The news this week that Team Suzuki’s 2014 Australian Superbike Championship attendance is uncertain shocked many in the sport, coming off the back of repeat championship victories in 2012 and 2013 with Josh Waters and Wayne Maxwell respectively.

It’s been no secret that Suzuki has been actively searching for additional sponsorship since the close of last season, which is no easy task considering the sheer uncertainty of the series itself recently.

On paper the recipe is there to provide good ammounts of exposure to respective sponsors when you consider half of the series will be contested at V8 Supercars events, presumably with free-to-air television coverage on Seven.

But history shows that teams or sponsors cannot simply rely on that hope, as we saw just a few months ago when planned television coverage at the non-championship 2+4 event at Phillip Island was scrapped during the race weekend due to a depleted field without the Suzuki or Honda factory teams.

Of course the reasons those teams – two of the biggest in the country – and others weren’t at that event is a whole other story that came down to a lack of organisation on International Entertainment Group’s (IEG) behalf, but the fact is that confidence and general interest in the series is low right now. It’s difficult enough to get industry companies to support you financially, let alone outside sponsorship.

Image: Andrew Gosling.

Apart from that instance at the Island, television coverage of the ASBK series has been inconsistent over the past couple of years from memory, although I will admit that I rarely tune in to watch it. For me personally, if it’s not live or same-day coverage at least, I don’t watch and that goes for pretty much any sport.

But on the other hand, the live streaming of the events online is a real asset, whether it’s the entire Australasian Superbike (ASC) series or the ASBK, which I watched both races from Darwin last year as they happened. Again though, promises of streaming at Phillip Island’s final round didn’t eventuate.

To me, television coverage as soon as possible following the event (which usually happens at 2+4s) is the most valuable, live streaming is second most entertaining, or otherwise a professional, consistent TV package that fans can keep track of is a decent compromise and no doubt provides exposure for all.

The blame can’t entirely go on promoters for teams like Suzuki struggling to bring in money, because in the past when the manufacturer support was particularly high, there didn’t seem to be any real urgency to gain a big name title sponsorship that I’m aware of. Not like there is right now, anyway.

Team Honda Racing and Next Gen Motorsports, as well as the many inspiring privateer efforts, scrape enough sponsorship together (or spend their savings in terms of most privateers) from year to year to go racing, but in no means is it easy for them. One major loss of a sponsor for any of these teams could place their plans into jeopardy as quickly as it has for Phil Tainton Racing.

In fact, this is precisely why in Europe a lot of the non-factory teams call on the riders themselves to bring funding with them. Collectively between the teams and riders, they’re all chasing backing to go racing and if all goes well, the rider’s wage comes from what he brings. It’s not ideal or easy, but teams having trouble sealing enough sponsorship isn’t anything new.

Selected industry media outlets have also played a part in the lacking interest in the sport as well, in my opinion. As times have gotten increasingly tougher and some lose hope, coverage of domestic racing has faded and that’s a real shame. If many of our own outlets can’t take the time to cover the sport fluently, how can we expect mainstream to ever care?

Once upon a time you’d see consistent double page pre-race previews of national events in print, massive race reports, regular interviews with the racers, factory bike tests and the odd tech story involving the teams themselves. Now, there’s minor race reports alongside other bits and pieces, however no real distinct passion for local championships.

Image: Andrew Gosling.

On limited resources and with a real racing bias, our coverage isn’t perfect, but it’s only going to gain strength. Numbers aren’t huge on this site as the fan base for domestic road racing in itself is a relatively narrow window, plus our international presence is a lot smaller than what it once was. The good news is that it’s growing as we improve and as many begin to realise where they can source information – best of all, for free online.

In saying that, we get around 10,000 absolute unique visitors per month as we focus on racing with a true Australian perspective and it’s a start. People won’t learn anything about the sport unless the press stick by it, and thankfully the industry is taking notice that we’re loyal supporters of Aussie racing. Not all press is positive, nor it should be considering the trouble the sport faces, but it sure beats no coverage at all.

These circumstances outlined aren’t anybody’s fault in particular, as it’s all part of an unfortunate chain of damaging events, but if sponsors including the manufacturers aren’t seeing any specific returns for their efforts, we all need to lift our game as enthusiasts, professionals and competitors to turn that around.

Riders need to appeal to the media, teams need to be as open as possible, publicity from many angles needs to improve, and those who have the power to include our domestic racing in publications more need to be creative in their coverage in a bid to boost interest.

Who knows where the future lies for the sport here at home, and there are a couple of avenues it could potentially head down, preferably with the best riders and teams competing within the same national series (updated). All we can do is unite as much as we can for the sport’s sake and aim for a turnaround in 2014. It’s not impossible.