The Virgin Australian Supercars Championship and Foxtel have enjoyed a strong start to the 2019 season broadcast after brilliant ratings for the Superloop Adelaide 500.  

This year’s viewership saw a dramatic increase on last year, starting with Thursday’s first practice session, which enjoyed a 97% average audience increase year-on-year.

It didn’t stop there as the twilight qualifying, Top 10 Shootout and Sunday’s race all had an audience increase, the largest being the 48% more people tuning into the shootout in 2019 as opposed to last year.

Around 231,000 people, a 20% increase, tuned into Sunday’s race to witness Scott McLaughlin guide his new Ford Mustang to an emphatic victory to claim the opening round. 

Peter Campbell, Head of Fox Sports, was thrilled with the result of the Championship’s opening round, lauding the event and commentary team treating for their work on the broadcast.  

"What a fantastic way to start the season with an action-packed weekend of racing on the streets of Adelaide. The Adelaide street circuit always lends itself to great racing and great drama, and we had plenty of both across all days of racing. 

“I’d like to commend Craig Lowndes in his first appearance as a presenter alongside Mark Skaife and Jess Yates – who fitted in seamlessly to our commentary line-up as well as the broadcast team that bring the series to life.

“We look forward to the next championship round at the Australian Grand Prix when Supercars and the inaugural Formula 1 race of 2019 light up our screens together all on the one weekend.”

Every race of the 2019 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship will be shown live and ad-free on Fox Sports, including this month’s Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2019.