It appears that the A1GP series has pulled out of their season opener at Surfer’s Paradise this weekend.  A Racer.com article attributes the pull out to “that series ongoing financial problems”.  This is very bad for A1GP but could prove to be excellent for the Australian V8 SuperCars as they are now the headliners.

First CART, then Champ Car, then Indy Car, and now A1GP. V8 Supercars will headline the show at Surfer's this weekend. Photo Credit: kevgibbo

I’ve always liked the Tin Tops from down under.  I really think its what NASCAR should hope to be someday.  Well at least in so much as the cars should resemble actual production based cars and use technology more modern than that of the Cub Cadet in your garage.  I know that ovals are NASCAR’s thing and I’m cool with that to some extent, but to have real cars that represent actual makes and models with production based power plants would be awesome.  But enough about that for now.

Photo Credit: Jon Ovington

The leadership of the V8 Supercar Series and a number of Australians have said for some time that the true draw of the weekend on the Gold Coast were the V8s and not the open wheelers.  It make perfect sense to me.  It is the local series, it is stocked with Australian drivers.  It has been the mainstay at the event while numerous open wheel series came and went. 

Racer.com also quotes John Griffin, IndyCar VP of Public Relations as stating that IndyCar is still interested in Surfer’s but would need to agree with the promoters on schedule (IRL wants to end their championship on home soil) and a reasonable sanctioning fee.  Griffin states in reference to the sanctioning fee that, “…it would take around $20 million for an IndyCar return to be viable, whereas North American-based races can be run for between $3m-$5m.”. 

Don’t get me wrong I love IndyCar and have enjoyed the open wheel races at Surfer’s in the past.  But in my opinion this tight circuit which always seems to have  surprise winner just isn’t cutout for Indy Cars.  I wish the V8s the best of luck this weekend and am throwing out the prediction that the Surfer’s SuperGP will have a long and successful future with Tin Tops getting top billing from this day forward!