The 7Plus coverage of the Australian Sprintcar and Formula 500 Championships last week drew the second largest television sporting audience for the period, second only to the Superbowl coverage.

The program presented a live broadcast of last Wednesday’s Prelude to the Championship event on 7Plus, followed by a Rapid Replay Marathon of the Friday and Saturday Championship events on Sunday from noon AEDT.

The exposure of the sport has not been limited to the broadcast alone, with social media engagement on the 7Sport Facebook platform exceeded 550,000 views for the week, exposing the sport to an innumerable audience by utilising brief racing and interview highlights.
Executive Producer for Night Thunder, Dean Neal was excited by the early numbers being reported from the 7 Network.

“This is an outstanding response and demonstrates we can never underestimate the size and scope of the speedway industry. There’s clearly an appetite for this sort of motorsport and we need to capitalize on this while we have the opportunity.”

Despite the enormity of the production by speedway broadcast standards, Neal was quick to admit that the production was a “passion project” and rode off the back of some heavy volunteer investment and the existing infrastructure at the Perth Motorplex.

“This was a labour of love from a combination of people who are passionate about the sport and can see the potential when the sport is delivered correctly with the coupling of good coverage and a well-run event. We’re grateful for the people in front and behind the camera - every line of the production who invested in this, often at their own cost to create a “proof of concept” of how the sport can be presented on a free broadcast platform like 7Plus.”

“Christian Galopoulos from Showscreens has been a supporter since we showed him the concept and this wouldn’t have happened without his support, and there’s a number of industry professionals that played a role to make it happen, and to see how the 7 Network have leveraged cuts of the highlights on their social media platforms is really exciting. The sport has never had this level of exposure in the modern era.”

Speedway Australia CEO Darren Tindal echoed Neal’s thoughts, labelling the broadcast as a major boost for the sport.

“We can’t thank Dean and his team enough for what they’ve done to boost the exposure of our sport. To have that standard of coverage on a free to view platform like 7Plus is staggering, and combined with what Tim Hodges has been doing on the east coast to show our form of motorsport to a previously untapped audience, we’ve caught a glimpse of the how the Australian sporting public has for speedway racing.”

The Night Thunder program will present two more Rapid Replay shows for the season on 7Plus, featuring the Krikke Boys Shootout this Sunday February 19 and The Maddington Toyota Series Grand Final on Sunday April 23.

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Photo: Jock Goodyer was a popular winner for the Australian Sprintcar Championship, and will return to the screens of 7Plus this weekend as part of the Krikke Boys Shootout at the Perth Motorplex.