The Repco Supercars Championship has confirmed a revised calendar to see out the rest of 2021.
Concern surrounding ongoing border restrictions and the ability to travel to all circuits under the current circumstances were the main reasons behind the decision to postpone the season until October.
After twice postponed itself due to Victoria’s lockdowns, the Winton SuperSprint has an official return date and will now restart the season at the start of October. Another venue, yet to be announced, is intended to be run at the end of October.
The Repco Bathurst 1000 has now been pushed back one month to November, as has the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperSprint – which was originally slated for August.
As originally scheduled, the season will finish up with a party atmosphere in December with the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500.
The revised calendar has also seen the removal of the Perth SuperNight and ITM Auckland SuperSprint as border restrictions with New Zealand and Western Australia made it too difficult for the championship to make its way to each city.
Supercars CEO Sean Seamer believed the changes were necessary in order to keep the season going.
“With the ever-changing COVID landscape, our teams and broadcast partners have agreed it is in all our stakeholders’ best interests commercially and competitively to move our premier event to a later date,” Seamer said.
“We are continuing to work closely with NSW Health, the Bathurst Regional City Council, emergency services, broadcasters and the NSW Government on planning for the Repco Bathurst 1000, which is the pinnacle of Australian motorsport.
“We will meet all COVID-19 safety requirements necessary to ensure this year’s Great Race goes ahead. Our aim is to ensure we can bring back as many fans as possible.
“While the removal of both of these events (Perth and Auckland) is an unfortunate consequence of the COVID circumstances, we sincerely thank our partners for their understanding, and we can’t wait to be able to get to both Western Australia and New Zealand as soon as we can in 2022.
“These are challenging times for all sporting codes, which is why we have had to remain flexible with our calendar arrangements and make significant changes where required.
“For now, our goal is to make sure we deliver some amazing racing over the rest of the 2021 championship.”
The next round of the Repco Supercars Championship will now be the Winton SuperSprint on 2-3 October.
2021 revised calendar
Winton SuperSprint: 2-3 October
TBA: 23-24 October
Repco Bathurst 1000: 4-7 November
Beaurepaires Sydney SuperSprint: 19-21 November
Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500: 3-5 December
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