The Future of Motorsport?

Motorsport, internationally, seems to be going through a change, a bit of a crisis if you will allow me.

Formula 1 without Bernie Ecclestone. Another new era in NASCAR. Changes in Indycar. New cars in American sportscar racing. V8 Supercars without Australian built road cars. Formula E in its entirety challenging the accepted norms...

So the question must be... How to stay relevant in 2017?

Whether it is the relevance to manufacturers or to the fans, the fight to "matter" is the hardest of all.

F1 has not appeared as relevant to manufacturers as it once was for a while now. NASCAR have just introduced a completely bold, new race format and points structure in an attempt to stay relevant to the fans. V8 Supercars must change to stay relevant to both in the Australian marketplace, while Indycar dreams of being relevant again, outside of "the month of May".

There are so many distractions in the modern world vying for peoples spare time. Various sports, TV anytime all the time, cinema, coffee, alcohol, computer gaming, Facebook, gyms, shopping blah blah land...

In America, NFL has been the King of sports for a while now, although even they are finding life hard, with NASCAR the top motorsport. Then there is Baseball, Hockey, Basketball, Soccer, College Football, Golf, Wrestling, MMA among others, quite a list, and that's before you consider the other forms of motorsport all fighting for sponsors and fans interest and Dollars. Over here Football rules over everything.

So how does motor racing stay relevant enough that existing fans keep watching, new young fans start watching and manufactuers care.

Attention spans are shorter than ever, so if you are NASCAR you try to stay relevant by bringing in a totally new, bold raft of changes. New race format, new points structure, new tech package. Only time will tell if the changes will work by bringing a younger audience to the sport. While I hope it works for the long term good of the sport, I can't say I am totally sold on the format changes...

In Australia, V8 Supercars are having to re-imagine themselves. Their sport has always been based around the concept of Ford vs Holden, or in more recent times specifically, Falcon vs Commodore. With a market place which simply was not buying these cars anymore the end of the classic/home Australian car industry was an inevitable shame. So what next for Australia's top motorsport catagory when they have no Australian rear wheel drive cars to race?

Maybe to start to figure this all out we need to consider what made motor racing relevant in the first place.

To manufacturers it had to be the age old adage "Race on Sunday, sell on Monday". To Richard Petty, "There is no doubt about precisely when folks began racing each other in automobiles. It was the day they built the second automobile.” So stock car racing and touring cars were originally about racing the cars manufacturers wanted to sell. Single seater racing was more about developing the breed, specifically designed cars built for the purpose of going racing and putting the lessons learnt into road cars.

But where do those principles take us in 2017?

Modern road cars in Europe are mainly front wheel drive hatchbacks or "crossovers" with 4 cylinder petrol or diesel engines and 6 speed manual gearboxes. Company cars might be prestige brand rear wheel drive, automatic, diesel saloons. In America if it's not a 4x4 SUV it will be a 6 cylinder, front wheel drive saloon, auto obviously.  In Australia it's about the same as America. Also the modern road car is a very aerodynamically efficient piece of equipment, designed to deliver the best fuel economy possible. Not naturally conducive to exciting "old school" racing.

Modern single seater racing still attempts to develop the breed to a certain extent while fighting the effects modern aerodynamic and tyre eficiency have on the quality of the racing. Spiralling costs have limited manufacturer support however.

There is however a more worrying trend in modern road cars, automation. It is becoming normal to have a car which parks itself. It is becoming normal to have automatic cruise control, automatic lane assistance or warnings, automatic brake assistance, 360 degree cameras, road sign recognition. Fully automated cars are coming and fast. Automatic gearboxes, albeit with paddle gearshifts are bit by bit killing the H-pattern manual. Younger drivers are learning on Playstations and expect the real thing to be the same. Automatic and automated are the watch words.

So, in true Carrie Bradshaw fashion, I couldn't help but wonder... What is the future of motor racing in an automated world?

If future cars are electric, drive themselves, park themselves, automatic everything, will anybody actually drive, let alone race?

Back in 2017, racing series still need to appeal to manufacturers and fans, still need to be relevant. I wish I had the answer, and I wait with interest to see how the next few years pan out for the 4 wheeled motor racing world.

In the mean time I have found my racing fix in, what for me was a very unexpected place, motorbikes. Not MotoGP, but as an oval racing fan, AMA Flat Track racing in America, and for the first time ever, Speedway in Europe.

Watching a field full of the AMA twins drafting and sliding their way round the big dirt ovals across America, via the wonders of YouTube, has been a joy. I really look forward to seeing the renewed competition between Harley-Davidson with the new XG750R and Indian with the new FTR750. The changes being made to the AMAs top tier make perfect sense to me, answering most of the questions I had as a complete newcomer to the sport over the last few months. So a form of motorsport, seemingly in touch with the home market manufacturers, delivering exciting racing across America, maybe it can be done. I wish them well for 2017! Oh and the two new race bikes look great, proper "poster bikes" for the sport, which can only help. I just hope America takes notice!

Equally I have really enjoyed watching and learning about SpeedwayGP. An event has 23 heats, 4 riders in each, dirt ovals, no brakes, sideways! It's quick fire action all the way. Great entertainment. I haven't got my head round British Speedway with its teams yet but...

Hang on, short races, riders earn Championship points with each heat result, bit by bit the number of riders in the hunt gets cut down leading to an overall winner at the end of the day...

Maybe NASCAR is on to something after all...