Motorsport Musings Ramblings of a racing enthusiast…

Superleague Formula is On the Ball

Though it’s hard to believe, not everyone is a fan of football. The thought of watching a bunch of blokes punt a ball of air around for 90 minutes whilst on the receiving end of a barrage of abuse from a bunch of Neanderthals, fills me with a similar level of excitement as knowing I am due to undergo root canal surgery without any anaesthetic.

Okay, so that’s perhaps a touch superficial, but I’m not exactly what you would call a ‘fan’ of the ‘beautiful game’. Which probably goes some way to explain why, until just recently, I had been giving the football-focused Superleague Formula series a wide berth.

I have to put my hands up and say that I was one of the original naysayers of the series – insisting that the two sports didn’t fit and that it would never happen. And now look: I’m totally converted and believe that in time, it has the potential to succeed where other categories have failed.

I was hugely sceptical of the whole format, and in truth it never really registered on my motor racing radar until midway through last year when Formula 1 reject Sebastien Bourdais became the big news story of the season, being snapped up by the series organisers after being given the boot by Toro Rosso. Up until then, the thought of yet another single-seater category vying for my attention, especially one centred upon football clubs – which the series is commercially based upon – was not the slightest bit attractive.

Well let’s get this out of the way early on: the eighteen or so clubs from around the world that form the Superleague grid are there on a brand awareness exercise. A way for the clubs to get their names out there, in markets that they wouldn’t necessarily be able to visit as a football team. Licensing the teams’ logos and brands also brings in a new income stream for each of the squads – a proper win-win situation if ever there was one.

But an obvious question one has to ask is whether the unique selling point of the series also restricts the potential number of followers? Football draws a fanatical die-hard group of supporters whose loyalties run deep. This year the UK is represented by last season’s champions Liverpool FC and runners-up Tottenham Hotspur; can you really see Everton or Chelsea football fans cheering on their rivals in the motorsport arena? I’m inclined to believe they won’t.

Inaugural champ Davide Rigon and Marcos Martinez battle it out © lsphotos.co.uk

The non-football fans among us aren’t necessarily attracted by a series that has its emphasis firmly on the teams rather than the individuals driving the cars either. But if you look a bit deeper, beyond the club names and cars decked out in football team liveries, you’ll find something that has the potential to become the IndyCar of Europe.

I spent my Bank Holiday Easter weekend braving the elements at a blustery Silverstone, watching the first round of this year’s Superleague unfold from first practice through to the Super Final shoot-out, and I have to say the racing I saw was of the highest quality. In fact, I would probably go so far to say that it was some of the best I have seen in quite some time. Other categories would do well to take a few notes from Superleague in how to run an exciting, cost-effective, racing series.

This year the two halves (races) of 45 minutes have been retained once again, along with the popular full-reversed-grid format for race two, which provides overtaking aplenty, and for the second successive season, the Super Final ‘dash for cash’ format has made a comeback.

The special shoot-out consists of five laps and is run immediately after the second race and features the top six combined points championship finishers from both races. For the winner, an impressive €100,000 is up for grabs (a third of the entire prize fund per round). On paper it may sound like a gimmick, but in reality it leads to an exciting climax to the weekend as the drivers make desperate lunges, fighting on the track like their lives depended on it.

Superleague's pre-season favourite - Craig Dolby © lsphotos.co.uk

There is plenty of driving talent on display in the series, with the likes of ex-F1 racers Robert Doornbos, Franck Montagny, Narain Karthikeyan and (as previously mentioned) Sebastien Bourdais. These veterans mix with younger challengers, whose single-seater CVs aren’t quite as impressive, but what they lack in experience they more than make up in for with their swashbuckling, entertaining driving style.

Top of the pile has to be 22-year-old Craig Dolby, who finished second in 2009 and looks set to go one better this year for Tottenham Hotspur.

Dolby is a revelation behind the wheel of these 750bhp, Champ Car-style rocketships, and looks set to become Superleague's first Euro-million-man this year. The Midlander seems to have no fear in pulling off death defying overtaking manoeuvres where others would play it safe. He is a thoroughly decent lad and a great ambassador for the series - a class act in the making.

His success and everything that follows can only heighten the reputation of Superleague, and as it becomes more established, the teams will be in a better position to choose the best drivers, and from there the quality of the field can only get better, and so will Superleague.

With its direct rival A1GP dead and buried under a mountain of debt, Superleague is now in a position to gain some serious ground and bragging rights. With a number of star drivers, upcoming talent and shrewd, cost-effective decisions by series founder Alex Andreu, it can only get better and better.

Next on the agenda has to be branching out of Europe, but only if the figures add up. The thought of seeing these impressive cars pounding the streets of Surfers Paradise, Jakarta or Durban is a mouthwatering one indeed.

The second round of this season's championship is just over a month away in Assen, Holland. The same weekend as the Monaco Grand Prix in fact. Ill-timing? Perhaps, but whilst the blue ribband event might have all the glitz and glamour that Formula 1 commands, I can safely bet on which race I think will provide the most entertainment due to its unpredictable nature, which helps make Superleague all the more intriguing.

Superleague: it's a funny old game. Now where have I heard that before? Hmm...