Latest / Full Credit to the Noise / NEWS: 2027 Supercars calendar deal + Gold Coast 500 latest
Transcript
- News pod Oct 22: Hello and welcome to Full Credits of the News brought to you by Authentic Collectibles. My name is Andrew Van Leon, and I am lucky enough to be sitting across the table from Speak FA's managing editor, Stefan Bartholomew, in our apartment in Surfers Paradise. Stefan, I don't think I've ever walked out of the accommodation and had soaking wet socks and jeans as fast as I did this morning. This is a very ungold coast start to the Gold Coast weekend. It certainly wasn't paradise when we walked outside this morning and we did debate whether to go into the track or I should say when. Yeah. And I think I might have made the call that it's better to to go than wait around, but I certainly regretted that about two hundred meters into the walk. It was amazing. It was like I say, I've never gone from walking out the front door to having wet feet quite that fast. We will get into the weather in a bit more detail in in a few moments, but we do need to start with the calendar and with the TRC negotiations. We did wonder coming into this weekend whether we would get some sort of resolution to this whole thing. It felt like the clock is ticking. We really need to get somewhere on this. And perhaps it's happened a little faster than even we would have expected. There's been talks over the last 24 hours here on the Gold Coast. It seems that a compromise will be reached. We sort of always expected a compromise this fourteen rounds would come, but that it would be a compromise for all teams, but from what you're reporting this evening, it's a compromise of well sorry, it's a different deal between the seven that were willing to accept the original deal and the five that weren't. Talk us through what's happening because this is actually extraordinary. Yeah, so race, the owner of supercars, has been in a negotiation with the teams for for almost the entire year about the payment structure moving forward. They essentially needed to change what's currently in this team's racing charter to be able to afford to do 14 rounds. because on the current financials it was gonna shrink back to twelve. And as we reported and spoke a lot about over the Bathis weekend, seven teams agreed to to the offer that had been put forward by race, which was nine hundred thousand dollars per season and there were five teams that declined that that offer that had been the result of a long negotiation between four teams that were representing everyone and race itself. So the five teams that declined were Groves, Triple Eight, Erebus, Premier, and SCT, which is that license that underpins the objective racing car that runs out of Triple Eight. And they wanted something that was closer to what was actually owed, which we believe the number they were after was one point two five million. And so they weren't they weren't picking some large number and saying we want to get up to that. They were saying, hey, pay us what we're actually owed in the contract. Yeah. And obviously the the argument on the other side was for the good of the sport we need fourteen rounds. And as as your flag, the the twist that's come about this week is that there's actually gonna be two different deals here where last night those five teams agreed to to a deal that is believed to be quite close to that number that they're after. And the other seven teams are on their 900 deal, but what's being added to that is a effectively a mechanism whereby when race does end up selling the business, those teams are rewarded financially. So if things sort of go as expected and race would the business would be evaluated at what you'd expect. It should work out pretty much even once the full cycle plays out. It still just feels weird that there's going to be certain teams earning more money on an annual basis than other teams. It's not entirely unprecedented because if you look at the AFL, for example, and through my limited understanding of how the revenue split is there, it is a tiered system in terms of your non-Victorian teams have a different payment structure than you have your startup teams where more money is. flush through the system to try and get them up and running and all that sort of stuff. So it does happen in other major Australian sports, but it just feels totally different to what we've seen in supercars. Yeah, or even and I'm not across the the financials of F1 all that well, but like Ferrari have traditionally paid more money. But that was based on them being of more value to the series. And that's not how this is actually played out. This is played out in terms of five teams went harder in the negotiation to end and have ended up with a different deal. So we've seen all Supercar's teams on a level platform for almost twenty years. There used to be up to three different tiers of the franchises, the level one, level two thing that it took a long time for for a group of people to unpick that and actually make it equitable across the board. So it is a real back to the future moment and not something that I think is necessarily a good thing. Yeah. And I think it is essentially a sign of the industry being really fractured. Absolutely. And no longer aligned. I think it would be simplistic to say in the old days all the teams agreed with each other on everything. Mm and it was all great back then 'cause it wasn't. But yeah, the the strength of leadership of supercars often brings the teams into line and they've They've had to duck and dive a fair bit to get this to get this done. And I should actually just go back a step and say, so the five teams have agreed to their deal and those other seven teams are just going through the finer details of what's in front of them now. but we believe they are supportive of this and we will see a fourteen round calendar revealed this weekend. Well at a time stamp it it's what, seven thirty-five PM on the Thursday evening when we're recording this, so Everything we're talking about is as of this moment, but we know that again, like I said, over the last twenty four hours there's been a lot of talks going on