May 23, 2006. Sports presenter Matthew White drops a bombshell during Seven’s evening news that the network would televise V8 Supercar racing from 2007. Thousands of V8 fans, your V8X scribe included, are left speechless – for a few seconds, anyway.

Contrast those initial moments of open-mouthed silence with endless speculation over the ensuing nine months. Magazines, newspapers, racetracks, internet forums, pubs, old Aunt Veronica’s croquet club, you name it, have hosted discussion on everything from Seven’s commentary line-up to the network’s level of commitment.

On March 3, 2007 – 283 days after the bombshell – Seven’s telecast opener will roll and the vast majority of those nagging questions will be answered. In fact, with the help of telecast chief Murray Lomax, V8X has answers now.

The final puzzle pieces were being placed as V8X went to press, namely the telecast times beyond rounds one and two. The hold-up stemmed from late finalisation of Seven’s AFL telecast commitments. Negotiations between Seven, free-to-air footy partner Ten (there’s a touch of irony there) and pay TV network Foxtel over who would televise what games dragged on for months.

Seven, at the time of writing knew how many games it was broadcasting each AFL round, but not which ones – i.e. the teams playing, host city or game times. With a vast array of AFL match starting times and Australia’s three different times zones, slotting footy and V8 telecasts together is no easy task.

Still, when V8X spoke with Lomax in mid February, his sense of relief that Seven’s AFL obligations were finalised was clearly evident.

"It’s good news, as it gets rid of a logjam of sporting events," says Lomax. "There’s still a bit of tic-tacking as there could be some [scheduling] anomalies along the way."

Regardless of the final broadcast times, it’s clear that V8 fans will see far more action in 2007, particularly on Saturdays, which will feature V8 Supercar’s new elimination qualifying system and race one.

Viewers should expect less pre-race colour and background pieces – which will be shown on Seven’s new magazine-type program, tentatively titled the V8 Supercar Show – and more racing.

"There’s a different commentary team, there’s a new graphics package and there’s a much greater live racing component to the telecasts," enthuses Lomax.

"Ratings have shown in the past that when you are talking about racing, the audience is much lower than when you are showing racing. So that’s going to have a large bearing on what people see. There will be much more of an ‘afternoon of racing’ feel about the telecasts.

"Take the Clipsal event last year. It went to air at 1pm in the Eastern States, but we didn’t see a car racing for about 90 minutes. So we are going to see a lot more racing on Channel Seven."

Lomax says new telecast producer, Simon Fordham, has brought ideas from outside of the motorsport sphere.

"Since I left Ten last August," Lomax continues. "I’ve been able to sit back and have a look at what’s going on. I’ve been able to take a totally outside perspective of it.

"Simon has been working with us since October and he’s come with a totally fresh approach, having not worked in motorsport before. He’s been involved in rugby, golf and also tennis. He’s a young man with a lot of live TV experience. Since he started, he often asks me, ‘Why do they do such and such? Why can’t we do this?’. He hasn’t been a motorsport fan but he is a highly qualified sports producer. He’s just brought a fresh eye to it.

"We’ve tried to incorporate a mix of ideas [from other sports] we considered strengths, as well as the strength of the existing operations."

Those Supercar fans who also watch NASCAR racing can expect to see Seven ‘pinch’ some ideas from the U.S. series’ coverage, particularly in terms of graphics.

"As an example, we believe very strongly that we need to do the ‘ticker’ in the bottom of the frame, pulling through and giving viewers the placings of the drivers. So we are going to do that much more. We’ve also slowed it down, so that people that are as old as me can actually read it. And it will be going continuously.

"We also reduced the amount of information on it. For example we’ve taken out the Ford and Holden logos, and we’re just going to do a colour indication of which brand each car is. We’ve also broken up the blocks, so there’s more differentiation between each of the drivers.

"When we do an interview with a driver, Ford drivers will have a blue highlight through their names and Holden drivers will have a red highlight. So we’ve pulled back on some of the information that is required."

