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Vailo Adelaide 500 organisers have reported a slight attendance increase relative to last year’s comeback event.
The 2023 Adelaide 500 drew an estimated four-day crowd of 260,700, despite rain on the Thursday and generally threatening skies, beating last year’s 258,200 by 2500.
That 2022 figure was a massive jump on the record low 206,350 in 2020, after which the event was axed later that year by the previous government.
For the first time as the season finale, this year’s Adelaide 500 saw a live drivers’ title fight, for one race at least, with Brodie Kostecki (unofficially) clinching the Supercars championship in Saturday’s Race 27 of the season.
Off-track, fans were entertain to acts such as Robbie Williams on the Sunday night, after The Screaming Jets and Icehouse on the Saturday night, and Carl Cox & Eric Powell’s Mobile Disco on Friday evening.
Grandstands were also enhanced with more undercover areas relative to last year, when the Adelaide 500 was hastily restored to the calendar after an attempted fire sale of assets following its 2020 cancellation.
For Supercars, the figures continue a run of big crowds in a stacked slate of marquee events to round out the season.
The previous event of the season, the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500, attracted its biggest ever attendance in its Supercars-only era (beginning in 2009), after the Repco Bathurst 1000 drew its third-highest crowd in history.
It is the Vailo Adelaide 500, though, which is the only event in the Supercars Hall of Fame, and Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert heaped praise on it after Thursday practice.
“It’s good to be back here in Adelaide,” he said.
“It’s always a fantastic race circuit to race around here, and yet again, two years in a row, Vailo and everyone and all the support sponsors for this event have really stepped up again.
“Everything looks fantastic, it really feels like we’re at a Formula 1 level for this weekend, so it’s special to be back here.”
Event CEO Mark Warren said at the conclusion of racing, “Day 4 of the Vailo Adelaide 500 went out with a bang, as grandstands and hospitality sold out for the final race of the 2023 Repco Supercars Championship.
“The sun shone through as Brodie Kostecki was finally crowned champion as another rookie claimed victory on the Adelaide Street Circuit with young kiwi Matt Payne claiming his first ever win in emphatic fashion.
“Fans bid Shane van Gisbergen farewell in what was his final full-time race in Supercars, while crowds began to form early as global pop superstar Robbie Williams prepares to take to the stage to officially close the 2023 Vailo Adelaide 500.
“With over 260,000 fans piling into the Adelaide Parklands Street Circuit across the weekend, the Vailo Adelaide 500 has once again been another successful event on the streets of our city. Bring on 2024.”
While Supercars’ big, street circuit weekends have all drawn impressive crowds this year, including the Newcastle 500, it was not enough to save that event, which is now poised to be scrapped for good by the city council.
The Bathurst SuperFest will instead open the 2024 campaign, with the Repco Bathurst 12 Hour on February 16-18 followed by the Bathurst 500, with now-announced title sponsor Thrifty, on the following weekend.
The Vailo Adelaide 500 rounds out the 2024 campaign on November 14-17.
