SCOTT Pye hopes the launch of his new podcast can deliver Supercars fans the kind of engaging content he believes is overdue.
Pye and co-host/National Trans Am driver Elliot Barbour yesterday released episode one of Apex Hunters United.
“It started for me when I was streaming through COVID, I really enjoyed the interaction we had with fans,” the Triple Eight co-driver explained to V8 Sleuth.
“I always wanted to go back and do some livestreaming, probably when I had a little bit more time and wasn’t racing full-time, then on those weekends I could do that. So this year I decided to start streaming some races again with the fans.
“Obviously you can’t show broadcast, but I could sit there and answer some questions if fans wanted an insight into what happens on a race weekend from a driver’s perspective – and it seemed to go really well.”
Enter the podcast concept.
Originally, Pye had intended to fire up a podcast with Shane van Gisbergen last year, but they decided against doing so at that time.
When Pye revisited the concept with Barbour, it got up, as an opportunity to be transparent with a mate by his side.
“I think what the streaming showed me was, if you give everyone a little bit of context into what we’re like, it stops the clickbait headlines probably generating as much hate as well,” he continued.
“Because if we can get drivers to come on and have a chat, people get to know who we are and they realise when you say something, there’s probably more to it than just the headline.
“I know that from personal experience, because with my personality, I can be quite abrasive. I don’t mean to be but sometimes when you take a line of what I said, it can sound quite harsh.
“That’s sort of what this is about as well, is showing the fans a little bit more of who we are and the personalities behind the race helmets, because our sport doesn’t really get to show that very often.”
Pye, who runs One Nine Media, said he’d reached out to Supercars last year about elevating its social presence, to no avail.
“I put forward this podcast idea and doing livestreams with drivers at the track and getting fans there and I was just getting no traction, so I decided to take it into my own hands,” he said.
“I’m not a big fan of at the moment what’s online from Supercars. I look at other sports and the way they’re creating content and I think we could always do a little bit better.
“I’m not saying I’m right, but I thought, ‘why not have a crack at it myself and try to have some fun?’
“Apex Hunters is really about taking the piss out of yourself and having some fun with it and show that we are human, and then hopefully the fans along the way get to know us better and get some insight into the sport.
“Not just the drivers, but what goes into a weekend, what makes someone successful or unsuccessful, and what we like to do outside of the sport.
“So I want to bring in some segments, some fun stuff that we do, and it will definitely evolve.
“The first episode was really an intro.
“I have got some big plans that I want to do at the racetrack with activations and things like that to really engage with the fans again, because the engagement we have had already has been really good and I think we have got a fanbase there that is not being communicated with at the moment.”
Pye elaborated: “I was very nervous putting the episode out there because you open yourself to scrutiny.
“But what we’re doing, we want the negative feedback because I want to know what we could do different or change so that every time we do an episode, it does evolve and in 12 months we’re not where we were in the first episode.”
