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Plans to host the 2020 edition of the Vodafone Gold Coast 600 under lights are on track according to Supercars boss Sean Seamer.
Announced in August as part of a revamped calendar for the coming season, the Gold Coast event was confirmed for a further five years courtesy of a new deal between Supercars, Tourism and Events Queensland, and the Queensland Government.
That would see 489 light towers erected to allow racing around the Surfers Paradise streets, with work already underway according to Seamer.
“So, consultation’s still ongoing and just the procurement process for the specific lighting is underway,” Seamer told selected media, including Speedcafe.com.
“(Circuit designers) iEDM’s already done the lighting plan so they’re enter engineering plans now, so tracking well.”
It’s proposed that all three days of track action will contain some form of night or dusk running, with Sunday’s race set to finish at twilight.
The same model will be applied to the Perth SuperNight, a change on the 2019 model which saw the event from from Thursday to Saturday in an attempt to appeal to families.
“So we did Thursday, Friday, Saturday in Western Australia because we thought that nobody would come out on Sunday night, and nobody came on Thursday,” Seamer said.
“So we’re going to try and move it back a day, but not run as late on Sunday night so families can still get home.
“So (Sunday) would be more of a race into dark, rather than race in the dark.”
The Gold Coast is set to join Perth and Sydney as events with a night component, the latter having been the guinea pig in 2018 before missing a place on the 2019 calendar.
A new lighting system is to be installed at Sydney Motorsport Park, replacing the temporary set-up that was used previously.
The 2020 Gold Coast 600 is scheduled to follow the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, across the October 31-November 1 weekend.
