Yes it's confirmed the Australian V8 Supercar series will kick off the first round overseas at Abu Dhabi. Not only do the v8's start overseas but round 2 will be at Bahrain. I think it's the first time the category has ever start the series with a overseas round well two overseas rounds to kick off a championship.

When I first heard about this I was like what on earth are they doing?
But i'm slowly starting to like the idea but still iffy about it.
Round 1 and Round 2 only have a week between them. Makes you wonder how the teams will cope if their cars get damaged at Abu Dhabi.

Now for all the Australian's it would have to suck because most of us will be watching it at midnight.

What do you guys think? Bad move or good?

http://www.v8supercars.com.au/ ... bu_dhabi_start_confirmed/

Yea I like the idea. Gives new dimension to the series, new excitement. Unfortunately I had a chance to watch V8's only in 2008 and now the channel where I had it is gone.
V8's give probably the best racing 1 on 1 you can find out there. Yea WTCC and BTCC have awesome racing, but V8's are more special, races are longer and still full of action.

They would be getting crap loads of money to race there thats why it is there, but i think the race should accomadate us Australians, midnight is stupid.

Quote from iMCk. :

Yes it's confirmed the Australian V8 Supercar series will kick off the first round overseas at Abu Dhabi. Not only do the v8's start overseas but round 2 will be at Bahrain. I think it's the first time the category has ever start the series with a overseas round well two overseas rounds to kick off a championship.

When I first heard about this I was like what on earth are they doing?
But i'm slowly starting to like the idea but still iffy about it.
Round 1 and Round 2 only have a week between them. Makes you wonder how the teams will cope if their cars get damaged at Abu Dhabi.

Now for all the Australian's it would have to suck because most of us will be watching it at midnight.

What do you guys think? Bad move or good?

http://www.v8supercars.com.au/ ... bu_dhabi_start_confirmed/

Well, they've had middle-east rounds at Bahrain for a couple of years. Adding one makes good business sense, probably. Coupled with GP2 Asia, I suppose?

Now, if they would just add one on the European continent... Zandvoort, preferably

They should come to Britain, Brands Hatch? Silverstone? Donnington? Cadwell Park?

But to be honest its better that the season starts off abroad rather than the potentially competetive and thrilling closing rounds of the season being abroad, I doubt that would ever happen anyway.

But its not going to help team's budgets thats for sure, and they'll probrably get a crowd of about 5 spectators on race day.

I've gone off the V8's, I find a lot of the racing dull. I couldn't care were they race, I'll only be glued to the race for Bathurst.
If they moved anywhere the ring would be interesting.
I would really like to see it open up to more different types of V8's to spark interest.
Sorry off topic.

the middle east was and still is a very good market to move those unsold Ford/Holden in Oz...

so it'd make sense to have a couple of races there, GM had been selling Commodore there for years, but I duno about the Falcon...

Tony Cochrane (the Chairman/Executive Chairman) has already said before that the reason the category is going to Bahrain / Abu Dabhi is that they're being paid a lot of money and there is some relevance of the cars in those areas. He's also pretty much ruled out a race in the USA/Europe because he said there was already so much racing available there and the cars didn't have enough relevance. I like the idea of expanding the category to Bahrain and Abu Dabhi but I'd also love to see a race in Japan. If Toyota come in as the 3rd manufacturer then I suppose Fuji is the obvious choice. I've never been a great fan of Fuji in F1 but it could be quite interesting in V8 Supercars with the longer braking distances and slower corner speeds.

Quote from JCTK :

the middle east was and still is a very good market to move those unsold Ford/Holden in Oz...

The Middle East is the biggest export market for Holden. Commodores sell well there.

I don't mind seeing oversea tracks on the calender. But it's the fact it's kicking off the championship which just sucks!!!

On another note the first enduro's are on this weekend at Philip Island, Melbourne. Kicks off with a qualifying race on Saturday and then the 500 on sunday!

Woo over seas races now this will be interesting.
Going over seas comes with its benefits it may become easier to watch for many countrys else where as well as bring a new spectors and sponsors into the game. One of the best moves starting in Dhabi for sure

The world needs a global stock car/touring car league with a high profile. I wouldn't mind seeing V8 Supercar expand even further.

