NZ ENDURO AND GC500 MOVES REJECTED

Changes to the Gold Coast event have been dismissed by teams – Photo: InSyde Media

Next year’s Surfers Paradise street fight will remain as twin 300 km mini-enduros.

By MARK FOGARTY

Supercars has confirmed that a move to make the Gold Coast event a single 500 km endurance race has been rejected by the teams.

As also revealed in the latest issue of AUTO ACTION, on sale now, a bid to turn the New Zealand round into a pre-Bathurst 1000 two-driver endurance race has been knocked on the head.

The rule-making Supercars Commission met in Newcastle last week before the series decider and as well as voting down the Surfers and Pukekohe proposals, changed the Phillip Island round back to the standard SuperSprint format.

For the past two years, the early season event had been run as twin 250 km races and billed as the Phillip Island 500.

The Commission also agreed to increase the tyre allocation at the SuperSprint events next year.

The Surfers Paradise street race round will continue in its twin-race Gold Coast 600 format despite becoming the second rather than third and final leg of the Pirtek Enduro Cup in 2019’s reordered calendar.

“We had discussed the idea of doing it as 500 km single race just because it was so close to Sandown (switched to early November), keep the formats the same, but after racing there last month, the punishment that the drivers and the cars get, it’s too much to expect people to do one 500 km race,” Supercars chief executive Sean Seamer told AA.

“It’s just too much. The other thing is, for any international categories that may be with us, if we do have someone over from the States, it’s better for them to run in the morning and we run in the afternoon, rather than them running on the Saturday and us running on the Sunday.”

Plans to turn the New Zealand round into a enduro have also been dismissed – Photo: InSyde Media

Also thrown out was a suggestion to turn the Auckland SuperSprint, which has swapped places with the Sandown 500 to take over the pre-Bathurst 1000 mid-September slot, into a two-driver enduro.

“It’s not happening,” Seamer said. “It was discussed because the teams were interested in getting more co-driver mileage before Bathurst, but that event will be staying as two single-driver races. It will not become an endurance race.”

He added: “The idea of the Gold Coast 500 and the endurance race at Pukekohe split opinions.”

Seamer also revealed Supercars would be comfortable sharing top billing with an IndyCar return in 2020, as flagged by the Queensland government.

It will be a hot topic of discussion amid negotiations for a renewed agreement as the next year’s Gold Coast 600 is the last of the existing deal.

“We’re open to anything,” he said. “We’re working with them closely to lock down what the future looks like. We’re all going in the same direction. We want to spice it up, do something different, do something new.

“Whether we do that with or without Indy or with or without NASCAR, and when and how that looks like, we’re still a fair way off that. Obviously, our ambition is to get that worked through by the end of Q1 (late March) next year.

“We’re not precious. There’s a certain attraction around NASCAR just because we don’t need to change the track in order to accommodate them. But we’ll have to see what happens over the next few months. It’s still early days.

“I need to get over to the States and sit down and chat to people. We’ll just see how it goes.”

Seamer, whose wife is American, plans to meet with NASCAR and IndyCar bosses following a family Christmas visit.

However, Seamer admitted that the Queensland government’s and IndyCar’s desire to shift the Gold Coast event to late February/early March would be a problem for Supercars.

“That time would be difficult for us because of Adelaide and then the Grand Prix,” he said. ”That timing would be very difficult. It’s also not the best time for weather, either, which is why it was moved in the first place. Very hot and wet then.”

Added a Supercars spokesman: “The premier (of Qld) is not talking about one or the other. This not about having a 600 or Indy. It’s about having both.”

The only potential snag for the return of IndyCar to the shortened Surfers Paradise street course is the height of the trackside catch fences.

Seamer will meet with NASCAR and IndyCar chiefs before the end of January. He will visit Indianapolis, Daytona and Mooresville, North Carolina.

Meanwhile, additional tyres will be allocated to each team at all the 2019 SuperSprint events.

This is due to the reduction of rounds from 16 to 15, enabling a redistribution of the total supply of Dunlop control tyres.

According to Supercars, final tyre allocations, and practice and qualifying formats for all events will be finalised and published early in the New Year.

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