MAY 22, 2006

Walker is a busy boy

Ron Walker, the boss of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, has been in London in recent days to try to make sure that the event regains its position as the first race when the 2007 Formula 1 World Championship calendar is put together. The race was moved this year because of the Commonwealth Games and the teams discovered that going to Bahrain first was a much better idea and the TV viewing figures were much better because the first race was in a time zone that attracted more viewers and so the numbers improved on all three races as more people made the effort to watch the next two races despite the more difficult time zones.

Back home in Melbourne there are other worries because Australia's Channel 10 has lost the deal to televise the V8 Supercar series to Channel 7. This could make things difficult at the Grand Prix as Channel 10 has the right to broadcast F1. The V8s are important to the Grand Prix as they keep up the spectator numbers as Australia remains obsessed by Ford versus Holden battles rather than getting excited about Mark Webber's adventures with Williams.