AUSTRALIAN GT OPENS AT SMP

Australian GT opens at Sydney Motorsport Park – Photo: InSyde Media

Sydney Motorsport Park has been confirmed as the season opener for the Australian GT Championship in sprint form.

By HEATH McALPINE

GT forms part of the line-up at the Shannons Motorsport Australia Championships first round on August 14-16, joining TCR Australia, S5000, Porsche Michelin Sprint Cup and the V8 Touring Car Series.

Australian GT category rights holder Jim Manolios was excited to confirm the season opener, as the rest of the calendar continues to be formulated.

“For the last fortnight the calendar has seen many iterations, and whilst we are close to revealing the full 2020 Australian GT Championship program, we are awaiting final approval from the various stakeholders before we can reveal that,” Australian GT category rights holder Jim Manolios explained.

“That said, we have locked in the season opener which is important to allow teams to schedule a return to racing, so we wanted to at least release that news as soon as we could!”

Two 60-minute races open the championship’s account at SMP, which newly installed AGT category administrator Kate Harrington said has received a promising response from competitors.

“We’re excited to finally be able to reveal what has been the result of many weeks of discussion,” AGT Category Administrator Kate Harrington admitted.

“The teams are all eager to get back on track and I’ve been receiving a steady barrage of calls – the response has been very positive – we’re excited by what the remainder of the season promises, and looking forward to revealing that very soon.”

A five-round calendar is envisioned for the championship, while all classes will run together on track after it was announced earlier this year each would run in separate events at selected meetings.

“From this point on all dates will include GT3, GT4, Trophy Series, Trofeo Challenge and the Invitational category on the one grid,” Harrington confirmed.

Yesterday it was confirmed Ryan Simpson will pilot a Mercedes-AMG GT3 run by Eggleston Motorsport, while it is expected Audi, McLaren, Lamborghini and Aston Martin will be on the grid for SMP.

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