What I really wish is that NASCAR would come up with a road course-only series using the current Nationwide Series car.

Well they tried with the ITC (which grew out of DTM) in '95/'96, but it never left Europe (I think there was one round at Interlagos, and Suzuka), and budgets got out of control as these cars were more advanced than the F1 cars of the time with ABS, Four Wheel drive etc, and the entry lists died as well as the crowds.

What didn't help was the FIA taking loads of the revenue generated by the series (familiar?)

I agree that theres hould be some kind of single world championship above the other series, but not like IROC which nowadays is too Oval based.

The WTCC dosen't really cover it really, and I hate the Super2000 rules.

Budgets won't be a problem with the V8s, since the cars are comparatively low-tech (they've only recently introduced sequential gear boxes!).

I don't think there is any chance of the V8s going completely international. It will be primarily based in Australia and (to a lesser extent) New Zealand , with some overseas events for promotional purposes.

No V8 supercars shouldn't go fully international, it would spoil it. The way the championship is going, every round will be a street race within a few years.

Dunno if anyone watched the L&H philip island 500. But oh man, what a ripper of a race. Both HRT and Team Vodafone on each others bumpers for 113 laps.

But HRT took the racewin on the last lap. Vodafone car slowed down dramatically with a lead with 3 seconds. Garth Tander (HRT) gained about 1.5 secs on the last lap. Craig's car (Vodafone) left front tyre deflated or something and lost the lead on the last lap.

One of the better races this year. Bring on Bathurst!!!

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

The world needs a global stock car/touring car league with a high profile. I wouldn't mind seeing V8 Supercar expand even further.

What about giving the WTCC better promotion and a slightly more spectacular set of technical regulations without going for V8s (I'm thinking Division 1 rallycross cars with RWD, flat floors, slightly wider track)? It isn't helped by the two race format and the perception of some that the cars are boring (there is petrol versus diesel and FWD versus RWD, but some people don't like 2 litres when Supertouring was also 2 litres).

Quote from duke_toaster :

What about giving the WTCC better promotion and a slightly more spectacular set of technical regulations without going for V8s (I'm thinking Division 1 rallycross cars with RWD, flat floors, slightly wider track)? It isn't helped by the two race format and the perception of some that the cars are boring (there is petrol versus diesel and FWD versus RWD, but some people don't like 2 litres when Supertouring was also 2 litres).

WTCC Need cars that are around the same power and weight as a DTM car whilst keeping there current shape and downforce. it would provide some high powered slippery driving(and get rid of the fwds and deisels).

Am i the only one find the V8 Supercar races rather dull? There aren't a lot of action/overtaking.

No your not alone , i keep saying it i want my race cars to be desirable and something to lust after afraid a Commodore or Falcon isn't it .

They make good taxi's and Police cars though....

Quote from NSX_FReeDoM :

Am i the only one find the V8 Supercar races rather dull? There aren't a lot of action/overtaking.

I found them dull thats why i watch NASCAR now lol

I do not think that they are dull, my fingers hurt for the nail biting. IMHO a good racing series should be either high end with few limits on what you can do (i.e the best interpretation of the rules and coolest advancements in technology wins) or very similar cars, with few things you can do.

Currently there are few kinds of the first class, various kinds of drag racing (most definitely tractor pulling), F1 was but is less of this now. The second kind are things like DTM and V8SC. Most touring car series's are not, engines differ too much leading to penalty weights for the winners and reverse grid to inflict action (read incidents) on unsuspecting drivers.

As for the original topic, If the sheiks are paying huge sums to get races there I have no problem with that. I live far too far away to visit any races anyway.

I invite anyone to watch the Nationwide series races at Montreal and not think an entire season of that would be awesome.

those car goes ridiculously slow round the corners. and the drivers are TERRIBLE in the rain.

Quote from NSX_FReeDoM :

those car goes ridiculously slow round the corners. and the drivers are TERRIBLE in the rain.

unless your name is Marcos Ambrose