SANDOWN TAKES TRADITIONAL SPOT ON NEWLY REVISED SUPERCARS CALENDAR

Sandown takes traditional spot on revised Supercars calendar – Photo: InSyde Media

Supercars has confirmed its 2020 championship will finish under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park on December 12-13.

As previously reported by Auto Action, it has dumped the second Bathurst outing and a trip to New Zealand scheduled for early 2021, as well as The Bend in South Australia from its calendar.

The Bend will be replaced in its September 19-20 slot by Melbourne’s historic Sandown circuit, which shifts forward from the December date now claimed by SMP.

Otherwise the calendar remains unchanged from the revised version published in May that responded to the three month pause prompted by the COVID-19 lockdown.

The championship still kicks off at Sydney Motorsport Park on June 27-28, which means the Sydney track goes from having no Supercars events in 2019 to two in less than six months in 2020.

According to its original calendar, Supercars had been originally scheduled to race under SMP’s new $16.4 million permanent lighting system on August 28-30.

The event in New Zealand and the second outing at Mount Panorama have fallen victim to a disinterest amongst teams, sponsors and broadcasters in resolving the contractual challenges of staging 2020 championship races in 2021.

Among many other complications, Supercars is currently negotiating a new broadcast deal that could see Channel 7 replace Network 10 as the free-to-air broadcaster alongside Fox Sports next year.

There’s also been an argument that dragging the championship out beyond the new year was simply imposing too much wear and tear upon everyone involved.

“When the draft calendar was released four weeks ago, our primary objective was to ensure we returned to racing as soon as possible,” Supercars CEO Sean Seamer said in a press statement.

“This allowed us to put a stake in the ground and ensure we returned to the track quickly following the COVID-19 shutdown.

“The calendar announced in May was based on the best information we had at the time.

“With an eye on 2021, teams and broadcast partners have agreed it is in all parties’ best interests commercially and competitively to finish this year’s campaign in December and start the new season in the New Year.”

Officially, The Bend’s abandonment has been lumped in with the aborted 2021 events as a “consequence of the COVID-19 circumstances which are beyond the reasonable control of Supercars”.

But Auto Action sources say there was little enthusiasm amongst Supercars teams to travel to the rural South Australian circuit.

The owners of The Bend, the Shahin family, are undoubtedly unimpressed. They’ve been promised a place on the 2021 Supercars calendar that is scheduled for announcement in October. That’s precious little solace for them.

They will be even less impressed if Sandown is confirmed as an enduro, fulfilling its traditional role as the Bathurst 1000 warm-up at least one more time.

Auto Action has contacted The Bend’s management for comment.

Through all this it has to be stressed that Supercars has reserved the right to make more calendar changes depending on COVID-19 restrictions imposed by government.

Supercars also confirmed New Zealand would be back on the calendar in 2021, along with the Gold Coast and Newcastle street races that were cancelled as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

Seamer also said the 2021 calendar would have a winter break as originally intended in 2020.

Primary support category, the Dunlop Super2 Series, will also now alter its revised calendar.

DS2 races are now scheduled to feature on the undercard at Winton, Sandown, Mount Panorama and the SMP season finale.

The rescheduled 2020 calendar is now as follows:

• Superloop Adelaide 500 20-23 February
• Beaurepaires Supercars Melbourne 400 Formula 1® Rolex Australian Grand Prix 12-15 March
• BP Ultimate Sydney SuperSprint 27-28 June
• Truck Assist Winton 18-19 July
• BetEasy Darwin Triple Crown 8-9 August
• Townsville 29-30 August
• Penrite Oil Sandown 19-20 September
• Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 8-11 October
• PIRTEK Perth 31 Oct – 1 Nov
• Tyrepower Tasmania 21-22 November
• Sydney Motorsport Park 12-13 December

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