Eastern Creek added to 2012 V8 Supercars calendar

V8 Supercars and the Australian Racing Drivers’ Club have confirmed that Eastern Creek Raceway has been added to this year’s championship calendar.

The event will take place at the Sydney venue over the August 24-26 weekend that had originally been slated as the date for Winton’s V8 Supercars meeting.

Winton’s event has in turn been moved to November 16-18 following  V8 Supercars’ failure to secure an international location for its ‘TBA’ slot on November 9-11.

The new Winton date has been set a week later than the TBA to give teams enough time to travel back from the previous event in Abu Dhabi.

News of the calendar reshuffle broke on Friday (CLICK HERE for Speedcafe.com’s news story), with several teams first finding out of the changes when contacted by their accommodation in Winton.

The consequences of the moves, which potentially includes extra costs for the teams, were subsequently discussed at a team owners’ meeting on Saturday night in Hamilton.

August will mark the first time since 2008 that the V8 Supercars Championship has raced at Eastern Creek, which is currently in the midst of a $11 million upgrade that includes improved facilities and an extended track layout.

Although the upgrades have been co-funded by the ARDC and the NSW government, the event will be promoted by the ARDC and receive no direct government money.

The circuit was the scene of V8 Supercars’ mandatory pre-season test day in 2011 which, according to V8 Supercars, attracted in excess of 10,000 fans.

V8 Supercars CEO David Malone says that having two events in the Sydney market is a good outcome for the category.

“We believe Australia’s largest city can have motorsport nirvana with a thrilling circuit race at a great permanent venue followed by all the street circuit bells and whistles of the Sydney Telstra 500,” said Malone.

“We compete three times in Victoria and three times in Queensland each year so our view is we can sustain three New South Wales events, certainly for this year, based on their different market appeal, location, timing and format.”

While no support categories have been confirmed for Eastern Creek, Winton’s support line-up of the Dunlop Series, Australian Formula Ford Championship, V8 Ute Racing Series, Aussie Racing Cars and Formula Atlantic Series will move from August to November along with the Victorian event.

The Eastern Creek event falls a week before the Muscle Car Masters, with the ARDC describing the period as “a week long festival of all things V8s”.

Race 5 of the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship will take place at the ITM400 Hamilton today.

See below for the revised 2012 V8 Supercars Championship calendar

See below for the revised 2012 Dunlop Series calendar

See below for Speedcafe.com’s Hamilton Race Guide