The NAPA Sprintcars in the City concept debuted at the Supercars finale last year and returns with a number of important improvements.

Spectator viewing has changed dramatically with the addition of a grandstand on the west side of the track, which doesn’t feature any natural earth banking.

That has effectively increased spectator capacity by 1220 people given viewing wasn’t possible from there last year.

Lessons were also learnt regarding surface preparation with an additional 1000 tons of dirt added in a bid to ensure the racing holds up across all three nights of Sprintcar action.

That decision was based on a slight degradation in the racing product on the Friday compared to Thursday last year.

The temporary fencing is now higher, to address some safety concerns.

The Sprintcar paddock has also moved, although that was based on a major reshuffle around the parklands venue given a need for two concert stages, with AC/DC not sharing with other acts.

According to Sprintcars SA president Adam Currie, the changes have come off the back of increased government support for the project through the South Australian Motorsport Board.

“We’ve been very, very fortunate that the government has identified that the speedway is a great thing,” Currie told Speedcafe.

“They’re investing a heap more into it, because they can see the benefit of it. They’ve seen how many people are involved in speedway and Sprintcar racing. So they’ve doubled down this year.

“They’ve invested more money in bringing over a bigger, higher fencing, as there was some concerns last year. They’ve invested in the crowd, putting up extra grandstands for viewing.

“They’ve brought in another 1000 tons of surface material, so we’re going to have a better racing surface as well.

“We’ve been very fortunate that they’ve done that just to make the meeting bigger and better than it was last year.

“And it’s all from what we learned last year. I don’t think there were any mistakes last year, but just learning what we could do better.”

Another change for this year is the introduction of The Chase to the NAPA Sprintcars in the City, a three-round series with the prize of an additional entry to the Adelaide event to the best-scoring driver who wasn’t already invited.

The Chase started with the SA Sprintcar Title at Murray Bridge on November 15, then went to Mount Gambier last Saturday night (which was washed out), and finished with a star-studded show at Tolmer Raceway on Sunday night.

The remaining invite for Adelaide went to Queenslander Kinser Claridge.

Currie explained the concept of the Chase was to both support the permanent South Australian tracks and offer increased incentive for crews travelling from interstate to make the trip.

“The concept of that was for this event to give back to other tracks here in South Australia,” he said.

“We took that to the SA Motorsport Board and asked if we could take an invite from this event as a prize and they were all for it.

“It definitely brought a lot more interest into these events. At Mount Gambier this time last year, we had 20-odd cars there. This weekend just gone, we had 42, 43 cars.

“So doing that has brought more focus to our regional tracks.”

One potential curveball for this week is a lingering threat of rain, particularly on Friday evening.

However Currie is confident the weather won’t spoil the fun, particularly with Sprintcars now running across three nights, from Wednesday to Friday.

“We’re not really worried about it,” he said.

“The way that we’ve done it this year, with putting the qualifying on the Wednesday night, that opens our program on Thursday and Friday up a lot more, so we can be more flexible.

“Just time trials alone takes over an hour, so we’ve taken that out of the Thursday night and Friday night programs and it gives us a little bit more leniency on that Thursday and Friday in case we do have anything.

“But we’re pretty confident that we’ll be all right with the amount of rain on the forecast. It won’t affect the track. We’ll be able to bring it back in.”

Sprintcar action kicks off on Wednesday night at 6pm with qualifying for both the Thursday and Friday night racing.

Thursday action starts at 6pm again and includes heat racing, a Dash, a Lance Chance Qualifier and a Feature.

Friday is the same program but starting at 6:30pm.

There is a $140,000 prize pool on offer for the two nights of racing.

Sprintcars will be joined by Speedcars on Wednesday-Friday nights, before Junior Sedans and Junior Formula 500s share the track on Saturday and Sunday during the day.

NAPA Sprintcars in the City schedule

Wednesday November 26

Thursday November 27

Friday November 28