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Next season’s S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship will include a separate in-season competition aimed at international drivers.
Sources revealed to Speedcafe.com that the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, Bathurst International, and Gold Coast 500 will be linked by the competition.
The Australian Grand Prix will run from November 18-21, with the Bathurst International scheduled for November 26-28.
The Gold Coast event is then set to run across the December 3-5 weekend to make for three consecutive weekends of racing.
It’s hoped the close proximity of the three events will lure high-profile international drivers into the category for those races.
The concept shares similarities with the Tasman Series that ran through the 1960s, and into the early part of the 1970s.
During the European winter many of the sport’s biggest names would compete in a short series across Australia and New Zealand.
Initially run with modified Formula 1 cars, in time regulations saw it feature Formula 5000 – the cars which were the inspiration for S5000.
Speedcafe.com understands an official announcement of the series will be made later this week.
S5000 has something of a history of high-profile cameos, with F1 race winners Rubens Barrichello and Giancarlo Fisichella both having had outings in the category.
Williams test driver Jack Aitken has also had a steer, though both his and Fisichella’s racing debuts were kyboshed by the cancellation of last year’s Australian Grand Prix.
