V8 Supercars to Race In Bahrain

RaceTime · 31 Mar 2004, 12:57 (Ref:925177)

AVESCO chairman, Tony Cochrane, tonight announced a change to the V8 Supercar Schedule.

Planning for the V8 Supercar round at Shanghai was thrown into complete disarray when he announced that due to unforeseen problems, the round would be moved to Bahrain for 2004 only.

Realising the problems that were becoming apparent at Shanghai, Mr. Cochrane said that it was a simple matter to change the transport logistics to move the circus from China 'slightly to the west' to Bahrain.

"I have always had confidence that Shanghai would go ahead, but insurmountable hurdles meant we had to either look to moving the event to a local circuit, which we didn't want to do - or look for another overseas venue - and Bahrain was the perfect venue for us", Cochrane continued.

Logistics for the event were already in place - transport planes had already been booked - therefore it was a simple matter of ensuring the planes could go to Bahrain instead of China.

"Fortunately", Cochrane stated, "our excellent management had ensured we could fly to China via America if we had needed to - in a word - a snap!"

"Our contacts in Bahrain advised us that they believed the Formula One race, which is being held this weekend, would be a perfect preliminary event to precede what will no doubt be the biggest event ever seen at the Bahrain track - 32 V8 Vupercars blasting around the track - it will be a magnificent sight. And we don't have to worry about the sand blowing over the track - that is why we go to Western Australia - to get experince in these types of conditions" Cochrane continued.

Only last week, everyone involved in V8 Supercars were confident that Shanghai would go ahead as planned, however, the past 5 days have seen phone calls bouncing around from the Gold Coast to Shanghai to Bahrain to such an extent that Telstra have offered to up their sponsorship of the V8's due to the increased income from AVESCO's headquarters.

Leonard Reid-First, media manager for Telstra's V8 Supercar Division said that Telstra welcomed the change to Bahrain, adding "we are always pleased to enter new markets and Bahrain is one market we have been eyeing now for many years but had never had a legitimate reason to go there before".

AVESCO have arranged for 6 Antonov AN-225 Russian Transport/Cargo planes to move the entire circus from Brisbane a week before the scheduled November 12th meeting. Each plane is capable of carrying 250,000 kg of cargo and AVESCO believes the 1,500,000 kg should be adequate for the journey. In order to ensure that this overall weight limit is achieved Cochrane has outlined rule changes that will be put in place spcifically for Bahrain - each team will be restricted to one engine, a single overall drive train and 4 tyres only to save space and weight.

"We have tried to cover every single contingency in this race and believe that we can still have our compulsory pit stops, which our fans enjoy so much - each car will come into the pit lane, stop, all four wheels will be removed, placed on the ground and then reattached to the car. For once, flat tyres will mean that unless the team can obtain tyres from someone else, they won't have a replacement. It also means that drivers will, for once, have to be extremely careful driving out there - they will have to make their tyres last for the entire weekend for a change" Cochrane explained.

Full details of the Bahrain scheduled will be issued later today during a televised media conference to be held from the Phillip Island track where AVESCO are currently holding their annual Heads of Government meeting.

Micklegend · 31 Mar 2004, 13:13 (Ref:925204)

4 tyres? Too bad if a Championship rests upon having to borrow rubber from someone else?

I actually checked to make sure it wasnt April 1 while
I read that......I wonder if Dunlop can chuck on another Antonov to make sure the teams have enough rubber to make the effort of going overseas worth while? Seems strange for the race to go to an (expected) abrasive track and have the drivers race like they are driving Miss Daisy!

stmookeyj033 · 31 Mar 2004, 13:13 (Ref:925205)

WHAT!? That's even worse. Does TC want our drivers exposed to a terrorist attack as the F1 guys are ATM?

FatBoy · 31 Mar 2004, 13:38 (Ref:925239)

A case of any publicity is good publicity ??

Bigguy · 31 Mar 2004, 13:59 (Ref:925260)

Quote:

Originally posted by FatBoy
A case of any publicity is good publicity ??

Oi! Ractime, your PC clock is out. You were three minutes early or 63 minutes, depending on which system time you were wroking to.

Still, it was p1ss funny!

HRT 1-2 · 31 Mar 2004, 14:01 (Ref:925264)

Hang on, yep 1st of April

1200Datto27 · 31 Mar 2004, 14:03 (Ref:925265)

Geez Guys, look at the date would you!, Mind you, I wouldn't miss TC if he got stuck in Bahrain. IIRC, islam considers it a great insult to be spat upon, so he would have to be very careful with what he says "Thisss sssand isss ssso ssslippery"

Damn, beaten to the punch!

