Melbourne’s Sandown Raceway is expected to open the 2014 Shannons Nationals season less than four months after hosting this year’s finale.
As part of an otherwise unchanged calendar, the Sandown event will likely switch places with Sydney Motorsport Park, which has hosted the opening round for the last two seasons.
Shannons Nationals organisers say they hope racing at Sandown in early March will bring cross-promotional opportunities with two other major motorsport meetings, the Phillip Island Classic historics (March 6-9) and Albert Park’s Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix (March 13-16).
“We hope to be able to tie in with several of those events and perhaps capitalise on Melbourne being the ‘motor sport capital’ of Australia for that month,” said Shannons Nationals series director Rob Curkpatrick.
“There is a potential for us to investigate partnering with events like the Phillip Island historics, doing some ticketing deals or something similar to boost crowds at both events.
“It makes sense to work together to grow all of the events and showcase the massive amount of motor sport-related activities available to racing fans throughout the month. We’re working away on that and will see how it goes.”
Events at Mallala (April), Phillip Island (May and September), a second Sydney Motorsport Park event (July), Queensland Raceway (August) and Wakefield Park (October) are expected to maintain their current slots in the Shannons Nationals calendar.
Official confirmation of the Shannons schedule is expected to follow shortly after that of the V8 Supercars Championship, which is set to be confirmed on Monday.
The seventh round of the 2013 Shannons Nationals is taking place at Phillip Island this weekend, featuring the Formula 3 Australian Drivers’ Championship, Kumho V8 Touring Cars, Kerrick Sports Sedans, Radical Cup, Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, Saloon Car Series and Superkart Championships.
