Supercars Calendar is Final
The COVID-19 clouds have finally cleared and Supercars has a firm direction for the rest of 2020.
The compacted championship calendar for the shortened season is official, and will finish before December 31 to honour contracts with television, teams and sponsors.
But the new dates and locations are laced with bad news.
The Bathurst grand final is out.
New Zealand is out.
The Bend in Adelaide is out.
Even so, and with massive questions about spectator attendances still to be answered, Supercars has created a workable calendar which retains the street race in Townsville, the retro round at Sandown as a lead-up to Bathurst, and The Great Race at Mount Panorama in October.
The series will now finish under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park, as fans in the harbour-side city benefit from two meetings in only six months.
“Our goal now is to make sure that we deliver some amazing racing over the rest of the 2020 championship,” says the CEO of Supercars, Sean Seamer.
He says finalising the calendar has taken plenty of work and has not ruled out further changes if the COVID-19 circumstances change.
“These are challenging times for all sport, which is why we have had to remain flexible with our calendar arrangements and make significant changes to support key stakeholders.
“When the draft calendar was released four weeks ago, our primary objective was to ensure we returned to racing as soon as possible. The calendar announced in May was based on the best information we had at the time.”
Seamer admits the season has taken some hits, and there have been casualties from the preliminary calendar, but is already promising improvements for 2021.
“In 2021 we plan to return to New Zealand, The Bend and street circuits,” he says, pointing to the Gold Coast and Newcastle.
The announcement of the Supercars calendar also means more certainty for the Super2 support series, although there is no new yet on other categories.
Super2 will run at Winton, Sandown, Bathurst and the grand final in Sydney.
2020 SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP
| February 23 – 23 | Superloop Adelaide 500 |
| March 12-15 | Beaurepaires Supercars Melbourne 400 Formula 1® Rolex Australian Grand Prix |
| June 27-28 | BP Ultimate Sydney SuperSprint, NSW |
| July 18-19 | Truck Assist Winton, Victoria |
| August 8-9 | BetEasy Darwin Triple Crown, Northern Territory |
| August 29-30 | Townsville, Queensland |
| September 19-20 | Penrite Oil Sandown, Victoria |
| October 8-11 | Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, NSW |
| October 31 – November 1 | Pirtek Perth, Western Australia |
| November 21-22 | Tyrepower Tasmania, Tasmania |
| December 12-13 | Sydney Motorsport Park, NSW |
