Sydney Motorsport Park
Victoria has decided to effectively close the New South Wales border ahead of the Beaurepeaires Sydney SuperNight next month.
Sydney is on lockdown as COVID-19 cases escalate in Harbor City and there is currently no certainty as to when the outbreak could be brought under control.
The entire state of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory that is in its country will be classified as red zones by Victoria starting this evening at 11:59 p.m. local time / AEST.
This means that foreigners are not allowed to enter Victoria without exception, while residents must adhere to a 14-day self-quarantine on their return.
The Repco Supercars Championship is slated to take place at Sydney Motorsport Park from August 20-22, but that seems impracticable if the NSW capital city’s eruption lasts several weeks longer.
However, Winton Motor Raceway appears to be an appropriate substitute or substitute.
That’s because few, if any, of the competitors and other staff involved in the Supercars Championship circus will be affected by Victoria’s move until they visit Sydney.
Only Team Sydney and Brad Jones Racing are based in NSW, but the former has returned to its former Tekno Autosports facility on the Gold Coast, and the latter is in the border town of Albury.
Those living in the border area can still enter Victoria without permission as long as they have not been in a red zone outside that zone, have no symptoms of COVID-19, and are not in close contact with a case.
This means that BJR would have no obstacle to travel on the way to Winton, about 100 km southwest of Albury.
For the teams based in Queensland, travel through a red or orange zone is permitted, but “only for direct and short-term transit of less than 24 hours”.
That means trucks can get into Victoria via NSW while other team members would likely be flying down anyway.
It should be noted that the Brisbane local government area is still classified as an orange zone, which currently affects at least those who have been to the Triple Eight Race Engineering workshop in Banyo.
Arrivals to Victoria from orange zones must self-quarantine and remain there until they return a negative COVID-19 result.
The Gold Coast, where all the other Queensland-based teams are headquartered, has been a green zone since last night.
Supercars is aware of the situation in Sydney, but in a media briefing at the NTI Townsville 500 this weekend, Championship CEO Sean Seamer expressed hope that the Eastern Creek event could take place.
“We’re still six weeks from Sydney,” remarked Seamer on Friday before Victoria changed her mind.
The Dunlop Super2 series, which includes a number of NSW-based drivers, is also on the support card at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Both the championship and Super2 seasons will continue next weekend with another event in North Queensland, the WD-40 SuperSprint.
