SUPERCARS has confirmed that Townsville will host back-to-back rounds of the 2021 Repco Supercars Championship.
This weekend’s NTI Townsville 500 will go ahead as scheduled on July 9-11, but it will now be followed by the WD-40 Townsville SuperSprint one week later on July 17-18.
The newly announced round will be a two-day race meeting, following the three-race SuperSprint format and shown live on FOX SPORTS and Kayo, with highlights shown on the Seven Network.
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Support categories for the new SuperSprint event have yet to be announced with Supercars currently in discussion with various categories.
The support categories in action this weekend include the Super2 and Super3 Series, Porsche Carrera Cup, Stadium Super Trucks and Toyota 86 Series.
The move comes in the wake of a COVID-19 case that resulted in Townsville – as well as Brisbane, the Gold Coast and other parts of south-east Queensland – being placed into a snap lockdown last week.
That lockdown was lifted for the North Queensland city last Friday and Victoria’s travel permit system reclassified the region from a red zone to an orange zone on Sunday.
The change means Victorian Supercars team personnel will not have to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine period upon re-entering the state; instead, they have to take a COVID test within 72 hours of arriving and self-quarantine until a negative result is received.
The announcement means this will be the second consecutive year that Townsville hosts a double-header after the Reid Park circuit hosted back-to-back rounds during the COVID-impacted 2020 season.
“We’d like to thank the Queensland Government and Townsville City Council for again supporting this concept which allows Supercars to race at one of our favourite circuits on back-to-back weekends,” Supercars CEO Sean Seamer said in a statement.
“We’re also pleased to announce that one of our long-standing partners, WD-40 will be our naming rights partner for the new event and we’re grateful to have them back on board.
“Supercars would like to thank drivers, officials, team personnel and their families for their continued support of this year’s Repco Supercars Championship.”
