As the Shannons Nationals reaches the halfway point for the season, the home of Australian circuit racing championships and series has grown both on and off the track.
Starting the season at The Bend Motorsport Park, the Nationals saw a record number of views through the free and online live stream, as well as bumper fields in almost all of the categories at the event.
The live stream for the opening round was up by a whopping 242.55 per cent from the previous year, achieving more than 50,000 viewers across the final day of racing at The Bend.
Heading back to Victoria for the second round at Sandown in May, competitor and fan interest remained strong, with categories such as the Australian Production Car Series and Porsche Michelin GT3 Cup Challenge Australia carrying the largest fields seen in recent times at the Nationals.
Phillip Island was also a major highlight for the Nationals, with the CAMS Australian GT Championship combined with their GT Trophy Series saw their largest field ever-entered in the history of the Championship.
The live stream in 2018 has been hosted by highly-credentialed motor sport reporter Greg Rust, while the addition of experienced reporter Cameron van den Dungen at Phillip Island also improved the live stream ratings from the previous round at Sandown.
In fact, the stream this year has seen a jump in viewers from the year prior, with numbers already close to surpassing last year’s total views at the season’s end.
After three rounds this season 93,445 people have watched the Shannons Nationals through the improved stream, compared to six rounds last year totalling 101,233 viewers.
Director of the Shannons Nationals Michael Smith said the Nationals is becoming a home for motor sport enthusiasts and has cemented itself as an integral part of the Australian circuit racing landscape.
“The Shannons Nationals has been growing from year-to-year and the hard work from our staff, category managers, TV production, competitors and officials is showing that,” Smith said.
“For our live stream figures alone to be nearly higher than they were at the end of last year speaks volumes of the product we are providing.
“The racing this year has been super exciting and I cannot wait to see what we have in store at our next round in Ipswich.”
This year also marks more than a decade of support from Shannons Insurance, which will continue to be the title sponsor until the end of 2019.
The next round of the Shannons Nationals will head to Queensland for the first time this year, with the event to feature the ever-popular Australian Production Car Series’ ‘Fight in the Night’ race on Saturday evening.
The fourth round of the Shannons Nationals will take place on 28-29 July.
