Supercars Newcastle round postponed

The 2022 Repco Supercars Championship has yet to get underway, but there’s already been a change to the calendar, with the season-opening Newcastle 500 postponed.

Citing concern over the number of COVID-19 cases in Newcastle and the likelihood of the 4-6 March event increasing the spread of the disease locally and beyond the region, Supercars announced on 24 January that the round would be postponed.

“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 recently-appointed 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.

"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.”

With the Newcastle 500 officially postponed, Sydney Motorsport Park (SMP) will now host the season opener on the same 4-6 March date.

SMP was originally scheduled to host the 2022 Supercars season finale under lights in November, and given that the Sydney circuit successfully hosted four back-to-back rounds last year, Supercars are confident the venue can do the same again at short notice, with the new season opener to be held under lights.

“We’re looking forward to our first race of 2022, to take place under the spectacular lights in Sydney,” Howard added.

While a new date for the Newcastle round had not been confirmed at time of writing, it’ll likely close out this year’s season in a straight swap with SMP on the original calendar.

Tickets already purchased for the Repco Newcastle 500 will remain valid for the TBA new date for the event.