DVD Review: 2014 V8 Supercars Season Highlights
Despite my bitching when Sky TV stole the rights to the V8 Supercars, I’m now quite happy. I just don’t have the time to commit to watching live racing. And if I’m honest with myself, for most of the race, it’s pretty boring. I watch the V8’s for the close calls, the audacious moves and of course, the crashes.
So of course I get giddy with excitement at the beginning of the year, when the previous years season highlights are released on DVD. 3 hours of pure, unadulterated action. Volvo joined the action, making the racing much more interesting with now five manufacturers vying for the crown. This is certainly a shake up that the sport desperately needed and with Ford’s announcement that they are pulling out at the end of this year, hopefully we’ll see teams migrate to the new manufacturers rather than adding to the glut of Holdens on the starting grid.
Along with Volvo there were a raft of other changes in the 2014 season, with the branching out to America in 2013 having presumably not paid off (go figure) drivers did not return to the Circuit of the Americas, rather it was back to the more familiar Sydney Motorsport Park. Race formats were changed so that their were the different types of race, Endurance Cup, Super Street and the Super Sprint, mixing things up and keeping the racing lively.
The championship itself was a mixed bag with some good wins for the newcomers, a second consecutive victory for Ford at Bathurst and Jamie Whincup secured a record sixth title for himself in the penultimate meeting of the year.
There were plenty of spectacular crashes and a few close calls with fuel levels getting critical but the standout was again Bathurst where the action was all through the event, starting with the practice, moving onto qualifying and dominating the race itself. So intense was the racing that the track couldn’t handle the pace and the race had to be put on hold whilst a section of the track was repaired.
All up, the 2014 V8 Supercars Season Highlights DVD is probably the most fun I’ve had watching motorsports.
Rating: Exempt
FILMGUIDE rating: