That’s because the concept was announced and subsequently knocked on the head just 10 years ago.
Minister for Tourism and Hospitality and Minister for Major Events, Marie-Clare Boothby, revealed the latest plan on MotorRacing 360 on Wednesday night.
Boothby said the change “will unlock a raft of opportunities for Territorians and visitors to enjoy all we have to offer: sunset markets and hospitality venues, parks and one-of-a-kind events.”
Also appearing on the show, Supercars commentator Garth Tander lauded the announcement.
“If there was any race that we go to throughout our calendar that we should be doing a night race at, it’s Hidden Valley,” he said.
The plan is to move the Friday and Saturday races back into the night and twilight respectively, before finishing with a traditional day race on Sunday.
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It’s been instigated by the NT government and supported by Supercars, which believes it will also please broadcaster Fox Sports.
Ten years ago Supercars and the NT government trumpeted a plan for Darwin to become the championship’s first Australian night race in over 20 years.
But it never happened, the reason for which former Supercars board member and now PremiAir Racing team principal detailed on Thursday.
“In 2016 the board, of which I was a part, spoke to the chief minister here about running night racing, and on the surface of it we all loved the idea,” he said.
“The cars look good under lights, we’ve seen that Sydney has worked well and everything.
“The thing that stopped it then was because the people in the city who run all the bars and restaurants and clubs said ‘no, this is going to detract from our business’.
“I hope there’s a way of fusing everything together because the idea of night racing is great… but I am interested in understanding how the interaction with the town works.
“Because that’s after all why the NT pay us to be here, is because of the interaction with the town – the accommodation, the hospitality and everything.
“And it is great, the city in the evening is a great venue.”
Night racing will also add cost for the NT government as it will need to bolster the track lighting, which currently only features on the front straight.
It’s expected the additional lighting will be temporary.
When Darwin backed out of what was trumpeted as an exclusive five-year night racing deal from 2018, Sydney Motorsport Park took up the mantle.
It ran a 2018 ‘SuperNight’ event with temporary, and somewhat patchy, lighting, before the NSW government invested in permanent infrastructure to fully illuminate the venue.
Asked by Speedcafe what teams expect from Darwin, Blanchard Racing Team boss Tim Blanchard said “the more lighting the better.”
“I drove in that first one in Sydney a long time ago now [and] from a driving perspective it wasn’t ideal but it wasn’t any issues,” he said.
“I didn’t feel like there was any safety issues or anything from a racing point of view inside the car.
“Commercially it was pretty hard because you could only see parts of the track and half the time on TV it just looked like headlights were racing.
“So I think having adequate lighting around the track is probably more for the fans and commercially being able to see.”
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