SUPERCARS chief executive Shane Howard has revealed it won’t be long before it’s clear whether the championship will return to New Zealand next year.
New Zealand was an unpopular omission from the 2023 calendar following news of Pukekohe’s impending closure and the inability to secure a replacement.
Hampton Downs and Taupo Motorsport Park are the candidates to ensure Supercars regains its trans-Tasman status, and Howard is determined to make a deal happen.
However, that now hinges on a more difficult process of going through the New Zealand government’s major events department, as opposed to Auckland Unlimited (formerly ATEED).
“We’ll never give up on going back to New Zealand, it’s very important to us,” said Howard.
“We have got a really strong fanbase there and we want to be back in New Zealand.
“There’s a couple of challenges there, because not having a circuit inside the Auckland shire now with Pukekohe gone really determines that we need to apply to Major Events New Zealand so it’s not through Auckland Unlimited.
“They have been very supportive, very good to deal with and driven good results there but the applications now go through Major Events. That process is quite long, their process is extensive.”
They have no more than two months to get an affirmative that a new-look deal will be possible.
“We really need something by end of May, we need to have an understanding of whether we’re on or we’re off,” Howard said.
That falls in line with Supercars’ wider calendar planning timeline for 2024.
“We like to by the end of May really have the venues that are available to us, and then by end of June you’re making a decision, and then going through the process with submitting the calendar to MA (Motorsport Australia) and FIA and then obviously workshopping it with our teams et cetera,” he added.
Another obvious question mark is the future of Supercars’ new season-opener, the Newcastle 500.
The event’s existing contract has now expired and a renewal depends on approval from local and state governments.
“It provides a fantastic bookend for our series and we want to be back in Newcastle,” said Howard.
“It’s a great event for the championship and all our stakeholders so we want to be back there… it delivers significant economic benefit for the state and the city and we truly value it.
“It’s obviously going through a process now where the government will assess all these KPIs and we would like to be in a position by end of May to know where we are with that decision.”
Howard declared the 2024 calendar should be released by this year’s Repco Bathurst 1000 in October.