about all of this sort of stuff. I I totally agree with you that it feels problematic in a number of ways, but the positive thing is that we needed this fourteen rounds. And we're going to we're going to get that. And that's that's a good thing. And it did always feel like it was going to get where it needed to go. I mean the threat of twelve rounds was real. We were reporting on it because it was being spoken about at length. But at the end of the day, race would have had to have paid a bunch of money back to Fox Sports if it had gone back to twelve and I believe a bunch of money back to various sponsors like Repco and and whatever else. So it was it's cost race money by giving these five teams more more cash each year, but they would have been hurting a lot more if they were having to yeah to give money back to those other the broadcaster and the other sponsors but then also yes just the the take a step back the overall health of the sport it would have been horrendous for it to shrink back to twelve rounds. Yeah. And the change that we're gonna see like Philip Island was announced last Friday is coming back to the calendar. next year. So it's essentially Phillip Island in, Queensland Raceway out. So how does the rest of the calendar play out? I mean we've talked about it a fair bit. We know we're going to start in Sydney. We think round two is going to be Tasmania because the Grand Prix is that little bit later. And then Grand Prix, New Zealand. Sandown into the QR slot as an enduro. You reported was it over Bathis weekend that we're that there was talks about a third in juro. So we think Sandown becomes a third in Juro to lead into what looks like a pretty similar back end of the season as to what we have now? Yes, with Philip Island coming of course out that slot that's currently held by Sandown. So yeah, it just reshapes the schedule a little bit where you have now eight sprint rounds instead of nine. Mm-hmm and you have three in Juros and the three finals rounds. So I think again when you look at that Queensland raceway Coming off the calendar. That's a big loss. Yeah. Like it's been so well supported there in Ipswich since it came back last year. Yes, the crowd wasn't quite as big this year as it was last year, but it's a shame not to be servicing that part of the fan base. But then the wins are getting Philip Island back for the first time since 2019. And obviously that's all come off the back of them losing MotoGP, having the government funding available, having the Australian Grand Prix Corporation. with capacity and a needing to find more events to to fill its calendar around the 'cause they obviously do the Australian from the one Grand Prix at Albert Park. But yeah, I think the Phillip Island obviously coming back as a win and the fact that we're gonna have we expect this traditional Sandown five hundred back to have three in euros three times we'll see the co drivers. That's that's pretty cool. Yeah, particularly if you're a co driver. You can probably ask for a bit more money to To do that race. But yeah, I guess I I totally agree with you. QR was an amazing reprisal in terms of the way it came back into the calendar and was such a successful event. But geez, it's hard not to be excited about the prospect of a proper two driver sand down in Juro again. Yeah, absolutely. So again the calendar stuff hasn't been shared too widely at this point, but we expect it'll come out this weekend. It's obviously very important. For the industry as a whole to have the supercars calendar out there because everything from other categories to officials trying to book leave, like just everything hangs on on this calendar. and that's been a big part of the discussion of these negotiations holding everything up. But when you actually look at it, the twenty twenty six calendar was announced on October twenty nine last year. So it looks like they're gonna get it in this year before they did last year after all that's all that's gone on. Yeah, that's wild. Let's hear from our friends at Authentic Collectibles. DJR's 2026 Bathus 1000 victory will be celebrated with three limited edition collectors prints that are now available. 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Alright, let's go back to the weather, Stefan, because it has rained a lot on the Gold Coast today. As I said, we got very soggy socks walking around the paddock earlier today. yeah, it's it's a big talking point. I guess the whole What's at the center of this whole thing is the fact that it is a street circuit, it is treacherous in the wet. How much racing could we potentially see or not see if the weather does persist? And what impact could that have on the finals? Because we have three drivers that need to score points to ensure they're still in the hunt for the title come sand down. Thankfully, the forecast does get better as the weekend goes on. So again, expecting a lot of rain tomorrow, but It's just about how much rain sort of less on Saturday and Sundays. So I think the the doomsday scenarios of of no racing are probably getting less likely. but yeah, today it was it was a grim place to be. I mean Gold Coast is always a real compromise of a paddock. Obviously the teams don't have their trucks, there's nowhere near enough space for that. But the garages are just just tight and Well they were leaking. They were leaking. So we were in team 18. We were there for a media opportunity with David Reynolds. And they'd put a tarpaulin up on their side where Reynolds' car was it was leaking through the two levels of corporate suites into the garage. And they hadn't put one up on the side that Anton's car on, and the the sort of divot in the hood of the Camaro was full of water because there was there was water dripping down. Like it's Yeah, it's a difficult place to work in these conditions. BJR were doing engine changes and they had a little marquee set up out the front to sort of prep the engine to go into the car. Like it's yeah, it's a tough place in these conditions. Yeah, and I remember back in twenty eighteen when we had a race abandoned here because of the weather, there was a lot of those issues with yeah, garages It