A radical revamp to the Supercars calendar sees Sydney denied a Supercars championship round in 2019.
Despite the apparent success of this year’s night race at Sydney Motorsport Park, the Eastern Creek venue has been dropped altogether, with instead a night race announced for the Perth round.
It is thought that high cost of lighting up the 3.9km Eastern Creek Sydney venue has prompted Supercars to shift the after-dark round to Perth’s much smaller Barbagallo Raceway. The Perth round also enjoys state government financial assistance.
In other changes, the Sandown 500 will move from its traditional September, pre-Bathurst 1000 timeslot, effectively swapping places on the calendar with the Pukekohe, New Zealand, round.
Sandown now becomes the penultimate round, with the series again finishing with the Newcastle street circuit event.
While NSW fans will be served only by the existing two regional events at Newcastle and Bathurst, all remaining states and the Northern Territory continue to host capital city rounds.
Victoria boasts four rounds, two of which – Albert Park and Sandown – are situated in the heart of Melbourne; Queensland retains its three rounds and likewise South Australia its two existing rounds.
In a further snub to NSW fans, the pre-season test day which in recent years has been held at the Eastern Creek circuit will now be held at Queensland Raceway and Phillip Island.
2019 Supercars calendar
Feb 13-14 Test DayQueensland Raceway/Phillip Island
Feb 28-Mar 3 Adelaide, SA
Mar 14-17 Albert Park, VIC
April 5-7 Symmons Plains, TAS
April 12-14 Phillip Island, VIC
May 2-4 Barbagallo Raceway, WA
May 24-26 Winton, VIC
June 14-16 Darwin, NT
July 5-7 Townsville, QLD
July 26-28 Queensland Raceway, QLD
Aug 23-25 Tailem Bend, SA
Sept 13-15 Pukekohe, NZ
Oct 10-13 Bathurst, NSW
Oct 25-27 Gold Coast, QLD
Nov 8-10 Sandown, VIC
Nov 22-24 Newcastle, NSW
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