V8 Supercars looks to rival the F1 and MotoGP with its own smartphone app

The V8 Supercars has today raced onto the iTunes App Store and Android Market with a dedicated Bigpond Sports app, bringing live timing, news and 3D track mapping to your smartphone for the 2012 V8 Supercar season.

Motorsports fans will instantly recognise the design, as it’s modelled on the popular F1 Timing app which shows live timing data and track positions on a movable 3D track map.  This is no rip-off though, with Bigpond and V8SC going straight to the source of the F1 app, developers Soft Pauer, to get them to produce a world class timing app for Australia’s biggest motorsport series.

The app itself is free, but don’t think you’re getting access to all the goodies for free. To access the best stuff – like live-timing, video feeds and other features – you’ll need to make an in-app purchase of $14.99 for a 2012 “Championship Pass”. But when you consider the F1 app costs $39.95 for the season (2011), that’s great value for V8 fans.

Overall the app is slick, it looks well built and contains everything you’d want as a V8 fan.  Initial loading times are slow as the ’empty shell’ of an app gathers the required data, but once you’re in there the manipulaton of the track map is exactly as it is with the F1 app allowing you to take an overall view of the track, or follow a particular car around the course at any time.

I’ve had a couple of unexpected app closes, and updating the info page can seem to take a while, however I’m sure those bugs will be ironed out – and they don’t affect the live timing itself.

Top marks to V8 Supercars for the launch, go get it V8 fans.

Price: Free (plus $14.99 season pass)
Web: App Store or Android Market