Supercars hopeful of Newcastle 500 future

Despite the 2024 Newcastle 500 not happening, Supercars remains hopeful it will race on the New South Wales seaside street circuit again.

After much speculation over a contract extension, it is now official Supercars will not return to Newcastle next year. Now a single-driver round at Bathurst firms as a February season opener.

This means there will be just one Newcastle 500 held since 2019, which was this year’s season opener in March which attracted big crowds to kick off the Gen3 era.

Despite both Supercars and the NSW Government outlining their support for a contract extension for the race, the City of Newcastle wanted the “final say”.

The news was revealed on ABC News Breakfast where City of Newcastle Lord Mayor Nautali Nelmes highlighted how Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp was against the Newcastle 500 continuing due to the disruption it caused to the city.

Despite the setback of no race in 2024, Supercars is not giving up on trying to race on the Newcastle streets again in the future.

“Supercars held productive discussions with Newcastle City Council earlier this week, regarding the future of the event,” read the Supercars statement.

“As part of that discussion, it was mentioned that in the event Newcastle cannot proceed in 2024, alternative options have been explored.

“We express our gratitude to the NSW Government for their continuous support and understanding.

“Supercars would like to confirm its commitment to racing in Newcastle in the future, and conversations in that regard are already underway.

“Regarding the 2024 season opening event, Supercars will provide information when all details are confirmed.”

Although Nelmes announced the news on the ABC on Thursday morning, she revealed it was actually Supercars CEO Shane Howard who informed her there would be no Newcastle 500 in 2024.

“I had a phone call with the CEO of Supercars Shane Howard earlier this week and he let me know Supercars will not be going ahead in Newcastle next year and are making other arrangements,” she told ABC News Breakfast.

“This week they are briefing their team owners and by tomorrow lodging what they need from a governance  perspective with senior motor racing authorities and that program does not include Newcastle.”

Despite touching on the success of the race, Nelmes made it clear the race could not take place without the local members support, while the hinted one-year extension was never seriously considered.

“Basically what the CEO of Supercars said to me was that they understood that they had an original agreement from many years ago for us to host the event for five years,” she said.

“The major funding partner sis the NSW Government and there was an option for a five year extension for an initial agreement.

The city has done what we promised with the community and gone out to public consultation and everyone is aware of those results.

“That was very much based on whether or not Supercars, the NSW Government and the City of Newcastle would take up that five-year option.

“That is the only contract we have in this situation and not a one-year offer, so essentially that five year contract not being taken up by the NSW Government and that agreement is between Supercars and the NSW Government.

“There is disagreement within the NSW Government. it is very clear the Premier wants the event but also that the local state member and potentially members do not.

“An event of this size and scale would have to be supported by local state MPs for it to ever go ahead, so the decision really does rest with the NSW government.”

“The event itself has been very successful with over 160,000 people coming to Newcastle with an economic injection of over $30 million but that is not really the crux of the problem, that is the bump in and bump out of the event and the disruption it causes the city.”

Main image by Peter Norton EPIC Sports Photography

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