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2022 SUPERCARS CALENDAR IS COMING

2022 Supercars calendar is coming - Image: InSyde Media

By Mark Fogarty

Next year’s Supercars calendar will be mapped out by early August.

Teams will get the 2022 schedule in six to eight weeks, allowing discussion and debate before finalisation.

Supercars will look to announce the calendar in September or early October.

It is already known the 2022 season will start with the revived Newcastle 500 in late February or early March.

Another key date will be the Sydney SuperNight in August, scheduled as the debut of the Gen3 changeover.

Amid this year’s COVID uncertainties, Supercars supremo Sean Seamer has confirmed preparations for next year’s hopefully undisrupted season are underway.

“I can tell you we’ve already started planning,” Seamer said. “We’re about three or four weeks into the preparations for next year’s calendar. As you would expect, we’ve started consulting with each of the track owners and relevant state authorities.”

He re-confirmed the 2022 season would start with the restored Newcastle 500, dropped last year and again this season because of the coronavirus crisis.

It replaces the Adelaide 500, cancelled by the South Australian government.

“We’re looking forward to kicking off the season in Newcastle for the first time, which is going to be good,” Seamer said.

“Beyond that, there are a few other interdependencies that we need to lock down – namely, the AGP date – but we’re hoping in the next six to eight weeks that we’ll be able to release a draft calendar to the teams and from there we can go.”

He was referring to whether next year’s F1 Australian Grand Prix happens in March or November next year.

Supercars is also still looking at reintroducing multiple endurance races in 2022.

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the Bathurst 1000 was the only two-driver event last year and is scheduled as the only enduro this season.

Seamer conceded that a reinstitution of the Enduro Cup next year would depend on the teams’ preparedness following Gen3’s mid-season introduction.

“That’s certainly something that we’ll be discussing with the (rule-making Supercars) Commission and how that might lay down around Bathurst,” he said.

“It’ll ultimately come down to the rounds around Bathurst and the comfort levels of preparations for endurance racing on the Gen3 platform, given the introduction so close to Bathurst.”

He suggested that 10,000 km of testing by Gen3’s introduction may make additional two-driver endurance races viable.

“The teams would have had an extensive testing window open up in the earlier part of the year, so we will have all of our testing done prior to (Bathurst).”

Before the pandemic struck last year, Supercars had traditionally held three two-drivers events a year.

Most recently, the Enduro Cup comprised the Sandown 500, Bathurst 1000 and twin-race Gold Coast 600.

The October 7-10 Bathurst 1000 is again the only two-driver enduro this season.

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