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EXPANSION FOR SHANNONS NATIONALS

Shannons Nationals are set to expand in 2018 - Photo: Dirk Klynsmith

By Bruce Williams

Shannons Nationals are set to expand in 2018 - Photo: Dirk Klynsmith

Shannons Nationals are set to expand in 2019 – Photo: Dirk Klynsmith

THE SHANNONS Nationals is set to expand to seven or possibly eight rounds next year as CAMS introduce three new categories to the program next year.

By HEATH MCALPINE

TCR, S5000 and LMP3 Cup Australia are the new categories that are set to join the line-up, while Shannons Nationals Director Mike Smith is confident to attract further existing categories to the bill.

“We’ll be running a seventh round,” Smith told Auto Action.

“I’m pretty certain of that, we’re looking at a, which venue that will be and b, where we’ll put it, but most likely it will be tacked onto the end of the year to make it a final round. There are a lot of moving parts in a calendar, and of course we don’t want to clash with Supercars, but you also have to work around the key categories and what their calendar looks like, so it’s a pretty complicated jigsaw that you have to piece together, but we’re working on it pretty solidly.”

He shut down suggestion that the Shannons Nationals were downsizing and also suggested that CAMS were even looking at a potential eighth round.

“In fact, quite the opposite,” Smith rebutted.

“We’re looking at and quite certain that we’ll run a seventh round, this year we ran six and depending on where we sit with categories next year we would possibly look to even run an eighth if the demand justifies, but we’re having discussions with circuits and categories.”

Grand plans are held for the Shannons Nationals next year with the series again opening at Tailem Bend at what will be a motorsport festival to open the season. Also, TV and media coverage are set to be improved with Auto Action understanding that the Nationals will move from its traditional slot on SBS’s Speedweek to a program on 7Mate that will also be shown on Foxtel.

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