The S5000 Tasman Series round at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International has been cancelled due to a pending ‘risk management review’.
Mount Panorama was supposed to host Round 2 of the three-round Tasman Series, but that competition has now been cut back to just the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 600 and Valo Adelaide 500.
Instead, the S5000s will perform demonstrations at Bathurst this November.
The category has raced at the circuit once before, at last year’s Bathurst 1000, but with a late cut to their horsepower in order to meet FIA-mandated power-to-weight limits for what is a Grade 3 circuit.
A statement from the category reads, in part, “S5000 will now feature at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International in a high-speed demonstration capacity, replacing the previously announced second round of the S5000 Tasman Series.
“The change has been made as the result of a request from Motorsport Australia as part of a revised risk management review of the sport and competition at Mount Panorama.
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“Motorsport Australia approved S5000 to race at Mount Panorama in 2021.
“The cars ran at a reduced power level to suit the FIAs [sic] then-designated power-to-weight ratio requirements appropriate for Mount Panorama’s circuit license.
“Since S5000s [sic] debut at Mount Panorama, a further and broader risk management review is being undertaken by Motorsport Australia, which encompasses the conditions under which the category raced at Bathurst last year.
“The review will not be completed in time for the November 11-13 Bathurst International event, requiring S5000 to remove the round from the Tasman Series calendar.”
The cars will run unrestricted for their demonstrations, across all three days of the event.
The announcement follows last week’s ‘Open Test’ at The Bend where, as well as giving young drivers a chance to sample the cars, a host of technical updates were trialled.
Among them were push-to-pass, following a season which saw relatively little in the way of overtaking.
Thus far, it has not been announced if the system will feature on the cars in the Tasman Series.
The Bathurst round is the second for S5000 to be cancelled this year, after a stop at Sandown in September was dropped from the Australian Drivers’ Championship.
A dozen cars fronted for the new season finale at Hidden Valley in June, but that was still an uplift on the eight entered for Round 4 at Sydney Motorsport Park in May.
The Gold Coast 500 takes place on the streets of Surfers Paradise on October 28-30, while the Supercheap Auto TCR Australia Series remains the headline act at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International in November.
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