Lomax says viewers can expect to see the car numbers displayed much more than previously.

"One of the fantastic things about NASCAR is, when you look at the car on the track, the first thing you see is the number. Numbers are so important. For instance, where would Peter Brock have been with #05? And #888 is Craig Lowndes. It doesn’t matter who the sponsor is, it’s still #888.

"I love the fact that Mark Skaife is #2 and Todd Kelly is #22. Those sorts of associations are a beautiful part of the sport.

"One of the things we have done is that all graphics during racing will be at the bottom of the screen. There are none at the top of the screen. There are lots of little things that viewers will notice."

With V8 Supercars Australia having overall responsibility for the TV production, it remains to seen what effect, if any, that has on the programs that go to air.

But what’s certain is that viewers can expect to see lots of changes for Seven’s return telecast in South Australia. What’s more, expect other innovations as the year progresses. V8X asked Lomax to pull out his crystal ball.

"We are looking at using flycam much more. We will be using it at the Clipsal 500 for the first time. We are intending to take it to a few more places where it hasn’t been before – Sandown being one, perhaps also Phillip Island. We are also looking to use a second flycam at Bathurst, perhaps heading down the mountain to Forrest’s Elbow."

Chopper shots once provided a unique perspective of the cars storming down the mount, before OH&S and aviation regulations restricted its use. Flying time might be further reduced by other technology advances, which will improve picture quality.

"One of the other things we’re going to do is get rid of the helicopter to relay the link signals from the cars. That’s going to give us the opportunity to do a few other things, even to the point where, because we can only take the signal from three cars [at any one time], we are currently looking at taking a loop recording from cars, so that if there’s a crash we can replay the footage."

Excuse the pun, but the sky’s the limit for racing telecasts. The nine-month wait may have been agonising for some V8 tragics, but it is definitely been worth it.

Audience reach

In terms of audience reach, the Seven Network, through its affiliates, has the biggest commercial footprint in Australia. In addition to the five major capital cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide), the list of affiliates are Seven Queensland, Prime Television in New South Wales and Victoria, Southern Cross in Tasmania, Golden West Network in Western Australia and Seven Central and Seven Darwin (Northern Territory).

V8X will keep track of TV developments over the season, via a regular series of Seven-themed articles, examining various aspects of the telecasters operations and talent.

A qualified success V8X predicts that, of V8 racing’s newest innovations, the Formula One-style elimination qualifying will be the biggest success. The good news is it will be shown, by-and-large, on Seven. "You are going to see qualifying at most rounds," says Lomax. "And it’s not the qualifying that we are used to seeing, it’s a far more entertaining form, a la F1. I think it will mix up the results more than we’ve seen before." The season-opening Clipsal 500, where qualifying occurs on Friday afternoon, is an exception, with no live coverage. Lomax is pleased that his troops will get a practice run in Adelaide before the first full airing of qualifying at Barbagallo’s round two. You see, he’s not quite sure what the implications are of the new system for TV. "Qualifying comes in three segments," he continues. "The first has all the cars on the track and we know at the end of that segment that slowest cars - positions 21-32 - will drop out. So the thing we will be doing in that first segment is not concentrating on who has the best times, but which of the name drivers are down in the danger zone as possible drop-outs. Following star drivers who are down in the ‘twenties’ and seeing if they can fight their way into the next segment is going to be most entertaining part of it. "So it will take a fair bit more skullpower on our behalf to work out how to best capture the excitement of the new system. It’s a bit different to Formula One, as there are a lot more cars involved! I think we are all – teams, drivers, fans, Seven – going to be feeling our way with it to a certain extent. "The days of a leading light being well down the order and popping up into the top 10 in the final minutes are gone." V8X reckons Lomax should equip his pitlane commentators with flack jackets should Greg Murphy ever be eliminated in the first segment. The new qualifying is going to popular, but not necessarily with the drivers.