Supercars co-promotion key to new Winton deal

Having been heavily-rumoured to be set to miss out on a spot on the Supercars calendar for 2017, the Benalla Auto Club has now confirmed that a deal is in place for next season, with scope for that to increase to a three-year deal if additional funding can be put in place.

Central to that deal is promotional assistance from Supercars itself, despite the series turning down an offer to take on the full promotion of the event. BAC will continue to run the event, the financial blow will be softened by the Victorian government, and Supercars will assist in promotion – something that Lewis-Williams says had a direct involvement with getting the government on board.

“We told Supercars that we only promote one event a year, and they promote 10 – so they have to be better at that than us,” Lewis-Williams told Motorsport.com. “They have a bigger marketing engine, more connections, so why don’t we do it together?

“We will still run it, and I believe that we run a really good event. Wayne (Williams, Winton’s operations manager) and the crew run a tight event, they don’t waste money on things that they don’t need to waste money on. And it’s well-supported in the region. So that’s where we’ve ended up.

“The other thing that V8s has committed to is that, when they promote a race meeting they do the tourism spots as part of the TV coverage, and they’re going to do that for us. They committed to supply the air time and the content, and that meant that I could go to tourism and sell them that.

“I could offer them air time, on Fox Sports, during the coverage. That helped us get over the line.”

Study and contacts also crucial

It wasn’t just the TV time that piqued the government’s interest; Jaclyn Symes, the parliamentary member for Northern Victoria, is from Benalla, which gave the circuit an important political ally based on her real-world understanding of the circuit's place in the region.

And a detailed economic study spearheaded by the BAC, which revealed the event generates $8.8 million for Northern Victoria, went a long way as well.

“The key thing we did around the 2016 event was that we did an economic activity assessment,” added Lewis-Williams.

“We asked all the teams how many people, how many room nights, how much food, and then we did a survey of the patrons who visited over the event. And that came out with an $8.8 million economic activity for the four days.

“Armed with that, we could go to government and have serious conversations.

“Jaclyn Symes grew up in Benalla, so she knows how it works. She knows from back when she was pulling beers at the pub, that when something was on at Winton there were a lot more unfamiliar faces. She knows how important the race track is for the region. She’s been a fantastic ally in terms of making introductions and helping us be heard.

“We were able to get in front of the tourism minister John Eren and have a conversation about what we are and what we’re trying to do. And that’s where the tourism money came from.”

If Winton wants to stay on the calendar beyond 2017, then there will need to be more funding, government or otherwise. With that in mind, Lewis-Williams says his team will do another study this year.

“We’ll do the same measuring around the 2017 event, and that will give us nice, fresh data,” he said.

“It’s a status thing [to host a Supercars round], being a permanent circuit. It’s good for our staff, and it’s good for our members that Winton is able to hold a round of Australia’s premier motorsport category.”