Greg Rust, Neil Crompton, Greg Murphy and Riana Crehan will anchor the on-air broadcast team in 2015, as fans are treated to revolutionary coverage of this year’s V8 Supercars Championship.
Chad Neylon and Kylie King will also be part of the team, with Neylon commentating all support categories, and King assisting with content pieces.
Rust, who brings with him decades of motorsport experience, commentary and knowledge in V8 Supercars, Formula One, MotoGP, the Sochi Winter Olympics and the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, will host the record 1200 hours of coverage across 2015.
The V8 Supercars media team will work alongside the faces of Fox Sports and TEN in the commentary box and in pit lane. Fox Sports and TEN will reveal their on-air talent and expert commentators leading into the season opening Clipsal 500 Adelaide.
Rust is one of the most respected and popular figures in Australian sport. He re-joins V8 Supercars for the first time since 2006, this time part of the V8 Supercars Media on-air team.
“I’m absolutely pumped,” said Rust who returns to his ‘family’ in 2015.
“This is a great opportunity to work again on a sport that is close to my heart. Deep down I really missed it after it left TEN at the end of 2006 … I can’t wait to be back at the track with an awesome group of people in the pit lane and on our broadcast team.”
Crompton, who drove in V8 Supercars and Group A from 1988-2002, has been a voice of V8 Supercars since 1997. He continues his expert commentary and analysis role while racing royalty Murphy will join Riana Crehan in the pits as the first to get to the action.
Aside from a 366-race career, Crompton has been an integral element in five V8 Supercars Logie Awards for the best sporting coverage in the country.
With 200 Championship race starts in V8 Supercars – including tackling the new generation beasts across the 2013 and 2014 Pirtek Enduro Cup – fan favourite Murphy will track the action and ask the hard questions in the paddock, as pit lane reporter and expert commentator.
Having retired from full-time racing to be part of the coverage, ‘Murph’ will add to the depth of knowledge in the V8 Media team and stir up old and emerging rivalries.
“I feel very fortunate to have the chance to work with this group of people and stay this close to the sport that has provided me with so much satisfaction over the last 20 odd years,” Murphy said.
“It’s a big change for me shifting completely from racing, but I’ve got some of the best in the business to draw knowledge from.”
In addition to calling the Championship series, Rust and Murphy will also commentate the V8 Supercars Dunlop Series, which showcases emerging motorsport stars.
The team will begin a new era in motorsport coverage in Australia, producing the full HD coverage live on Fox Sports, with every session, every support category and every second live.
TEN will broadcast six events live in 2015 with the vision from the V8 Supercars team. Those events not broadcast live on TEN will be played in package form twice on Saturdays and Sundays, ensuring absolutely every event will be on free to air.
The race coverage will offer fans unprecedented access to the teams and drivers with virtual reality technology, never before seen graphics and animation taking viewers deep inside the sport, optional camera angles and audio, and real-time statistics accessible to Fox Sports viewers via the red button functionality.
“The tech innovations planned for the coverage will be incredible for the viewer and we intend to make our contribution informative but also have fun. I can’t wait,” Rust said.
Matt White will also host the enormously popular RPM on TEN every non-racing Sunday across 43 weeks.
V8 Supercars General Manager of Television and Content Scott Young explained what a mammoth task it would be for the small team.
“V8 Supercars Media is a very small team with a massive amount of live and produced content ahead of them,” Young said.
“In 2015 we have added one day of broadcast to every event, from the first session each day to the last item on track. That is a relative increase from 158 hours in 2014 to 371 hours in 2015 in track coverage alone – a colossal 1200 hours in total.”
Foxtel last year unveiled the $50 monthly package that gets access to 43 channels plus all sport which includes every single V8 Supercars and support category session this year.
Foxtel also this week launched a bundle offer which includes 50GB home broadband (up to 500GB), home telephone and Foxtel from $90 a month for all three.
Coverage starts this Sunday, with the sydney.com SuperTest live on Fox Sports including official livery unveil, final testing time and a SuperShootout, where all 25 cars will challenge for the top time with a solo flying lap around Sydney Motorsport Park.
Ten will also air a full highlights package of the SuperTest on Sunday at 4pm.
Murph will do Very well in this role, but will miss him driving in the series. With the rule changes coming, I think he’s done the right thing.