indeed South Australia should be applauded. The South Australian Government, the South Australian Motorsport Board, Fox Sports, Foxtel and Network TEN have delivered for fans, viewers and attendees a truly great Clipsal 500 Adelaide."
As part of the biggest continuous commitment the sport has ever seen across 43 weeks, the first edition of the weekly Inside Supercars show goes to air at 7.30pm on Tuesday on Fox Sports 5 and fan favourite RPM returns to screens this coming Sunday at 4pm on TEN.
