The series wrapped up its third season on Aug. 17 at Lucas Oil Speedway.SRX / Wayne Reigle
Superstar Racing Experience’s switch from network TV to cable dropped viewership for the 2023 season, but series leaders still believe several things are going right for the property after its third year and they are already making plans for another campaign.
Among the most ambitious plans: an international event. SRX is in discussions to host a race in the Middle East — possibly Saudi Arabia or Qatar — as soon as the end of this year.
SRX switched this season to having its six summer races aired on ESPN, after spending the first two years of its existence on CBS. The series also moved from holding its races on Saturday nights to Thursday nights, a change that allowed SRX to get more full-time drivers to participate from NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA.
SRX averaged 436,000 viewers this season, down 56% from just over 1 million viewers for the six races last year. Moving to cable from network is always likely to produce a decrease for any property, and the series still was consistently a top-performing program on ESPN on the day of races. The series also saw gains this year in key demos: Its 18-49 viewership average was 148,000, which was better than its performance on CBS despite the overall drop.
The median age of the series’ average viewers was also nine years younger this year than last year. And unlike the first two seasons on CBS, when viewership largely remained the same from the first race through the sixth, viewership grew progressively as this season went on, with the final two races being the most watched, including nearly 600,000 for the finale.
“If you look at the top-10 shows each week on ESPN, we were consistently in the top five or six, and the only things that beat us were baseball, the ESPYs or things of that nature,” said Sandy Montag, one of the co-founders of the property.
SRX sold out four of its races and three of those set track records for attendance.
In terms of its day-to-day operations, SRX is not looking in the rearview mirror. The series has already released the dates of next year’s schedule, which will once again be six weeks in July and August. Series CEO Don Hawk said he’s already hearing from drivers and venues that are interested in taking part.
Hawk revealed to SBJ last month that SRX was evaluating an opportunity for an international race, but didn’t get into specifics, and industry chatter since then has focused on SRX possibly holding an exhibition in the Middle East.
Asked about the possibility of hosting a race in Saudi Arabia or Qatar, Hawk replied: “I would say your oven is warm.” He added that it would likely be a standalone invitational and that it could include eight drivers from the U.S., four from whichever country hosts the race, and four from elsewhere in the world. He said that if the country and groups involved “accept the proposal I sent to them, it could be by the end of this year — like the very end.”
Co-founder George Pyne said that the series having now gotten through three complete seasons “provides a certain level of stability.”
“I’d like to see an extension [of the brand] whether that’s driving schools, other types of training or competitions that are more development based, or whether that’s a race outside the U.S.,” Pyne said. “For us, we want to focus on doing a good job on the core product and that’s been a focus so far, but eventually it’s reasonable that you’ll see some brand extensions from SRX, just like any other IP owner would have.”
