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Supercars released its 13-event calendar this morning and is expected to reveal a full list of formats at the Bathurst 1000 next week, including the Finals structure.
As flagged by Speedcafe earlier today, the championship is to be cut into three parts – Sprint, Endurance and Finals.
It’s understood the Finals tag is more than just a branding exercise for the last three events and will take inspiration from NASCAR’s ‘Playoffs’.
Supercars’ version is expected to include the top 10 drivers in the championship standings after the Bathurst 1000.
Only the top 10 after the Great Race will remain eligible to win the championship, with the points reset accordingly.
Three drivers are to be eliminated from contention after the Gold Coast and three more after Sandown to create a four-driver Adelaide finale.
The full 24-car field will still take part in all Finals races, regardless of whether or not they remain in championship contention.
It’ll mark the biggest shake-up to the structure of the Australian Touring Car/Supercars Championship since it moved from a single event to a series in 1969.
NASCAR has run various iterations of its current Playoffs since 2004 and adopting a similar system has long been mooted for Supercars.
The Supercars version is expected to be far simpler than NASCAR, with qualification based on points only and no ‘win and you’re in’ provision.
Supercars’ new three-part calendar is also expected to see Sprint and Endurance ‘champions’ crowned, the latter effectively marking a return of the Enduro Cup.
The winners of the Sprint and Enduro divisions will likely receive bonus points at the start of the Finals, giving added importance to those titles.
Intriguingly, it’s unclear exactly what race format the Adelaide finale will run to, having been flagged simply as ‘Adelaide Round’ rather than its usual ‘Adelaide 500’.
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Supercars’ move to refresh its calendar structure comes as it enters the final year of its current broadcast rights agreements with Fox Sports and Seven.
RACE chairman Barclay Nettlefold rallied funding to expand the 2025 calendar to 13 events, despite the current contracts with TV networks and the teams being based around 12.
Sandown was set to lose its place on a 12-event schedule before being slotted in as a single-driver round in November, giving Supercars the three-event Finals structure it needed.
