Revved up with Luke West: Has Supercars jumped the shark?

Jumping the shark – The columnist formerly known as The Reverend Limiter ponders if Supercars has jumped the shark.

Back in 2001 I wrote a column for Auto Action under the alias of The Reverend Limiter. The Good Reverend was known for his love of motorsport to the point of being a religious experience. Limiter also had an insatiable appetite for popular culture and often linked it to car racing to make his points.

A good example was in October 2001 when he stumbled across a now defunct website – www.jumptheshark.com – that identified the moments when television series reached their peak.

The ‘jump the shark’ expression stems from Happy Days, which was judged to have begun its long slide down the ratings charts when Fonzie, literally, jumped a shark while water-skiing.

Happy Days’ producers tried to breathe new life into the show, by jetting the cast off to Hollywood for a series of episodes when ratings began to drop.

David Reynolds leads Brodie Kostecki across the line at the recent Gold Coast 500. Image: Mark Horsburgh

The long-gone website highlighted thousands of other moments from dozens of programs. Some of the better known ones include The Wonder Year’s Fred Savage reaching puberty, the time when cousin Oliver joined the Brady Bunch, or when Klinger stopped wearing dresses on M*A*S*H.

The site anointed actor Ted McGinley as the patron saint of shark jumping. When Ted joined the cast of a TV show, it signalled the program was doomed. Happy Days, The Love Boat, Dynasty and Married With Children all experienced the McGinley phenomenon.

The term ‘jumped the shark’ soon became part of everyday language. It’s now used for all manner of subjects, to highlight the point when the rot set in.

Back in 2001, the Australian Super Touring Championship’s demise had me pondering exactly when the 2-litre category jumped the shark.

The Australian Super Touring Championship went head to head with V8 Supercars in an infamous fight for the Bathurst 1000 in 1997 and 1998. 

Super Touring travelled pretty well for five seasons, 1994 to 1998. But from 1999 onwards, once the factory teams departed, the category was on borrowed time despite TOCA Australia’s best efforts.

I pinpointed Sunday 19 October, 1997 as the day Super Touring leapt the hammerhead. That day was two weeks after the Super Touring 1000, when the V8 event attracted over 50,000 people to the mountain, quadruple that of the AMP Bathurst 1000 on 5 October.

In short, V8 Supercars’ event was a huge success, while the general public’s reaction to the 2-litre race was, at best, lukewarm. Until 19 October, no one – be they promoters, media, fans, or sponsors – was 100 percent sure which of the two events would be the bigger success.

The new Gen2 Ford Mustang Supercar turned plenty of heads straight away – Photo: Supplied

Now, 26 years later, I’m pondering if Supercars itself has jumped the shark. I’m not death-riding our premier series, I’m merely asking if it has peaked? Probably it has, but that doesn’t mean it can’t continue dishing up topline motorsport entertainment well into the future.

If I had to pinpoint when Supercars jumped the shark I’d nominate when images broke cover in November 2018 of the high-roof, Frankenstein monster-like Mustang testing at Queensland Raceway. What should have been quite an occasion for the category, signalling an exciting development, left fans scratching their heads and asking WTF?

As to the totally separate question of when the sport was at its peak, I can suggest two high-water marks – one on the track and one off it.

On track, I’ll nominate the 2014 Clipsal 500, when Scott McLaughlin gave “it some jandal” to huge public approval as Volvo became the fifth marque on the V8 Supercars grid. What RACE would give now to have five different badges competing.

Scott McLaughlin famously kept Jamie Whincup at bay in a stunning wheel to wheel battle in race 2 of the 2014 Adelaide 500. Image by: Daniel Kalisz/LAT Photographic

If it was around then, maybe it could have managed the unrest within the paddock. Forces worked against the new manufacturers behind the scenes which contributed to the new chums soon departing. There are Supercars identities who like to paint themselves as white knights, whose politicking for their own marques saw the new entrants disappear as quickly as they arrived.

Off track, I reckon the high-water mark came in early 2010 when V8 Supercars launched a much-hyped television commercial fronted by then mega popstar Pink with her Get This Party Started song as the sport’s soundtrack.

This was the glamour, big buck TVC that long-time series chairman Tony Cochrane had wanted to deliver. It signalled that V8 Supercars had ‘arrived’ on the Australian sporting landscape. Until then, only the AFL, NRL and cricket had launched comparable quality advertising campaigns.

The Greatest Show On Wheels campaign was funded by the TV rights money injected into the category from the Seven Network’s big six-year deal that ran from 2007 through 2012. The sport was really flying through this period, fuelled by Seven’s cash, enthusiasm for growing the sport’s profile and widespread coverage.

Sponsors came from every direction. But then, when it came time for this rights deal to be renegotiated, V8 Supercars’ big wigs got greedy. They upped the asking price and Seven walked away from the negotiating table. When it returned, it offered half the TV cash per annum. The sport has never really recovered.

Actually, maybe that’s the moment when Supercars jumped the shark. What do you think?

These Happy Days are yours and mine … Happy Days.

Main image:Daniel Kalisz/LAT Photographic

For more of the latest motorsport news, pick up the latest issue of AUTO ACTION or subscribe HERE

On this week’s Auto Action RevLimiter, we ramble on about Supercars. Why the finances don’t need a boost! What’s wrong with the calendar! Plus more!