JAMES Warburton’s replacement as Supercars CEO needs to be a visionary with the ability to further grow the championship’s foothold, according to teams.
A large chunk of the paddock has expressed disappointment at Warburton’s sudden departure, which occurred with immediate effect last week.
“I think the thing James did really well is he had the trust of the teams and he was able to kind of move the politics out of the way and get everyone united on the direction of the sport,” said Grove Racing CEO Brenton Grove.
“He will be a loss in my opinion, I think he was very good for the sport and was able to get some traction in a relatively short timeframe.
MORE: Nettlefold opens up on search for new Supercars CEO
James Warburton. Pic: Supplied/Mark Horsburgh
“You look at what’s happening in Formula 1 at the moment: no one really wants to watch it, drivers are wanting to go and race in other series.
“And if you look on social media, there’s a lot of posts about how good Supercars is and how pure Supercars is. I think to a worldwide demographic, people are wanting pure, hard, close racing and we have that product.
“I think the series hasn’t always done a good job of promoting how incredible we are and how talented our drivers and engineers are.
“You just have to look at Shane (van Gisbergen) or Scott (McLaughlin) or Jeromy Moore, anyone that has left Australia and gone overseas, they’ve kind of always ended up in a very big championship and they’ve always ended up at the front.
“So we have incredible talent here and that’s the thing we need to sell.
“We are unique to AFL and NRL, it is a different demographic, but we probably need to look at how we can freshen up that approach because there’s a lot of people in the world looking for what we have. I just don’t think there’s many people in the world that see what we are, and that’s our biggest challenge to fix moving forward.”
Tickford Racing CEO Simon Brookhouse said: “We need someone who is a visionary and wants to actually take it forward and break into new frontiers.
“The TV rights have obviously been done and whatnot, but for me, I think to be competitive with all the other sports, we need to get to know our athletes a lot more.
“We need to actually showcase the drivers particularly and I think we need to look beyond what we are currently doing and try to just freshen up what we do around our broadcast and other things.
“But more importantly I think the next CEO needs to spruik how good this competition is.
“It’s one of the best motor racing competitions in the world, if not the best, in terms of the closeness of racing and qualifying. We need to get out there and actually broadcast that and actually sing from the rafters that this is here to stay.
“We’ve got three great manufacturers involved, we’ve got great drivers; let’s get to know them, let’s get to know the teams and let’s keep promoting what we do and take on the AFLs and NRLs.”
Simon Brookhouse, with Matt Stone nearby. Pic: Ross Gibb
As for eponymous team owner Matt Stone?
“The biggest quality the new incumbent needs is probably a bit of imagination and the ability to really showcase what we do,” he said.
“I completely agree that the racing is world-class and the broadcast, James was definitely making some changes and exploring what could be done to better produce the package.
“So we need someone who can come with a bit of imagination and try to bring the whole sport to the next level so that we can get on the world stage and compete better with the ball sports in Australia.”
Supercars chairman and co-owner Barclay Nettlefold is acting as CEO in the interim.
Barclay Nettlefold (middle). Pic: Ross Gibb