Seamer: Sydney Motorsport Park key to Supercars scheduling

Sean Seamer says the addition of permanent lights to Sydney Motorsport Park will give Supercars greater scheduling flexibility as it looks to avoid clashing with other sporting codes.

On Tuesday the Australian Racing Drivers Club, Supercars, and New South Wales Government representatives were onsite for the installation of the first complete light tower at Sydney Motorsport Park.

In total 132 light towers will light up the circuit, paddock, and skid pan with the Sydney SuperNight set to be the first event under the new lights on August 28-30.

Earlier this month the Supercars CEO said scheduling would be steered by broadcaster Fox Sports, which also broadcasts other major sporting codes including NRL and AFL.

As sports across the country look to resume play, Seamer said the lighting system will give Supercars wiggle room for its broadcast.

“I think night racing gives us greater flexibility with our schedule,” he said.

“That’s why a facility just like (Sydney Motorsport Park) is so interesting for us.

“We can run at different times of day, different times of night, to get clear air for our broadcast to reach new fans and get away from conflicts with other sports.

“I think it’s important to acknowledge that there are not a lot of high class, world-class motorsport facilities left in Australia.

“It’s great that we have a flagship facility like this that can run 24/7 now. As we have (fewer) race tracks, the ability to run 24/7 is really important.

“For motorsport, for Supercars, for everybody, this is a great facility and hopefully we can keep more tracks like this going across Australia.”

Seamer reaffirmed his position that an update on the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship would come in mid-May.

Supercars is currently slated to return on June 5-7 with the Winton Super400, however, doubts have been cast over that event.

A decision is also expected to be made on the Townsville 400, which is currently set to take place on June 26-28.

Seamer said he’s been encouraged with recent progress towards curbing the effects of the coronavirus pandemic in Australia.

Last week the Australian Institute of Sport released its Framework for Rebooting Sport in a COVID-19 Environment, which will guide Supercars and other sporting organisations as to how they may return to competition.

“We’re going through obviously what every other sport is in terms of looking at our restart protocols to make sure that we’re able to get racing again as soon as possible,” he said.

“We’re targeting in the next seven to 10 days to be able to update everybody on what the rest of the season looks like.

“I think you can expect to see us on the track pretty soon. It won’t be too much longer.

“I think the precedent that’s been set by the sports has been really encouraging in addition to the great work that everybody has been doing at the State and local levels to get the cases down.

“We’re pretty excited to get on track soon.”