V8 Supercar Media Watch
27/6/2002 14:24 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Channel Ten is hoping VB is the beer of choice when you play the popular V8 Supercar drinking game this weekend. (There's double points for a passing move, remember.) That and more are in this edition of Media Watch.
IF you drink and drive you’re a bloody idiot, but for Channel Ten it’s a lucrative combination. The V8 Supercar broadcaster has signed a four-year advertising partnership with Victoria Bitter, which will see the brand exclusively promoted during Supercar telecasts. With the VB-backed Mark Skaife the man to beat at this weekend’s VB 300, aboard his VB-sponsored Commodore, to be broadcast around the country on Ten’s coverage, proudly sponsored by VB, we wonder if the right message is being sent...
TEN’S V8 Supercar call team will gain some much-needed credibility this weekend when Larry Perkins joins the team. The forthright Supercar stalwart, sitting out the Barbagallo meeting to make way for other competitors on the restricted grid, joked: "I wonder would I be liable for the various defamation writs relating to things that I may say while commentating?” Just some insight would be nice, Larry.
FORMER motorcycle racer and Ten commentator, Daryl Beattie wasn’t planning a career on the V8 Supercar circuit until he test drove Paul Morris’ Commodore for this Sunday’s RPM program. Now he’s hooked. See the results, plus a tour of the impressive Dick Johnson Racing garage, before the Barbagallo coverage on RPM at 1:30pm.
NOT only is the Holden Racing Team dominating on the track, they’re setting the agenda in the media, too. HRT boss John Crennan launched a scathing attack on his team’s rivals in this week’s Auto Action, suggesting a number of drivers don’t deserve their position on the grid. But he better be careful. HRT’s trackside chief, Jeff Grech faces censure for his comments in The Australian newspaper about the spendthrift 00 Motorsport operation, according to Motorsport News.
SO where’s the return fire from Ford? It seems the Blue Oval brigade lack the arsenal – and the results on the board – to mount a defence. And the Stone brothers’ hollow ‘we can beat HRT’ PR mantra is quickly wearing thin...
AUTO Action has a new editor. Melbourne-based News Limited motoring hack, Andrew MacLean will take the reigns of the V8 Supercar-laden weekly from Allan Edwards, who is leaving to pursue other media interests. MacLean is a former winner of AVESCO’s annual press coverage award.
PUBLIC relations' spin of the week was from the Holden Racing Team’s Paul Weissel, whose denial of Mark Skaife’s inevitable crowning was startling. In his Barbagallo preview, Weissell said: “Many are pointing to Skaife's 650+ point lead...and suggesting the series is virtually over! While Skaife's lead is indeed healthy, HRT is far from convinced the ‘fat’ lady is even warming up, let alone starting to sing!” Who are you trying to kid, Paul? The proverbial plump women launched into her aria weeks ago.
SECOND prize goes to Stone Brothers Racing PR man Brett Murray, who has put SBR’s intrepid duo, Marcos Ambrose and David Besnard, through anything and everything in the name of promotion. In the past few months they’ve driven from the Gold Coast to Darwin on a promotional trip, piloted an army tank, embarrassingly donned ‘Ambrose/Bensard for PM’ t-shirts for the Prime Minister in Canberra and, most recently, endured 5.5Gs in a Mig-15 Russian jet fighter. Not that they’re complaining. “That has to be one of the coolest things I have done,” Ambrose said after his Sunshine Coast joy flight.
QUOTABLE: “The sport currently has an array of A-grade drivers, a strong array of B-grade drivers, but far too many C-grade and D-grade drivers.” – Holden Racing Team boss John Crennan bluntly marking the class of 2002 in Auto Action.
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