TWO new Australian circuits could well come into calculations for future Shannons SpeedSeries calendars, says Australian Racing Group supremo Barry Rogers.
The first laps were turned at DriveIt NQ (south of Townsville) in May and are expected at Circuit Italia (Port Stephens/Newcastle) this September.
Supercars has seemed to show little interest in either venue, with its focus instead on the Townsville and Newcastle street circuits, but Rogers declared ARG would be open to discussions.
“It’s important, where you can, to support those who invest and build infrastructure to support motor racing,” he told V8 Sleuth.
“I know in recent years we haven’t been to Tailem Bend which is probably a bit disappointing but certainly we’ll look at returning there as well because the Shahin family have also spent a considerable amount of money to provide that facility and you’d like to support those places.
“And those smaller tracks, particularly those new tracks (DriveIt NQ is 2.7km and Circuit Italia 3km), tend to suit our style of car including Trans Am. I mean NASCAR at times race around a quarter-mile circuit, 400m.
“Those sort of boutique circuits – whether that’s the right word or not – I think they’re something we’d certainly look at.”
The 2023 SpeedSeries schedule features stops at Symmons Plains, Mount Panorama (twice), Phillip Island, Winton, Queensland Raceway, Sandown and Sydney Motorsport Park.
Rogers identified another “boutique” track he’d like to see join the calendar one day.
“Baskerville in Tasmania, we would love to be racing there on a competitive level,” he said.
“Unfortunately the track’s grading in current terms doesn’t meet the required levels to run TCR there as a championship round but they are doing some work on it and if that happens over the next couple of years we would like to go and race there also.”
