Courtney adds so much more, reckons Cochrane.

Present at the unveiling of James Courtney as Stone Brothers Racing's new driver for 2006, AVESCO chairman Tony Cochrane was beaming with the latest addition to the Australian V8 Supercar Series, and he told Crash.net Radio's Andy Stobart that he reckons the move confirms the V8s as the greatest touring car championship in the world.

"It's fantastic," beamed the AVESCO chairman, "James Courtney is probably one of the hottest drivers in the world today, he's a really good 'young gun' and he will add so much more to our championship which is growing so rapidly anyway. It's always tremendous and you know you're in good business when you can pull a driver of James' calibre to come and race in what is arguably now the world's greatest touring car championship."

Courtney's deal was brokered by manager Alan Gow who, ironically, runs the British Touring Car Championship, and the move to the V8s came despite big money offers for Courtney to remain in the Japanese GT championship, where he is in race action this weekend.

The Australian series branched out in 2005 to race at Shanghai, and next year will take in Bahrain too, making the series expand not only in popularity but also in terms of territory covered. So what makes it so good?

"I think our television's very good," explains Cochrane, "We've been producing digital TV pictures on free to air live throughout Australia, very few forms of motorsport have free to air live television and we do about 80 hours a year. Clearly, we've spring-boarded off of that into New Zealand and China and now the Middle East."

No matter how much television you produce, people have to want to watch the show, and that is certainly happening.

"The racing's very good, it's a fantastic quality with an absolute marquee event with Bathurst in the mix," continued Cochrane, "Bathurst is known around the world, and we've got very, very good teams, and the cars look great, they sound great, they're fast, they've got a lot of attitude about them."

With such a good show does Cochrane, who has more than something of the showman in him, have to work hard making the series grow, or does it practically sell itself?

"It's like everything, the real hard yards are kinda a little bit behind us, there's no question how it's developed a life of its own and it's up and running with its own expansion really now," he says.

One crucial aspect has been attracting and encouraging young fans, something that has been achieved, and with a best selling computer game to help stimulate growth, and swell the coffers.

"It's tremendous to see so many young kids involved with the championship, our game V8 Supercars 2 is one of the highest selling games of its genre, and V8 Supercars 3 comes out next year so all of those things add to a growing fan base."

With the series moving to China and Bahrain is there any danger of it outgrowing its base? Just how big can this thing get?

"I don't think we'll ever do more than about fifteen rounds in the same time period we've got now," says Cochrane, "So we've got limited expansion and Australia's our home core market so we've obviously got to look after Australia and make sure that we've got at least ten rounds here, and critically that we go to every Australian state, because we're one of few sports in this country that goes to every state, so you've got to look after your home domestic market but there's no question that we're expanding in the global market at the same time."

Two rounds and six races remain to be run for this year's title to be decided. Does Cochrane tip anyone of the drivers in with a realistic shout of taking the honours?

"It's wide open, anyone of those five guys could still win," he says, "You not only need a great car, you need to drive it really well, but you also need a bit of luck in our game, there's no question that this is going to go right down to the wire now.

"If you look at the CV of the five guys at the top, they're all very, very good drivers, and all very capable of winning the championship and being a great champion for the championship so we'll just see now what unwinds now over the next month, and it's going to be a hell of a ride."