On the 2020 Supercars calendar

BY NOW you will undoubtedly have had time to take in the calendar for the 2020 Supercars Championship, released on Wednesday this week.

Calendars are a fickle thing, those piecing them together needing to balance the whims of teams, promoters, stakeholders and governments while considering also what works best from a weather point of view, TV broadcasting and more.

There’s always going to be a clash with something else or an event in a slightly less than ideal weather window that loses out to others who snag the prime spots.

On the flipside, running a 15-event calendar over nearly eleven months rather than footy’s 22-26 week schedule that is locked into the same bit of the year, every year, does have some advantages.

And it’s on that concept that Supercars appear to have improved their 2020 schedule in several key areas.

From the opening round on the streets of Adelaide in late February to the annual trip to the Top for the Darwin event in it’s new, mid-July position there will be a Supercars round exactly every three weeks.

Watch Supercars one weekend, wait two, go again.

For the series, that means two weeks to solidly promote the next round. For the broadcaster it’s enough time in between to fully de-brief and then build the next one and for teams it’s enough time to get the cars back to the workshop, wherever that may be and prepare them for the next one while potentially even giving people a weekend or two off in between. Which is critical.

On first glance the five-week gap between Darwin and the return of the Sydney night race in late August looks awkward but as Formula One has proved, a substantial break in the middle of the year is sensible to give staff, usually flattened from the relentless pace of the first six months on the road, a few weeks off to recharge.

After that there’s consistency and momentum building through the enduros to a December finale’ in Newcastle meaning there’s a real chance to build some momentum across the last two races into the title decider.

That is if Scott McLaughlin isn’t 573 points in front, of course.

Wins, outside of the dates themselves? Locking in the long-term future of the Queensland street events in Townsville and Gold Coast were key; they’re both huge events and both shop front-style promotion for the series amidst broader festivals.

The return of the Sydney Night race was always going to happen, given its success in year one. So too the return of lights for Perth, earlier in the year.

The Bend will be better suited to a 500km endurance race rather than shorter sprints, and could prove a challenging and popular lead-in to the October classic on the Mountain.

What’s more, the Gold Coast event no longer clashes with the Phillip Island MotoGP, which will be a relief to both broadcasters and the legion of fans the two-wheeled formula enjoys in Australia. 

Winton’s shift to the Queens Birthday long weekend may not be a bad thing: a majority of fans camp there anyway, so may well generate further opportunities for the promoter extending into the Monday. It was important that Winton remains on the calendar, as the last true ‘heartland’ Supercars event on the calendar.

Pukekohe shifting to April isn’t bad either. For starters, the NZ round has been early in the season before and worked well. Secondly, a gathering of Aussie and Kiwi people on ANZAC day could prove extremely powerful and further close the bonds we share across the Tasman.

On the flipside, I can’t help but feel like there’s opportunity lost to really go big on the whole night racing format.

Current plans, aside from potentially adding a night race at the Gold Coast event, are for a pair of 200km races at each SuperNight meeting – one under lights on Saturday and the second in Sunday’s twilight.

The Saturday portion seems fine, but surely running later on Sunday is tempting fate with families who have kids to prepare for school and parents who have to work the next day. The last thing they need is to be getting home after 8 the day before work or school.

The opportunity was, and remains, there to put on a true one or two-day extravaganza with a unique format not before seen. It might be a risk and I’m sure there’s metrics and analysis that shows what they are doing now will work, but without trying we’ll never know.

And then there’s poor old Sandown which, fortunately, remains on the calendar for the next three years but loses the famous ‘500, instead adopting a 2x200km format like every other sprint round.

Supercars said the call to do that, rather than a pair of 250km races, was down to limiting the number of kilometres raced next year. But dropping a few practice sessions from key events – there is way too much practice anyway – would solve that problem immediately and ensure 50 years of heritage at a great venue could continue, in some way, shape or form.

Outside of that, it’s a very good effort. There’s more racing than this year but one less event to drop costs for teams. 

Calendars aren’t easy, but in this case there’s a feeling that Supercars have done the best they can in a difficult market and it’s hard to ask more than that.

2020 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship

¹ PIRTEK Enduro Cup