Success at the Gold Coast leads to support for International drivers in 2013 Texas race
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6:00 AM Tue 25 October, 2011
Source: BigPond Sport
The success of the international driver endurance races at this year's Armor All Gold Coast 600 has led to calls for a similar format for V8 Supercars' first USA race in 2013 at Austin, Texas.
"We've had lots of discussions with the Circuit of The Americas and we're scheduled to meet with them in America in March or April next year," said Cochrane.
"They have a couple of ideas of their own but certainly the idea of American drivers doing one stint of the weekend is one of the ideas on the table.
"There will likely be a large delegation coming to Adelaide's Clipsal 500 in March, so after they have a look at that event we'll make a decision.
"By about April next year we'll know the exact date for Texas in 2013, so we'll announce the format and the exact date together."
Cochrane said that the category had learnt a lot from the weekend and would work on moving the event forward another step next year.
"My attitude is it (the international format) is here forever." said Cochrane.
"We're going to have to change some rules because the one thing the government wants is new names popping up, so we can't have a situation where someone stays in the same car for 6 years. That would defeat the purpose of the whole thing."
"We'll have to introduce some rules perhaps on how many times an international driver can race for a single team or something like that, but we'll refine that as we go along.
"One of the indirect benefits of the new format is that we've got all these world class international ambassadors and that's got to be a good thing not only for V8 Supercars but for the Gold Coast event."
Over 180,000 people attended this year's Armor All Gold Coast 600, an increase of over 10,000 on last year.
The series takes a two-week break before the championship battle resumes at the Falken Tasmania Challenge at Symmons Plains from November 11-13.
