If you were cynical you would think it was just another way to sell t-shirts, hats and posters.
Next weekend the Australian Supercars round will see throwback liveries which are tied around promoting the Sandown 500 as ‘Retro Round’ – it’s an old school track so in the same way NASCAR promote the Southern 500 at Darlington with throwback liveries and promotions, so do Supercars with Sandown.
Teams are encouraged, though it’s not mandatory, to run retro liveries. DJR Team Penske have traditionally been the best because they have such a long history of cool cars and liveries to draw on. Walkinshaw have had some cool ones with their old HRT cars and a few others have a crack. Garry Rogers Motorsport and Erebus have had some good attempts lately.
Sandown is an important event and adding the retro vibe adds to it.
September is a busy time in Melbourne, Australia, and the race often finds itself competing against Footy finals, so having an unique selling point to help people get out there is a good thing.
But they actually do a very good job of promoting the whole ‘event’ as a throwback – lots of people get into the spirit and dress up in old gear from the 70s 80s and 90s, there are classic cars on display and it’s a great laugh.
So if it sells more tickets and gets more people to the track – which it seems to do – then I’m all for it.
Sandown 500 is such a classic race with a great and long heritage so it’s good to see Supercars using those links and that heritage!
Background Now it is part of the PIRTEK Enduro Cup, which incorporats three majo endurance events in the Supercars championship – the Sandown 500 in September, the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 and the Vodafone Gold Coast 600 in October.
The Sandown 500 is an annual endurance motor race held at the Sandown Raceway in Victoria since 1964. The first event was the Sandown 6 Hour International for saloon cars complying with FIA Group 1 regulations and was won by Roberto Bussinello and Ralph Sachs, driving an Alfa Romeo Giulia TI Super.
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