Supercars sale: Barclay Nettlefold and his backers have crossed the finish line first to take control of one of Australia’s biggest sports.
On the eve of the return to racing after a three-month hiatus, Archer Capital has confirmed that it has reached an agreement to sell its majority shareholding in Supercars to Racing Australia Consolidated Enterprises Ltd (RACE).
RACE is a consortium led by Melbourne entrepreneur and CEO of QMS Sport, Barclay Nettlefold, together with the Australian Racing Group and Henslow.
Archer Capital said the new ownership group has operational experience and brings significant marketing clout to Supercars and is excited about aligning the major circuit racing categories in Australia.
Transition of the shareholding will be completed by the end of the year, with RACE starting to engage in planning for 2022 with Archer and management.
The 2021 Repco Supercars Championship will continue at this weekend’s Bunnings Trade Sydney SuperNight. The return to racing will see competition across four successive weekends with 11 races in that time.
All sessions this weekend will be broadcast live on Fox Sports and streamed via Kayo. The Seven Network will broadcast live from 3:30pm AEDT on Saturday and 12:30pm AEDT on Sunday.
Commenting on the sale, Peter Wiggs, chairman of both Supercars and Archer Capital said: “We set out to find a new majority shareholder that would be able to build on the work that Archer and the management team have done over the past five years.
“The expertise that RACE has in sport, media, marketing and digital will enable just that.”
Barclay Nettlefold said: “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.”
The 2021 season of 32 races across 12 events, with Mount Panorama to hold two championship race meetings for the first time since 1996, has been impacted by lockdowns, but racing is returning across November with four successive weekends in Sydney. The interrupted year will climax in early December with the Repco Bathurst 1000 the final event of 2021.
During 2021 Nettlefold has been focusing on running TGI Sport as its chief executive officer. Earlier this year QMS Media completed a strategic partnership with Bruin Capital where Bruin and Quadrant Private Equity become co-owners of global sports technology company TGI Sport which includes TLA Worldwide (Aust) Pty Ltd and TLA – ESP Limited (UK).
See also: Supercars returns to Seven – Seven races live every year from 2021