There is feverish speculation that a number of precautions will be taken as Supercars tries to hedge the second half of its schedule.
It is mandatory that the series stage 12 events in order to fulfill the broadcast agreement with Fox Sports and the Seven Network.
The first of these contingencies is already in play during the last minute scramble to turn this week’s trip to Townsville into a one-two for the next two weekends.
The Auckland SuperSprint and Perth SuperNight are most at risk in other locations due to the high likelihood of border closures in COVID-19 outbreaks elsewhere.
The New Zealand travel bubble has been consistently suspended to deal with recent outbreaks in places like Melbourne and Sydney, while Western Australia is keeping its border closed to any state that has not seen community transmission for less than 14 consecutive days.
According to Motorsport.com sources, both could be dropped home as part of a revamped run that would begin with a second trip to The Bend after the winter break.
The Sydney SuperNight would then be put on hold to give the New South Wales capital time to tackle the current COVID-19 outbreak, which has put the entire city into lockdown.
This was followed by the Bathurst 1000 in October, while the postponed Winton lap could effectively replace Auckland on either the original NZ date (November 6-7) or the later Australian Grand Prix date (November 20-21).
The Gold Coast 500 will end the season from December 3rd to 5th.
Should the rumors prove to be true, prematurely canceling events would mean a change in philosophy for supercars, given the pandemic and Australia’s ultra-conservative approach to handling positive case numbers.
Speaking to the media last month, Shane Howard, COO of the series, said, “You can’t jump into the shadows with COVID. You have a plan, you stick to it until you basically can’t stick to it.
“You can have a thousand different scenarios to look at, but you just have to deal with official government information that will determine the outcome.
“We set a date, we work until that date, we monitor the situation daily and depending on the results of these health and limit restrictions, you may have to change.
“We work up to the date we nominate and then monitor it along the way, but the goal is always to deliver it by that date.”
That has definitely been the case so far this year. Supercars only postponed its Winton lap during the Melbourne outbreak in late May on the Thursday before the event.
The Townsville event also seemed extremely unlikely early last week when the city was banned on a positive case, but Supercars held on and instead implemented the bold double-headed plan.
