After a messy week for the series, the Supercars has confirmed its revisions to the balance of its 2021 calendar; including Pukekohe’s demise and an altered date for the Repco Bathurst 1000.
The series will take a lengthy break before hitting Winton Raceway on October 2-3. It will then venture to a to-be-confirmed venue on October 23-24.
The Bathurst 1000 then takes place on November 4-7. Sydney Motorsport Park’s ‘SuperNight’ event follows on November 19-21. And then the calendar closes with the Gold Coast 500 on December 3-5.
The release also formally confirms that the events at Barbagallo Raceway and Queensland Raceway have been shelved, too. It’s been tipped that the latter could slot into the October 23-24 slot, although a visit to Phillip Island (spiritually replacing the canned MotoGP event there) is more likely.
“Unfortunately, our event planned for Perth presents significant risk with the ongoing restrictions, so we’ve made the difficult decision to move it to the 2022 calendar,” Supercars CEO Sean Seamer said.
“Similarly, our Kiwi fans across the ditch will be undoubtedly disappointed to see New Zealand does not feature on the revised calendar due to the trans-Tasman bubble being suspended.
“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.
“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 is an unfortunate consequence of the COVID circumstances, we sincerely thank our partners for their understanding.
“We can’t wait to be able to get to both Western Australia and New Zealand as soon as we can in 2022.”
