» V8s: 2013 championship calendar unveiled

V8 Supercars officials have revealed a substantially changed championship calendar for the 2013 season.

In all, seventeen round events are scheduled for next season, bookended by the traditional 500-kilometre events at Adelaide and Homebush Bay.

Before the ever-popular Clipsal 500 on the first weekend of March, the entire grid will be required to participate in a one-day compulsory test session at Sydney Motorsport Park.

It will mark the only time that the entire field will visit the recently revamped circuit – which earned a late-notice berth on this year’s calendar – will play host to the entire field, with officials electing to dump the Eastern Creek circuit from the 2013 calendar.

The championship is again slated to have a non-championship round with a series of support category races during the Australian Grand Prix in mid-March.

However, this could earn a welcome promotion to a championship level event if, as is speculated, Network Ten (which has exclusive broadcasting rights to Formula 1 in Australia) manages to land the TV broadcasting rights to the V8 Supercars from 2013 onwards.

The 2013 calendar sees the championship make its first visit to the United States, with Texas’ Circuit of the Americas playing host to a championship round in mid-May.

The championship also keeps a round in New Zealand, with a heavily-revamped Pukekohe Raceway landing a multi-year hosting deal as a replacement for the financially unviable street race in the city of Hamilton.

Outside of these changes, the series won’t be visiting any other new or long-lost circuits, but several events’ dates have been given a change.

One major change is to that of the Bathurst 1000, which has been bumped back by one weekend to give the field a four-week build-up from the kick-off endurance race, the Sandown 500.

The field also has just a week to freight all of its equipment from the Gold Coast 600 to the Middle East, where it will serve as a support category event for the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit.

The Gold Coast event has itself been moved back a week so as not to clash with two other championship’s final rounds, the IndyCar Series finale at Fontana, and the FIA World Endurance Championship’s round in Japan. Both championships serve as significant pools of talent for the teams to draw upon for the Gold Coast 600, which sees the field’s regular drivers paired with ‘international class’ racing drivers from other championship categories.

The race formats and distances for the minor championship rounds will be revealed in due course, although organisers have confirmed that the rounds at Queensland Raceway and Phillip Island will be contained to two-day events.

The final 2013 season calendar is as follows:

Date	Event	Venue
16 FEB	Official Pre-Season Test Session	Sydney Motorsport Park, Sydney
01-03 MAR	Clipsal 500 Adelaide	Adelaide street circuit, Adelaide
14-17 MAR	Australian Grand Prix*	Albert Park, Melbourne
05-07 APR	Falken Tasmania Challenge	Symmons Plains, Launceston
12-14 APR	Auckland 400	Pukekohe Raceway, Auckland
03-05 MAY	Perth Challenge	Barbagallo Raceway, Perth
17-19 MAY	Texas 400	Circuit of the Americas, Austin
14-16 JUN	SkyCity Triple Crown	Hidden Valley Raceway, Darwin
05-07 JUL	Sucrogen Townsville 400	Reid Park Circuit, Townsville
27-28 JUL	Coates Hire Ipswich 300	Queensland Raceway, Ipswich
23-25 AUG	Winton	Winton Motor Raceway, Winton
13-15 SEP	Sandown 500	Sandown Raceway, Melbourne
10-13 OCT	SuperCheap Auto Bathurst 1000	Mt Panorama, Bathurst
25-27 OCT	ArmorAll Gold Coast 600	Surfers Paradise street circuit
01-03 NOV	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix / Yas 400	Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi
23-24 NOV	Phillip Island 400	Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit
29-01 DEC	Sydney 500	Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney