Sentul to host V8 touring-car races

By Russell Williamson

INDONESIA moved one step closer to hosting a round of 5000cc V8 touring-car racing following the takeover of the management of the Australian series by the International Management Group (IMG).

IMG is the largest producer of prepackaged sports programs for television in the world and will now have responsibility for promoting and managing V8 touring-car racing in Australia and overseas.

IMG's senior international vice president, Australasia, Tony Cochrane, said the company planned to expand the series to include two races in Asia and two in New Zealand next year.

He said this could also be followed by a race in South Africa, although this was unlikely to happen before 1998 or 1999.

"We are only going to do two races in Asia, so it is really going to come down to a whole range of issues but certainly, Indonesia is one of the places that we are very keen to go into," Cochrane said.

"Indonesia is one of the countries we have targeted and we have a pretty good working relationship, through various connections, with Sentul," he said.

IMG is also having discussions with other racetracks in the region, such as in Malaysia, China, the Philippines and Macao.

Tony said there would be a decision on which tracks would hold the races by about the end of November.

If successful, Indonesia's Sentul track could see the thundering V8s plying its tarmac towards the end of next year.

In Australia, the V8 touring-car series -- consisting of 10 races held on a number of circuits around the country -- is one of the most popular forms of motor sports and attracts large television as well as live audiences.

However, Tony said, it was now time for the series to expand beyond Australian shores as it had a very wide appeal.

"The racing and the product is very good, it is world-class and it has just been a well kept secret," Tony said.

He said there were two major attractions in setting up races in Asia.

"Firstly, we are very confident we can get a couple of Asian drivers into the series, who will bring some sponsorship money into a couple of cars and secondly, if you can be successful in Asia, there is a booming market for sponsorship opportunities," he said.

He said the series currently had a viewing audience of about 600,000 people in Australia but with races overseas and the sale of television rights around the world the audience could grow to as much as 35 million.

In order to achieve this he said, IMG were negotiating television rights with both free-to-air and pay providers and were close to signing contracts, including a three-year deal with a United States television station.

"We are currently selling the package in every country that we can and in some of those key markets we are trying to focus in on some very large and long-term commercial arrangements," Tony said.

In terms of the championship, he said that although IMG had yet to hold discussions with teams and drivers, it was likely the Australian series and overseas races would remain independent of each other.

However, he said, there may be a possibility for a situation where drivers and teams earn points for the Australian series, the overseas races and a final endurance race, which would then be tallied up for a type of "world championship" trophy.

One of the leading drivers in the series, John Bowe, welcomed the expansion of the series overseas.

"I feel that five-liter touring-car racing is ready to go to a bigger audience and ready to be promoted better and I think with someone like IMG involved, with their worldwide experience in this sort of area, it has got to be good for the sport," Cochrane said.

"Asia in general is an area that is going right ahead in terms of development and there is no reason why we shouldn't take our best form of motor sports over there. I'm sure it would open up other avenues in terms of sponsorship for the teams," he said.