The series is currently without a regular season-opener with the Adelaide 500 now at the back end of the schedule and the Newcastle 500 falling off the schedule.
This year the Bathurst 500 opened the season, however that was seen as more of a bandaid solution than a permanent one.
A new permanent opener may not be ready for 2025 either, however it’s understood that the preference is to move away from Mount Panorama and open the series elsewhere next year.
The question is where the opener will go instead.
As it stands, two dates are the key factors to what options are on the table for Supercars – the Bathurst 12 Hour and the Australian Grand Prix.
Neither have a date formally locked in, although there are some very educated guesses that can be made.
The Bathurst 12 Hour is highly likely to be on either the first or second weekend of February, with the second thought to be the preference from SRO, which runs the Intercontinental GT Challenge.
And, as reported by Speedcafe, all signs are that Albert Park will open the 2025 F1 season on March 9.
While the future of Supercars at Albert Park looks reasonably secure after an enthralling 2024 running of the Melbourne SuperSprint recently, the AGP is a complicated prospect as a season opener.
That’s less to do with the pit and garage situation and more to do with the broadcast rights, given Supercars’ free-to-air partner the Seven Network is unlikely to want the season opener shown live on Channel 10.
So it’s likely there needs to be a round before the March 9 weekend and that timing is critical to what options there are for that round.
The ‘second’ pit building at Albert Park is the same one used by Supercars for its regular ‘street circuit kit’ that is utilised for most street events.
The pack down, transportation and rebuild of that takes around three weeks which means that for a street circuit to be viable as the season opener it couldn’t be later than the February 14-16 weekend.
Using a permanent circuit, however, would offer better flexibility given both that the temporary pit structure wouldn’t be required, and the chances of cars being significantly damaged are hugely reduced.
Another factor is government funding.
The previous deal with Destination New South Wales, which determined that the opener needed to be in NSW, is no longer in play, which means any state can feasibly host Round 1.
That means it can be used as a chip when updating existing or negotiating new government deals, or perhaps won’t be subject to a government deal at all.
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