leaking through the ceiling and you've got all your computers and everything in there and then people losing power and apparently the power did go out at the track this afternoon. I got a text about that. We weren't there at that point. but then we also as we were walking out of the track, some of the teams were doing their track walks in the rain, but also the roads were open to track open to traffic still at that point. So people are trying to see where the puddles are forming and and there's some gnarly puddles because of just how uneven the whole joint is. It doesn't drain well. it's on the beach. Yeah. It's as cool as it is, the whole place is a massive compromise and the rain doesn't help. But go to go back to to the top, yeah, the fact that it's a finals round, it's elimination time, the stakes are pretty high, and it'll be interesting to see the sort of risk and reward how people approach it. Will Brown was saying today that you've got to go aggressive and you can't just just hang around. But again, last year we saw two of the guys that were eliminated. We're eliminated here because of mistakes essentially, Brody fencing it in qualifying and then Anton Di Pasquale getting a penalty for bumping into James Courtney in the Sunday race. So yeah, we'll see how drivers do approach it. 'Cause this is where it does get kind of fun, right? Because we do now have winning you're in. So there's two spots that are going to be locked in just based on the on the race wins potentially, if they are finals contenders and all that sort of stuff. So to me the perfect outcome this weekend, probably not if you're sitting in the stands and that sort of stuff, but enough rain that we have wet racing around this high risk, high reward racetrack, but not too much rain that we don't see the racing. Because man, it could be pretty spectacular if we get a couple of wet races here. Yeah, I think it will be and it'll Yeah, it'll make it more possible to pass because this track, the biggest issue really from a racing point of view, is how few genuine overtaking spots we have at the moment. Let's have a chat about the curbs. Now we went for a bit of a walk on the track yesterday. We went straight over to the beach chicane to have a look at where they were putting the the new tie bundles in place. Bit of a controversial topic. Do we need them? Do we Don't we need them? Can the Gen 3 front bars actually stand up to the test of hitting these things if they do hit Now, when we walk through, there was definitely bundles at turn ten, which is the back end of the beach chicane. But we don't think they're going to be there this weekend, right? Yeah, so they'll start the weekend without the turn ten one in, which yeah, is the left hander at the end. that's the one that Jimmy Golding hit in 2022, which was the last time we had tire bundles. And caused a multi-car accident. And yeah, the the concern with that one is it gives the drivers basically no out if if they get something wrong during the the chicane itself. They're destined to hit it. Exactly. So that one is the main concern. They'll start without it in. I believe there'll be a timing loop there instead. but this it all comes back to the fact that the FIA, someone in Geneva or Paris last year. was looking at these one and a half ton supercars flying through the sky and went, hang on a minute, haven't we certified this this circuit? Haven't we done the track limits? Yeah. And so they've said to Motorsport Australia, you have to enforce the track limits. Yeah. And this is an imperfect solution, but it's the solution. And so there's there's tire bundles in a couple of those spots. There's there's timing loops there as well. So yeah, it's it's just a different version of the same problem that we have every year. I guess if we do end up with wet racing, it sort of looks after itself a little bit because you won't be able to be that aggressive. Like you won't be able to attack the curbs like that. You'll be trying to keep off the curbs as much as you can and actually just drive around on the track. Yeah, and it might again give us more entertaining racing because part of the issue with the chicane being so fast with being able to attack. hack the curbs like they have been in the last couple of years has been that it it makes the exit of it too fast and then i it makes passing harder down into turn eleven, which is really the that and turn four probably the genuine passing points. But again that comes off the turn one, two, three chicane as well. So I think the the bigger conversation is do you actually need to change that part of the racetrack in order to create a better racetrack because as good as flying cars are as a spectacle, I'd rather see overtaking and good car racing than yeah, cars a couple of meters in the air. Yeah, well that's your take on it. They do do look pretty cool going through there. But anyway, anything else you want to add before we close it in? I mean the other part of that is just the fact that so this is the first time they've had the bundles with the Gen three cars. Part of the reason why they were taken away is that teams were concerned that the The front bars aren't as robust. Yeah, the old cars used to be able to hit them, but it used to climb over basically. Yeah. So again, it's it's the risk and reward, especially for the finals, guys. Of if you attack those things too hard, you can yeah, find yourself in big trouble. All right, I think that will just about do us for full credit to the news this week. We will be back podcasting tomorrow night with the first of our daily podcasts, which will run Across the weekend. Make sure you do stay tuned to speakcafe.com as well, because we will have everything covered with this weather, with these bundles, with the finals, with everything going on. It is going to be a pretty spectacular and action-packed weekend, I think. And as we touched on, we do expect there will be some calendar news coming out as well. So stay tuned to speakcafe.com across the weekend. Stay tuned to this podcast feed because we will have plenty of content coming out over the next few days. And yeah, we'll be back tomorrow night.