The BetEasy Darwin Triple Crown has been postponed amid state border restrictions that prevented Supercars teams and drivers from entering the Northern Territory and undergoing the mandatory 14-day isolation period.
Hidden Valley Raceway will still host back-to-back rounds with the revised Triple Crown event now scheduled for August 15-16 while the CoreStaff Darwin SuperSprint is yet have a date confirmed but could potentially be a mid-week race in the days following the first event.
Doubt had been cast over the Darwin event since last Friday after the Northern Territory government declared the City of Brisbane a COVID-19 hot spot.
Consequently, a number of team personnel and drivers would have been mandated to quarantine for 14 days once arriving in the state, making the August 8-9 event unfeasible.
An ongoing match of ping-pong ensued between Northern Territory health officials and Supercars which ended with the rumours the event will still go ahead as planned.
A charter flight from Brisbane to Darwin was then twice been pushed back, with team transporters only being permitted to cross the border today.
“Following intensive discussions over recent days and at the direction of the NT Government and the relevant health authority, the decision has been made to postpone this weekend’s event for seven days,” said Supercars CEO Sean Seamer.
“This decision has been made to ensure we protect the health and wellbeing of all of our people and the wider community in Northern Territory ahead of the BetEasy Darwin Triple Crown.
“We would like to thank the NT Government and health authorities on working with Supercars on developing a plan that allows us to move forward with the Northern leg of our Championship.
“I would also like to thank our teams and fans for their ongoing flexibility to accommodate this year’s Championship.
“This is a decision Supercars supports to ensure the health and wellbeing of all Territorians.
“This announcement will have no bearing on our plans for any future events including the Townsville SuperSprint.”
From Darwin, teams will travel directly to Townsville where Supercars will host Round 7 of the championship on August 29-30.
As it stands, Supercars is meant to visit Sandown in September before post-Bathurst rounds in Perth and Tasmania in November and a finale under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park in December.
Sandown, however, will almost certainly be cancelled given that Melbourne has just started a six-week Stage 4 lockdown.