S5000 dropped from Winton free-to-air coverage

S5000 has somewhat lost out in a category crunch for next month’s Shannons SpeedSeries round at Winton Motor Raceway.

Five Australian Racing Group-owned categories will feature at the June 9-11 event: the National Trans Am Series, Kumho V8 Touring Car Series, Touring Car Masters, TCR Australia and S5000.

With only time for four races during the dedicated free-to-air window from 2-5pm AEST on the Saturday of the event, S5000 has been confirmed as the unlucky one to miss out altogether for the 9Gem-shown component of the schedule.

Instead, 9Gem will air the opening races of the weekend for TCM, V8 Touring Cars, Trans Am and TCR, in that order.

S5000 had been included in the 9Gem window at both the Symmons Plains and Phillip Island rounds earlier this year.

The open-wheelers will at least will be viewable via Stan Sport’s broadcast, which will span 11am to 5pm on the Saturday and 9:30am to 5pm on the Sunday.

Another significant decision highlighted by the release of the Winton track schedule is that SpeedSeries organisers have resisted temptation to hand the surging Trans Am category the coveted end-of-day slot.

While the TCR field has been limited to 13 cars at both rounds so far this year, Trans Am has put on a superb show filled with high-quality racing.

One win for the category though is that the third and final race at Winton will be bumped up to 40 minutes, compared to 25 for all three legs at Phillip Island.

Other categories set to run at the Winton meet are the Australian Formula Ford Series and National Sports Sedan Series.

EVENT SCHEDULE: 2023 WINTON SPEEDSERIES (in AEST)

Friday, June 9

Saturday, June 10

Sunday, June 11