Bring the V8's back to Canberra

It has been 9 long years since the V8 Supercars (V8SC) were last at Canberra. This short-lived event ran from between 2000-2002. In 1999 the then Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, Kate Carnell put forward the idea to the ACT Legislative Assembly.

The Assembly voted to stage the event, with the only opposition coming from the Greens Party who believed that the race would create both air and noise pollution.
Yes, the event would/did cause pollution but at what V8 Supercar event does this not happen? Mark Skaife has been part of the team designing the new Car of the Future (COTF). This COTF has many purposes including a reduction of impact to the environment.

A budget blow out seemed to be the main cause for the discontinuation of the Canberra event. Gary Humphries's Liberal Government was replaced in 2002 by Jon Stanhope's Labor Government. The new Chief Minister allowed the race to run in 2002, but decided to pull the plug for the 2003 race. The event may have continued if a more accurate budget approximation was in place before the inaugural event. A carefully planned execution of funds could have seen the event continue into this decade.

The V8 Supercars continues to grow as a sport. But sadly, for many rural New South Wales residents and some from the Australian Capital Territory, the nearest V8SC event is either The Sydney Telstra 500 or The Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 with travel time exceeding 5 hours. If Canberra were to hold another event, this would halve travelling times for many fans.

The fans are what support V8SC and the sport needs new fans. The sport is slowly drawing in these numbers with the sport becoming more family friendly. The Sydney Testra 500 proved a success with families, believing to attract people who wouldn’t otherwise attend a V8SC event.

A lot of things have changed in 10 years, when the V8’s first came to Canberra the government estimated about 50,000 spectators to show at the GMC 400, there was 57,495 tickets sold which is 7,495 more than they expected. In the first two years the government’s first estimation of 50,000 more than doubled with over 101,000 spectators coming to watch the GMC 400. In 2002 though the crowds did go down by 12,000 mainly due to the weather, June in Canberra at that time was very cold for anyone who lived out of state, however if we move the GMC 400 to a warmer part of the year more people are bound to come and with the population increasing, and more families getting involved with the V8's even more people will be expected to come.

1 million 633 thousand people in Australia watched the broad cast of the GMC 400 and another 7,630 people watched the news broad cast of the race. With the population increasing in Australia and there being more TV programs there will be an increase in the viewing of the V8’s.