No Free TV For Supercars Return

Race-starved Supercars fans will have to pay if they want to watch the resumption of racing in the 2020 championship.

Television coverage of the no-fans meeting at Sydney Motorsport Park on June 27-28 will be restricted to the Fox Sports and Kayo subscription services.

Network 10 is locked out of the meeting as it was not one of the original free-to-air meetings on the 2020 schedule.

The television package is confirmed to Race News today by a Supercars spokesman as the full program and race formats for the race return go public.

The heart of the compacted two-day meeting is three 130-kilometre sprints with a single tyre change each time.

There is also a Top 15 shoot-out on Saturday, a Rookies’ only session, a limit of two rattle guns for tyre changes, and a restriction on the number of crew members in the SMP pitlane.

Each race in the Sydney MotorSport Park SuperSprint will have a separate grid order with individual qualifying sessions.

Supercars says drivers will arrive in Sydney on the Friday of the meeting, to allow for supervised team track walks.

“A major change due to COVID restrictions is limitation to just six team members permitted over the line in pitlane per car, instead of eight,” says Supercars.

Finalisation of the program took two meetings of the Supercars Commission and required a number of rule revisions, although these could be changed – together with the personnel and spectators restrictions – before the second comeback meeting at Winton on July 18-19.

The three races will be run over 33 laps, starting each time with a full tank of fuel, on the 3.93-kilometre grand prix layout.

Action will begin at 10.20am on Saturday, with a 20-minute session for SMP rookies that is followed by two full-field practice sessions.

“The entire field will then enter part one of ARMOR ALL Qualifying with the four slowest lap times from that session eliminated. The second qualifying session will feature the remaining 20 drivers. The five slowest times from Q2 will be eliminated and the remaining drivers will contest a Top 15 Shootout,” says Supercars.

“The winner of the ARMOR ALL Shootout will take pole for the opening race . . . a 33-lap sprint on Saturday afternoon.

“Sunday’s schedule will begin with back-to-back qualifying sessions, each to determine the respective starting grids for Sunday’s two races.”

Schedule