Super2 Bathurst Still Live
Super2 cars could still race at Mount Panorama next month.
A final decision will be made tomorrow on the involvement of Supercars’ main support category in this year’s Bathurst 1000 meeting.
Super2 was officially canned for 2020 on September 11 by Supercars management as a cost-cutting measure, but the announcement that the category was off the program has sparked a revival plan by some team owners.
Race News is told that a significant number of teams are now looking to reverse the original decision and this has opened a new deadline for firm entries for The Great Race weekend.
Teams now have until the close of business today (Tuesday, September 15) to commit to Bathurst, with the final verdict expected from Supercars in Sydney by lunchtime on Wednesday.
But, even if there is support from teams, Supercars will still need enough cars to justify returning the Super2 events to the program.
Originally, the majority of Super2 teams had advised Supercars headquarters that they could not afford the cost of quarantine to return to race bases outside NSW.
“Due to the various COVID-19 border closures, it was agreed that the costs associated with mandatory quarantine periods before and after the event were too excessive for a large number of entrants in the category,” Supercars said at the time.
But, once the decision to drop the Super2 supports was made official, a number of prominent teams began work to resuscitate their involvement.
As the support began to ramp-up, Supercars contacted the teams on Monday morning to advise of the triggers for a return and the timeline for entries.
While Super2 is now a ‘maybe’ for Bathurst, instead of a ’no’, there is little news on other support events for the event.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia 86 championship is still a slim chance of racing, but Carrera Cup is reportedly a non-starter.
“Supercars is now in discussions with various support category managers who can operate at Mount Panorama competitively in October,” the category says.
The most-likely headliner is a Bathurst version of the Tin Tops category that worked so well at the Townsville street race. This would allow cars from a wide variety of categories, and teams based inside NSW, to race at Mount Panorama.
