THE opening round of the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship will now take place under lights at Sydney Motorsport Park.
The Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight replaces the Repco Newcastle 500 that was originally slated to start the season, with a statement from Supercars citing “the current concern surrounding the number of COVID-19 cases in Newcastle and the continuing uncertainty the virus is causing in parts of the local community.”
Despite the venue change, the season-opening round will still take place on March 4-6.
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A new date for the Newcastle event has yet to be confirmed by Supercars, which only said that it was postponed to a later date in 2022.
“Given the continuing evolving and unpredictable COVID situation, it has become too challenging to stage a complex multi-faceted event on the streets of Newcastle for tens of thousands of race fans in March,” said new Supercars CEO Shane Howard.
“Putting on an event of the scale of Newcastle, in the middle of its CBD, requires an enormous amount of work to ensure it runs to a world-class standard.
“We have been in consultation with the City of Newcastle throughout January and understand that constructing and operating an event of this size during the current COVID period has caused concern in parts of the community.
“As a street circuit built in the heart of the CBD, the event provides enormous economic benefits to the region, and we want to ensure that happens again in 2022. We are working to confirm the rescheduled date as soon as practicable.
“We thank our fans, volunteers, local businesses, Destination NSW, the NSW Office of Sport and City of Newcastle for their ongoing support.
“We fully intend to stage this year’s Repco Newcastle 500 in Supercars’ trademark style, and we are confident that we will be able to successfully do this later in the year.”
For ticketholders for the 2022 Repco Newcastle 500, Supercars said those tickets will remain valid for the event’s yet to be announced new date, while ticketing information for the Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight will be released in coming days.
UPDATED: 2022 REPCO SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP CALENDAR
| Rd | Date | Circuit | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | March 4-6 | Sydney Motorsport Park | Beaurepaires Sydney SuperNight |
| 2 | March 26-27 | Symmons Plains | Tasmania SuperSprint |
| 3 | April 7-10 | Albert Park | Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix |
| 4 | April 30-May 1 | Wanneroo | Bunnings Trade Perth SuperNight |
| 5 | May 21-22 | Winton | Winton SuperSprint |
| 6 | June 18-19 | Hidden Valley | Merlin Darwin Triple Crown |
| 7 | July 8-10 | Reid Park | NTI Townsville 500 |
| 8 | July 30-31 | The Bend | OTR SuperSprint |
| 9 | August 19-21 | Sandown | Penrite Sandown SuperSprint |
| 10 | September 10-11 | Pukekohe | ITM Auckland SuperSprint |
| 11 | October 6-9 | Mount Panorama | Repco Bathurst 1000 |
| 12 | October 28-30 | Surfers Paradise | Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 |
| TBC | TBC | Newcastle | Repco Newcastle 500 |
