'The Mainstream'

[patnicholls]

Forum old-timers may remember my rambles about motorbike racing's battle to get into the mainstream. (they were posted on the old forum so aren't here anymore).

Having a browse through some threads elsewhere I noticed someone quoting some interesting stats from alexa.com which is a web traffic measuring site. It gives the rankings for all sites in the world directly, so is completely impartial. For instance, the top sites overall are Google, Yahoo, eBay, MySpace, Facebook, etc and you can check the ranking for any site by typing it in. For motor racing it gives a fair comparison of relative popularity, since it considers all web traffic in the whole world (unlike this forum which is a niche market). And yes, I know I'm not a populist but it's quite interesting.

Anyway, someone posted the rankings for the world's major car racing series sites into which I've now slotted the ones for motogp.com, worldsbk.com, britishsuperbike.com and amasuperbike.com :

Site / Rank

Formula1.com: 1694
NASCAR.com: 3234
MotoGP.com: 7342
NHRA.com: 33,956 (drag racing!)
WRC.com: 35,256
IndyCar.com: 52,076
ChampCarWorldSeries.com: 73,903
DTM.com: 84,521
v8supercar.com.au: 111,304
MotocrossMX1.com: 142,915
WorldSBK.com: 147,979
FIAWTCC.com: 149,342
AmericanLeMans.com: 178,493
GP2Series.com: 178,677
FIAGT.com: 189,052
BTCC.net: 192,086
A1GP.com: 194,852
Speedwayworld.tv: 219,555
BritishSuperbike.com: 220,255
WorldSeriesByRenault.com: 222,148
Grand-Am.com: 247,168
LeMans.org: 273,897
etc...
AMASuperbike.com: 491,731
etc...

By my reckoning then, MotoGP is the third most popular form of motorsport after F1 and NASCAR and a massive distance ahead of the next most popular. And NASCAR has almost exclusively US-based fans (83% of them). Our biggest demographic for motogp.com is a tie between Spain and Indonesia with 7.3% of traffic each and an excellent spread between lots of other countries, so worldwide we're second really.

So, from this I'm concluding that we're pretty much there as regards being popular in the world, and that we have an outrageously low position on the front page of the forum, that considered!

[tha_jackal]

I think this says alot

Aus-superbikes.com.au: 1,923,666

Our domestic series needs alot of work and alot of help..

However, Mcnews.com.au: 83,339 (the site i write MotoGP race reports for) seems to be doing a better job.. They do live updates of Aussies SBK rounds including minute by minute race updates and picture feeds etc etc...

Cool thread Pat

[The Phantom]

Very interesting, Pat - have you contacted the motorsportforums.com management to point this out???

Hey Jackal I'd forgotten you were writing for Trev (he and I cross paths on http://www.fordforums.com.au too). Enjoying your work, and I often link to mcnews.com.au articles and pics when writing to other moto forums that I'm on - it's a fantastic site.

Agree that AusSBK is in dire straits - crazy really, considering the talent it has pumped out over the years. I hereby commit to going to the EC (and maybe PI) rounds in 2008 to show my support.

I tried Kropotkin Thinks ( http://www.motogpmatters.com ) - no rank. I wonder if, now that I've added it to their data, they will now rank it?

[NinjaMaster]

I think this says alot

Aus-superbikes.com.au: 1,923,666

Our domestic series needs alot of work and alot of help..

However, Mcnews.com.au: 83,339 (the site i write MotoGP race reports for) seems to be doing a better job.. They do live updates of Aussies SBK rounds including minute by minute race updates and picture feeds etc etc...

Cool thread Pat

I think what that mainly says is that the official Australian Superbike Championship website is rubbish and most people (like me) will go to MCNews.com.au for our fill of the local championship. It has all the news, the best reports (pumping up your tires enough Jake? ) and lots of galleries plus general motorcycle indusrty info as well.
AusSBK is actually a pretty good product but money, or lack-of, has really restricted it's progress. V8 Supercars are the vacuum that sucks the motorsport dollar in this country, but you only have to see the sales for this weekends MotoGP to see that we have a large motorcycling fanbase in this country, the product just needs to be marketed right. If the interest and knowledge of Aus Superbikes can be generated to where it should be, the likes of Kawasaki wouldn't even consider downsizing to single rider teams in superbike and supersport next year. The championship also needs to make sure they get to every state and race at our premier racetracks. I think it's a travesty that there isn't a championship round at PI. The series really deserves to be as well known in Aus as BSB is in Britain, especially considering the class of riders we have currently and coming through.

[Mach24]

I think it's a travesty that there isn't a championship round at PI.

Remember OZ Supers support both WSB and MotoGP at the Island every year.

[ChrisS]

I think what that mainly says is that the official Australian Superbike Championship website is rubbish and most people (like me) will go to MCNews.com.au for our fill of the local championship. It has all the news, the best reports (pumping up your tires enough Jake? ) and lots of galleries plus general motorcycle indusrty info as well.

I find all official websites "rubbish" and mostly visit non official websites for all the championships I follow.

official websites won't badmouth the championship, wont report the negative news or will try to put a positive spin on them, wont report rumors etc...

BTW this place 120,088

[patnicholls]

I find all official websites "rubbish" and mostly visit non official websites for all the championships I follow.

official websites won't badmouth the championship, wont report the negative news or will try to put a positive spin on them, wont report rumors etc...

BTW this place 120,088

This is true - I never visit the GP2 site, the World Series by Renault site (both of which I'm a big fan of), and never visit formula1.com even though I've only missed a couple of races in 14 years, not that any of those sites are particularly bad - just get the news off crash.net. Still, overall in the world the official site stats give a fairly representative picture.

[NinjaMaster]

Remember OZ Supers support both WSB and MotoGP at the Island every year.

Hence I say championship round. I think it would be sensational if this weekend was the championship finale in front of a much more deserving crowd than the paltry 5 or so thousand people that attend most races. It's just a shame that it isn't/can't be organised to be a championship round like the AMA do at Laguna.

I find all official websites "rubbish" and mostly visit non official websites for all the championships I follow.

official websites won't badmouth the championship, wont report the negative news or will try to put a positive spin on them, wont report rumors etc...

BTW this place 120,088

At least most official websites are up to date and have bucketloads of info.
I've got no problem that rumours, bad reports, etc. be left to third party websites, but a lookup of race reports at aus-superbikes.com.au reveals no documents found. Race results gives plenty of info but if you want to find out about the riders, good luck. There are only half the profiles there and they are from last year! Pretty pathetic if they want to go forward as a championship. It has to be much more professional than that. Also, I hate the format as it appears very cluttered and hard to read but thats just my opinion.

[tha_jackal]

I could make a better site than that .. I recently made a 'mock-up' flash website for Kawasaki MotoGP as a uni project.. I got a HD The ASBK website is nothing short of a disgrace..

[NinjaMaster]

I only made a couple of extremely basic websites at TAFE 6 or 7 years ago and I couldn't believe that it would be too hard or expensive to have a nicely presented, professional looking website with up-to-date information on it. Now, I don't believe a website is going to triple crowd figures on it's own but as a front, if they can at least LOOK professional then it might encourage a bit more support behind the category.
A return to the old 2+4 format where the Aus Supers used to run as a support to the V8's should also be considered. Whilst I don't like the idea of playing second fiddle to the tin tops, the exposure is dramatically greater than in their current stand alone configuration and it gives the V8 fans something exciting to watch in between the V8 procession.