The Repco Supercars Championship has released a draft of its 2022 calendar featuring 13 rounds spread across six states and territories, plus New Zealand.
Notably absent as part of the announced rounds is The Bend Motorsport Park, but it is expected to fill a ‘To Be Confirmed’ slot in late July, although Queensland Raceway under new owner Tony Quinn is also a contender.
After an absence of two seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Newcastle will host the opening round in March 4-6 followed by Symmons Plains (March 26-27), the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park (April 7-10) and a return to Western Australia at Wanneroo under lights.
The popular Winton round occurs on May 21-22 ahead of Hidden Valley (June 18-19), Townsville (July 8-10) and the ‘To Be Confirmed’ round on July 30-31.
The back half of the season starts at Sandown on August 19-21, before Supercars head to New Zealand and Pukekohe on September 10-11, with these being listed as SuperSprint events leaving no traditional pre-Bathurst 500km endurance event.
Next is the Bathurst 1000 on October 6-9, the Gold Coast on October 28-30 and the finale is at Sydney Motorsport Park for the first time since 2004 on November 18-20.
Supercars has confirmed the finale will be a twin 300km Sydney Super600 event run under lights.
“The 2022 season will follow an unprecedented two years for Supercars in which the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in two revised calendars – a huge achievement given the nature of the sport,” Supercars CEO Sean Seamer said.
“It has been fantastic to welcome fans back to events this year, and we will continue to ensure this is done safely and in line with national guidelines as we welcome more fans back in 2022.
“We are very pleased with the interest in Supercars growing continuously through large audiences watching our world-class broadcast and a significant growth of our presence online across the globe.”
This will be the first Repco Supercars Championship run under the new RACE ownership.