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.
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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.
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