SRO takes over SpeedSeries
The SpeedSeries will be no more in 2025 as the national circuit racing championship is replaced by an SRO Motorsports Australian run championship.
The new SRO Motorsports Australia championship will be a six-round affair starting at Phillip Island and finishing in New Zealand’s Hampton Downs.
It means the national series has undergone a third promoter in as many years. In 2023 the SpeedSeries was under Australian Racing Group’s control before Motorsport Australia took over this year.
Now in 2025 a new arrangement sees SRO Australia in power and create a new national racing series with Motorsport Australia’s support.
The commercial partnerships and potential broadcast arrangements are to be announced in the coming months.
This year SRO has become a big player in Australian motorsport by being the category manager of both GT World Challenge Australia and GT4 Australia, which have enjoyed significant growth this season.
SRO Motorsports Group has three decades of global motorsport experience and currently stages more than 100 races across four continents, including Europe, America, Australia and Asia.
It recently staged its first standalone Australia based event called the GT Festival at Phillip Island where both GT categories, plus Australian Production Cars took centre stage.
Next year it will host six national level events at Phillip Island, Sydney Motorsport Park, Queensland Raceway, The Bend Motorsport Park and Hampton Downs, while the third round in June is TBC.
SRO Motorsports Australia CEO Ben McMellan believes it can only grow what was the Shannons Nationals and SpeedSeries.
“We are extremely pleased to bring SRO’s globally recognised international capabilities for national circuit racing to the Australian marketplace,” said McMellan.
“Motorsport Australia has done a fantastic job in building the Shannons SpeedSeries into the successful product it is today, and I have no doubt that we’ll continue to build on this with the new racing series.
“It will be great to have Motorsport Australia remaining involved for future events as it offers plenty of good experience and good people, so I’d like to thank Sunil and the whole team for their support and look forward to working closely with them moving forward.
“We are coming off the back of a highly successful GT Festival at Phillip Island, which is the template for how we see our future events taking place.
“Our goal is to offer premium motorsport events featuring top level brands and star drivers, while putting a significant focus on developing off track activations to complement the entertaining on-track racing.”
The announcement marks the end of an era with the platform that has been in use for almost two decades.
However, Motorsport Australia CEO Sunil Vohra believes the championship is in safe hands.
“Motorsport Australia has delivered a strong outcome for Australian racing in helping to start the transition of the national circuit series to a new platform led by SRO, who we view as one of the more successful motorsports promoters globally,” said Vohra.
“This new arrangement deals with some of the recent uncertainty and allows us to move the national circuit series into a new, exciting era. In working with Ben and the SRO leadership team, we are pleased to achieve the dual goals of having a proven promoter leading the commercial aspects of the national series and improving the financial sustainability of Motorsport Australia.
“With SRO taking the lead as event promoter, we can focus on the development of our sport, on state championships and supporting our officials at all levels.
“SRO has a proven track record internationally, and we are pleased to see the foundations of the fantastic product our team have built continue – with our support – under the expertise and commercial leadership of the SRO Motorsports Group.”
“We look forward to continuing to partner with Supercars and the Australian Grand Prix as major partners, and alongside this SRO-led national racing series, we will now be consulting with State Council’s and others to provide opportunities for enhanced state championship racing.
“We will be making further important announcements in the coming days regarding the management of other key national championships.”
Provisional 2025 SRO Motorsports Australia Calendar
Official Media / Test Day, March 25: Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit
Round 1, April 4-6: Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit
Round 2, May 2-4: Sydney Motorsport Park
Round 3, June: TBC
Round 4, August 1-3: Queensland Raceway
Round 5, September 5-7: The Bend (Shell V-Power Motorsport Park)
Round 6, October 31-November 2: Hampton Downs (New Zealand)
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