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GT World Challenge

Motorsport

Motorsport News: Thoughts on SpeedSeries set to be replaced by SRO Australia’s new national racing competition led by the GT World Challenge Australia category from next season

by Sports Benches

After three seasons, it looks like SpeedSeries will be no more going into 2025 with a like-for-like replacement national racing series being helmed by SRO’s Australia division. So that means Motorsport Australia won’t be in charge going forward after only one season when they previously controlled SpeedSeries from the Australian Racing Group, although they will continue to contribute this in some way like it was last season.

As it stands, GT World Challenge (GT3) will come right in first with the GT4 Australia and the Australian Production Cars race categories next in-line, as seen with the stand-alone GT Festival event last month at Phillip Island. 

What does it mean for TCR Australia and Trans-Am? Safe to say that they’re both not going anywhere. For Trans-Am, they might join the Supercars support bill for the most part while TCR Australia may be looking to form an Asia-Pacific competition with TCR’s Asia series. 

But that doesn’t mean both TCR & Trans-Am are going to be left out of SpeedSeries’s replacement competition altogether as they may still play a role with SRO in some events.

Don’t forget also the TCR World Tour will be back in Australia after all next year after a year-long absence, but they won’t be racing at Mount Panorama again for sure when the annual Bathurst International event will wrap up for the last time this November.

Plus, one thing we know for sure that the S5000 open-wheel category won’t be back at least for the foreseeable future when that race series was shut down at the end of last season.

Looking at the race calendar (not final just yet), what’s new about this SpeedSeries replacement comp is they’ll be heading over to New Zealand for the first time at Hampton Downs that will round out the series late next year. Other than that, there’s nothing much apart from the usual six-round event that will take place a few times throughout the year likewise with other racing series across the country. 

And last but not least, the media rights deal. The question is who will be covering SRO Australia’s newly expanded competition? Right now, SpeedSeries is currently on 7 under Motorsport Australia’s control until the end of this season before SRO Australia will be taking over from Motorsport Australia next year.

Whatever that may be, let’s hope they can keep it free-to-air at all times.

For now, we wish SRO Australia the best of luck by taking the step up to make their sports cars roar against the likes of the current Supercars comp we’ve got here.

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Motorsport

Thoughts on SpeedSeries broadcasting the South Australian Round mostly from the studio instead of The Bend Motorsport Park with a handful of staff on-site this weekend

by Sports Benches

Yes, we all know Chris Stubbs is back on Stan Sport at Nine’s Sydney studios alongside Wally Masur and Casey Dellaqua with the next grand slam already underway for nearly a week now over at the Roland Garros in Paris, France. That isn’t going anywhere with Wimbledon coming up in a few week’s time (maybe on-site again like it was last year) since he’s freelance having also done a bit for Network 10 a few months ago at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix. Not only that he will be on Stan more often instead of being at Queensland Raceway twice (one in mid-July and another in early August) when the next Summer Olympics will arrive also from the same place come late July to early August. So for SpeedSeries and Australian motorsport fans, they won’t see him for a long while until the penultimate round on the 18-20th October at Sydney Motorsports Park not long before the season usually wraps up at Mount Panorama in Bathurst on the 8th-10th November. He will also be at the next Bathurst 1000 in early October as always to provide the big event action for 7 like he does every year.

I know SpeedSeries is happening right now going into tomorrow at The Bend Motorsports Park in South Australia but it seems they chose to things a bit differently by having a host/commentary team calling from a studio being supplied by SEN while still having a small on-site presence of just a handful of staff and 1-2 pit reporters. As said when Stubbsy is unavailable, just didn’t see that coming when The Bend just came back into life for the first time since 2019 & it would be great if they sent a full group of staff there to celebrate after a difficult last few years on top of COVID. However, I can understand given the shortage of staff and long distance from here – despite the fact that Matt Naulty and Richard Craill are SA based but both had to come over to Melbourne to do the job rather than from the race track. Don’t forget the series has found its progress back on free-to-air/free-to-view all over it following the mixed free and paid content experiment throughout the last two years with most via subscription on Stan and some on Nine when SpeedSeries was really struggling to attract sponsorship back then.

All in all, it’s a tough decision but glad SpeedSeries is experimenting all options in order to keep its free-to-air exposure growing so everyone who is interested can see it – even though doing 1-2 events remotely might be the norm these days like we see with other sports and also other networks given the costs to cover the production side of things & on-air staff as well.

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Motorsport

Thoughts on when the ARG SpeedSeries highlights from Phillip Island was supposed to be on air this AM on 9Gem

by Sports Benches

I’ve tried to tune in to 9Gem this morning & watch a bit of the two-hour Round 2 ARG SpeedSeries highlights package from Phillip Island. However, I saw normal repeated programming instead, such as a quiz show named Pointless and a classic TV drama.

I don’t know what happened as to why Nine chose to remove from their schedule so late, but it’s still a lack of promise for the fans to those who don’t have the money to subscribe to Stan Sport.

Yes, it’s frustrating not to watch every ARG SpeedSeries race live like it was last season and 2019.

However, the need of $$$ to keep the series afloat amongst teams, drivers and organisers across several categories ARG runs for 6-7 events a year, has to be necessary at the end of the day, as well as benefitting an increase of genuine TV production coverage.

It’s these times we have to get used to it from now on where the good ol’ heydays of watching free-to-air motorsport non-stop are over.

Now I see two more viewing opportunities to watch the Round 2 highlights this Saturday (12.30-2.30pm) and Sunday afternoon (1.30-3.30pm) on 9Go.

But we already know the results from a week earlier by then as this isn’t a great idea to reach out to new audiences like that, especially when most of the content now is behind a paywall.

It’s better to go for a 90-minute highlights package of every other round on Tuesday night at 7.30 pm on either 9Gem or 9Go, as suggested last week.

That way, it’ll be a perfect time to help introduce a casual sports viewer to have a first look at this series, or a die-hard motorsport fan, who may not have a Stan Sport subscription, but can relive these moments from the weekend’s event.

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Motorsport

Thoughts on Stan Sport and Nine Network acquiring more motorsport on Australian Racing Group’s SpeedSeries

by Sports Benches

Huge progress from Stan Sport and the Nine Network today with their Motorsports content, not only they added Formula E last week in addition to IndyCar, World Rally Championship & World Endurance Championship but they also just secured the Australian Racing Group’s SpeedSeries competition.

But it won’t be the same though unlike previous TV deals with SBS and Seven Network, when all seven races throughout 2022 will be behind a paywall on Stan Sport. Meanwhile, Nine will air the opening race live at Symmons Plains in Tasmania next weekend alongside one-hour highlights shows a week later after every round.

It’s good news if you’re a Motorsports fan willing to pay $20 a month for all of the auto racing/motoring content Stan can offer that includes a new season of same day Top Gear episodes. However, not only they will have to wait one week to watch the remaining round’s highlights for free but even though some subscribed to Stan Sport, they may have to fork out another $25 a month at Kayo for Formula 1, Supercars & MotoGP.

Then there’s the beauty of competition in a bid to try and boost subscribers when the Formula 1 rights are up for renewal at the end of this year in Australia, Kayo/Foxtel have been reported several times as the winner to extend their contract that goes back to 2015 with Network 10 but it’s still not official just yet.

If Nine/Stan managed to beat Foxtel for the Formula 1 rights, it will work out a similar mix of free and paid content model such as every race live on Stan plus the Australian Grand Prix and a few selected races simulcasted on Nine.

For now, Motorsport is back on Nine since the World Rally Championship was previously there during the Australian Round a few years ago.

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