New owners for Supercars as races resume

Australia’s Supercars motor racing series has a new majority shareholder with Racing Australia Consolidated Enterprises (RACE) purchasing private equity firm Archer Capital’s majority stake for a sum believed to be in the region $60 million.

With the 2021 championship gets ready to return to the track after a four-month hiatus - this weekend’s Sydney SuperNight event being the first Supercars event since back-to-back races in Townsville in July - a brief statement advised of the sale of Archer’s stake to the RACE consortium.

The consortium, headed by Melbourne entrepreneur and former Swimming Australia President Barclay Nettlefold, is the amalgam of a joint bid by TLA Worldwide and Australian Racing Group (ARG).

Nettlefold is the global Chief Executive of TLA's parent company TGI Sport while ARG is led by former Supercars team head Barry Rogers and former Supercars Managing Director Matt Braid.

The sale brings an end to Archer's decade-long ownership of the championship, after the private equity investment firm bought the series for approximately $180 million in 2011.

However, the announcement only discusses Archer Capital’s approximate 65% stake, despite the fact RACE will also acquire the 35% collectively owned by Supercars’ teams. It also did not include the final make-up of RACE's board.

Commenting on the acquisition, Nettlefold advised "Supercars, with the support of Archer, has done an amazing job navigating the past two years.

"The RACE Board and I look forward to combining our collective resources, heralding an exciting new era in the growth of a sport that all Australians love."

It's expected the transition of the shareholding will be finalised by the end of the year.

RACE's bid was chosen ahead of a rival consortium fronted by Boost Mobile founder Peter Adderton which had been backed by media company News Corp Australia.

RACE has already started engaging in planning for 2022 with Archer Capital and management to get handover of the new deal.

The announcement comes years after Supercars and Archer Capital chairman Peter Wiggs confirmed plans in 2017 to offload the business.

TGI Sport, which was established in 1997, describes itself as an infrastructure, technology and media rights business.

Nettlefold is also Chief Executive and Managing Director of affiliated company QMS Media, a position he has held since 2015.

Supercars return to the track on Friday at Sydney Motorsport Park with two practice sessions before this weekend's first of four consecutive weekends at the venue.

The Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama will wrap up the campaign next month.

Image: Supercars at Sydney Motorsport Park. Credit: Sydney Motorsport Park.