
This time the energetic executive, who failed to secure an offshore championship event during his previous stint in the role from 2013-17, is spruiking a new plan.
Rather than seeking one-off deals with promoters – including Formula 1 – to take the Aussie circus offshore, Supercars wants to establish a whole new series based in Asia.
That means a duplicate set of Gen3 Supercars and equipment and a separate championship to the existing battle within Australia and New Zealand.
RACE boss Barclay Nettlefold has been pushing the idea of selling Gen3 overseas for some time and it’s clear that Warburton has been tasked with making it work.
Warburton won’t formally present a plan to teams and stakeholders until September but was already in full sales pitch mode when outlining the idea to media at the Perth Super440.
He’s touting it as the perfect model for expansion that enables Supercars to control rights and revenues while not impacting the current footprint in Australia and New Zealand.
However, there’s no escaping the basic reality that it’ll take an enormous amount of money to get off the ground.
The cars alone are quoted by teams as costing anything up to $1 million each to build. And that’s ignoring the logistical factors of teams, events and so on.
Warburton says the beauty of the RACE consortium that now owns Supercars is its potential to raise the funding required to get such a project off the ground.
Among many other questions are those surrounding how a Supercars series would be embraced by the motorsport industry and the public in whatever countries it races.
The relevance of the Gen3 cars beyond Australia – including the new-for-2026 Toyota Supra – is among other reasons why Warburton is talking the idea up as a winner.
What do you think? Will the Asian Supercars Championship plan work? Cast your vote now on this week’s Pirtek Poll.
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