SUPERCARS THE HOLDEN vs FORD ERA
Twenty-eight seasons and counting. That’s how long Supercars has been part of the Aussie motorsporting scene. Make that the Aussie sporting scene, as the Championship now commands a position that goes way beyond what any local racing class has previously managed. Supercars is a mainstream sport these days, with several race weekends on temporary street circuits drawing crowds in the hundreds of thousands, a big dollar TV rights deal and an all-pro field of teams with several of the drivers now household names. Of course it hasn’t always enjoyed its current lofty status. Nor has it always been called Supercars.
Most people know it by the V8 Supercars brand. Yet, in its first season, 1993, it was puzzlingly known by two names and derivatives thereof: ‘Five-litre V8 Touring Cars’ and ‘Group A’. Administrative body CAMS ultimately did a good job of shaping and overseeing the rules but showed its complete lack of marketing nous in retaining the unconvincing Group A label from its predecessor. Confusing much? Little wonder the architect of the class’s incredible growth, Tony Cochrane, the entrepreneurial Gold Coaster charged with transforming the sport, immediately rebranded it to V8 Supercars. Cochrane famously joked that the Group A name sounded like a blood disorder. Cochrane served as V8 Supercar chairman for over 15 years, overseeing its commercial success and bearing the brunt of criticism from motor racing traditionalists who lamented the sport’s entrepreneurial direction and his take-no-prisoners style. There were some growing pains and many hard-won gains, but ‘the V8s’ continued on an unabated upward trajectory for 20-odd years until plateauing in recent seasons.
The first quarter century or so can be broken down into sub eras: 1993-96 were the pre-V8 Supercar years; 1997-2002