Matt H · 31 Mar 2004, 14:37 (Ref:925297)

ive heard that this may not be the case and v8s may actyually be going to p.i this year, according to some sources of mine. old boys club in discussion with cochraine over the weekend.

cheers

Panzer · 31 Mar 2004, 17:33 (Ref:925461)

Well done race, you got me out of my low mood.

:confused:

Big Trev · 31 Mar 2004, 18:09 (Ref:925498)

I have heard that this is a serious proposition

grumpy1 · 31 Mar 2004, 21:34 (Ref:925684)

Racetime good try.
AVESCO's exellent managment to fly to China via America.

4 tyres for the weekend only

6xAntanovs.(The model stated you would need 12 for that amount of cargo)

The Grumpy1

P.S.It was good for a laugh though.

RaceTime · 31 Mar 2004, 21:35 (Ref:925686)

No my clock isn't out - and yes I did post it before the embargoed time of 11pm - was posted at 10:57 pm last night...

grumpy1 · 1 Apr 2004, 03:36 (Ref:925916)

I must extend congrats to Racetime for his fine efforts at April fools.The Springvale council one was good but the China/Bahrain thing was best.
A lot of time was spent setting it up and either Mathew Ronke was roped in to give extra creidibilty or sucked in we will never know.

To all of you who fell for it HA HA

Kerri · 1 Apr 2004, 03:46 (Ref:925921)

The last hoorah would you say grumpy?

smithers · 1 Apr 2004, 04:09 (Ref:925931)

The last hoorah????

I didn't know it was Friday.......

RaceTime · 1 Apr 2004, 04:15 (Ref:925937)

I haven't heard anyone pick up the sub-message conjtained in the Bahrain media release.....don't tell me you all missed the very very obvious??

RaceTime · 1 Apr 2004, 04:18 (Ref:925939)

I can honestly say, btw, that only 4 other people knew what was happening - two of them belong to two of the major V8 teams and two associated with motorsportforum.net.au so - guess you could say it was kept under wraps.

But the best part of the whole thing was that at 6pm last night one of my regular contributors (sources

) called me to ask if I had heard about the impending AVESCO Statement re China and Bahrain.

I admit that when I hung up the phone I nearly had to mop the floor....

Matthew Ronke · 1 Apr 2004, 04:29 (Ref:925944)

Quote:

Originally posted by grumpy1
I must extend congrats to Racetime for his fine efforts at April fools.The Springvale council one was good but the China/Bahrain thing was best.
A lot of time was spent setting it up and either Mathew Ronke was roped in to give extra creidibilty or sucked in we will never know.
To all of you who fell for it HA HA

I will admit that I was sucked in. I wasn't expecting April fools to start that early. I had even heard that there would be a big April Fools joke here on ten tenths but didn't see that one coming.

Conrod Kieron · 1 Apr 2004, 05:31 (Ref:925983)

Quote:

Originally posted by RaceTime
I haven't heard anyone pick up the sub-message conjtained in the Bahrain media release.....don't tell me you all missed the very very obvious??

Taking the first letter of the first 9 paragraphs spells April Fool

lcfp2297 · 1 Apr 2004, 05:52 (Ref:925991)

Now that is sharp picking that one up...well don Kieron

RaceTime · 1 Apr 2004, 05:54 (Ref:925992)

Didn't Leonard Reid-First assist with that?

Trevor P · 1 Apr 2004, 06:05 (Ref:925996)

RT
I hope that Tony Cochrane and Telstra have a sense of humour.
Trev

Onlooker · 1 Apr 2004, 10:11 (Ref:926162)

Quote:

Originally posted by RaceTime

"Our contacts in Bahrain advised us that they believed the Formula One race, which is being held this weekend, would be a perfect preliminary event to precede what will no doubt be the biggest event ever seen at the Bahrain track - 32 V8 Vupercars blasting around the track - it will be a magnificent sight.

Classic comment, i was a bit sus of it due to the date but that just tipped me over the edge,well done Racetime.

RaceTime · 1 Apr 2004, 10:25 (Ref:926173)

Bugger - do you realise none of my proof readers picked up that spelling mistake either!

Bugger it - they're all sacked!

grumpy1 · 1 Apr 2004, 20:21 (Ref:926754)

Mathew it takes a big man to admit the Racetime crew sucked you in.

The Grumpy1

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