SUPERCARS TO MAKE RESTART CALLS SOON

Supercars to make restart calls soon – Photo: InSyde Media

A decision on whether Supercars will resume racing at Winton in early June will be made soon – as the deadline for the Townsville 400 also looms.

By MARK FOGARTY

Supercars supremo Sean Seamer confirmed the Winton call will be made by the end of this month, with May 15 the cut-off for the Townsville street race event.

At the moment, racing is scheduled to restart at Winton Motor Raceway, near Benalla in northeast Victoria, from June 5-7, followed by the Townsville 400 from June 26-28.

If they happen, both will almost be certainly TV-only events – and then only if the Victoria and Queensland governments ease mass gathering restrictions.

On the Winton decision, Seamer said: “I think we’ll have a better idea at the end of the month, based on what we’re hearing as to when we’re able to come back and what form that takes.

“We’ll wait until the end of the month before we make a call on that.

He admitted that getting underway again at Winton was an “optimistic” outlook.

“I think that that would be the earliest that we could come back based on the information that we have today.”

Seamer also revealed that the decision on whether to go ahead with or postpone Townsville would have to be made in just under a month.

“Our final commitment date on Townsville that I received from our events team earlier this week is May 15,” he said.

Townsville decision to be made on May 15th – Photo: InSyde Media

Despite Queensland’s border closure, he has no immediate concerns about the Townsville 400.

“Not at this point in time,” Seamer said. “We’re not getting worried about things we can’t control right now.

“We know what our drop-dead date is to make a call on it and we’ll make a call at that time.”

He explained that the logistics and lead time for setting up street circuits was more problematic than for permanent tracks.

“That’s certainly key to the conversations that we’re having with our state government partners,” he said. “Obviously, the disruption to the cities and the density of the crowds at those events make them at a higher risk, so the timing of those events is going to be very, very important.

“That is central to the discussion that we’re having with state governments, although no decisions have been made at this time and a lot of it will be dictated to by government policy.”

Supercars is continuing multi-scenario planning for TV-only and crowd-attended events, depending on how quickly coronavirus restrictions ease – and to what extent.

“In the background, we’re obviously working on plans to make sure that we’re able to go racing even if there are social distancing restrictions for a longer period of time,” Seamer said. “Like everybody, we’re working through all the different scenarios and as soon as we can come out with an exact plan of when and how we’re going to go racing, we will.”

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