BATHURST 12 Hour organisers rejected an offer from V8 Supercars to run their event in conjunction with a V8s testing weekend in Bathurst, it has been revealed.
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The offer from V8 Supercars came to light yesterday as motor racing fans took to social media to voice their frustration over a clash of key dates on next year’s racing calendar.
V8 Supercars released its 2015 calendar yesterday and confirmed earlier fears that a compulsory pre-season test day at Sydney Motorsport Park would clash with the Bathurst 12 Hour on February 7-8.
The clash will likely rob the 12 Hour of some of its biggest stars, including last year’s winner Craig Lowndes, and angered Bathurst Regional Council’s delegate to the 12 Hour committee, Warren Aubin.
“I think the whole concept was done out of spite,” Cr Aubin said.
Cr Aubin confirmed V8 Supercars had offered to run its testing weekend in Bathurst but said the suggestion came too late.
“Six months out we’ve already got the race in place, we just could not fit it in,” Cr Aubin said.
“We go from year to year ... we had support categories already lined up and everything was in place.”
V8 Supercars issued a statement yesterday saying they recognised a clash was coming and approached the Bathurst organisers earlier this year.
The proposal was to combine the pre-season test with the Bathurst 12 Hour to make for a massive weekend of motorsport.
V8 Supercars also offered the organisers full and live coverage of the entire Sunday race for fans who could not attend.
But Bathurst 12 Hour organisers rejected the offer.
V8 Supercars chief executive officer James Warburton said many considerations are taken into account when putting their calendar together.
“We put our calendar together to do the best for our sport, the best for our media partners who have other commitments and other obligations, and we always look at what’s right for the category first,” he said.
The Asian Cup soccer and Australian Tennis Open are on the previous weekend and the first weekend of the Cricket World Cup the next weekend.
“We’re unapologetic about those types of things and the reality is it’s this category that has built a good product and range of stars, and everyone’s committed,” Mr Warburton said.
Cr Aubin said a V8 race experience the Monday following the Bathurst 12 Hour and a Holden track day on Tuesday were other reasons why the team up would not work for the 2015 event.
He also said 12 Hour participants also have an expectation of a certain amount of track time and any partnership would affect this.
Concerns over which category of race car would get the garages along Pit Straight if they were to team up were another issue.
Cr Aubin not be drawn on whether a partnership could ever work in the future for the V8 Supercars and Bathurst 12 Hour.
“It would be something we could look at in the future [but this year] it was all done and dusted,” he said.