THE 2021 Repco Supercars Championship calendar has been confirmed and there’s a whole range of changes and differences from previous seasons.
There will be a total of 12 rounds – 11 in Australia and one in New Zealand – including two trips to Mount Panorama, one in February to kick off the championship and the traditional October date for the newly-renamed Repco Bathurst 1000.
Also confirmed is that the Newcastle 500 is due to return as the opening round of the 2022 Supercars Championship – it will not be on the 2021 calendar.
Sandown is not on the 2021 calendar however holds a position as a ‘flex option’ for the category with multiple bookings through the year should other events be cancelled.
Supercars says it will continue work on 2021 event formats with full details to be released over coming weeks.
The 2021 Repco Supercars Championship Draft calendar is as follows:
| DATE | ROUND/EVENT |
| February 14 | Pre-Season Test Day, Sydney Motorsport Park |
| February 26-28 | Rd 1, Bathurst, Mount Panorama 500 * |
| March 18-21 | Rd 2, Albert Park, F1 Australian Grand Prix |
| April 10-11 | Rd 3, Symmons Plains, Tasmania SuperSprint |
| May 8-9 | Rd 4, The Bend, OTR SuperSprint |
| May 29-30 | Rd 5, Winton, Winton SuperSprint * |
| June 19-20 | Rd 6, Hidden Valley, Darwin Triple Crown |
| July 9-11 | Rd 7, Townsville, NTI Townsville * |
| August 20-22 | Rd 8, Sydney Motorsport Park, Sydney SuperNight * |
| September 11-12 | Rd 9, Wanneroo, Perth SuperNight |
| October 7-10 | Rd 10, Bathurst, Repco Bathurst 1000 * |
| November 6-7 | Rd 11, TBC, Auckland SuperSprint |
| December 3-5 | Rd 12, Gold Coast * |
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There’s a whole pile of elements relating to the 2021 calendar as below. We’ve stepped you through a bunch of the notable points.
– The first round at Bathurst dubbed the ‘Mount Panorama 500’ in late February will be the first single driver round at Mount Panorama since John Bowe clean swept all three sprint races to win the 1996 round for Dick Johnson Racing.
– Bathurst hosted the last round of 2020 and will host the first round of 2021. It’s just the second time in championship history that a track has hosted the final round of one championship year and the next year’s season opener. Symmons Plains was the only other track to do this, hosting the 1970 ATCC finale in in November and the 1971 opener the following March.
– The 2021 championship will be the first ever held over 12 rounds.
– Of the 12 rounds there are six, two-day SuperSprint meetings (NZ, The Bend, Winton, Hidden Valley, Barbagallo and Symmons Plains), four three-day events (Bathurst in February, Townsville, SMP and the Gold Coast) and two four-day events at Albert Park and the Bathurst 1000.
– There are three rounds in New South Wales, two in Victoria, two in Queensland and singles in New Zealand, South Australia, Northern Territory, Western Australia and Tasmania.
– There is a gap in July/August between the Townsville and Sydney Motorsport Park rounds to allow for the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
– There is no Sandown on the 2021 calendar. It was originally on the 2020 calendar but dropped in the re-shuffle of events due to the border closures and COVID-19 situation affecting Victoria. It’s the first time since 1968 (the last year of a single race championship) and 1969 (the first year of multiple races making up the championship) that Sandown has gone two years in a row without hosting an ATCC/Supercars Championship round.
– Wanneroo will host a round in September, returning to the calendar after falling off in the 2020 COVID-affected re-shuffle. It will be the first time the circuit has ever hosted a round of the championship in September. Ever since 2011 the round at the circuit has been held in May.
– The Repco Bathurst 1000 will be the only endurance race on the calendar. There will be no 500-kilometre event in the lead-up to or indeed after the October classic.
– The Gold Coast will be a single driver round for the first time since 2009.
– The final round on the Gold Coast means the championship will conclude in Queensland for the first time since 1983 when the final round of that year’s ATCC was held at Lakeside.
