» Supercars: Sydney dropped from 2019 calendar

Supercars has unveiled a radically shaken up calendar for the 2019 season, featuring significant changes to the order, timing and format of many events.

Next year’s schedule has been trimmed from sixteen to fifteen rounds, with Sydney Motorsport Park sidelined from hosting duties next year despite a successful and well-attended inaugural night racing format.

Supercars’ decision not to stage a round in Australia’s largest city has been made amid bigger plans to restructure the entire season towards a ‘summer schedule’ to avoid ongoing clashes with the domestic rugby league and AFL championships.

Instead, series organisers have opted to stage a night-time round at Perth’s Barbagallo Raceway in early May. The round will run from Thursday to Saturday, with the fllolit feature taking place on Saturday night.

The Adelaide 500 will once again kick off the championship season in early March followed by the series playing a support role at the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix which will again be a points-paying round.

The grid will then cross the Bass Strait to Tasmania for a SuperSprint round at Symmons Plains Raceway, with Phillip Island following on the very next weekend. The latter event’s place on the Supercars calendar was under threat, but a recent injection of funds from the state Victorian government has secured its future for another year.

The decision to run the Symmons Plains and Phillip Island rounds back-to-back is also a significant cost-saver for the teams, particularly for the Queensland-based outfits.

The SuperNight round at Barbagallo Raceway follows in early May and before the end of the month the field will be back in Victoria for a third time to contest the Winton SuperSprint which will be run on a condensed two-day format.

The Darwin Triple Crown retains its traditional winter slot on the calendar, followed by visits to Townsville and Queensland Raceway in July.

Following its successful maiden appearance on this year’s calendar, The Bend Motorsport Park will stage its SuperSprint round in August before the series makes its only visit overseas to New Zealand for the ITM Auckland SuperSprint.

The Auckland round has effectively swapped places on the calendar with the Sandown 500 – the latter was traditionally the opening event for the Pirtek Enduro Cup leg of the season, but will instead close out the three-round mini-championship for main drivers and co-drivers.

Sandown’s calendar shift means that the Bathurst 1000 will now become the opening event of the Pirtek Enduro Cup. It will be followed by the Gold Coast endurance round, which will reportedly be reformatted to a single 500-kilometre race instead of its traditional twin-300km race structure. This is due to the event clashing with the Australian MotoGP round at Phillip Island.

The Pirtek Enduro Cup will then close with the Sandown 500 in mid-November ahead of the season-ending Newcastle 500 round.

The calendar for the 2019 Supercars championship has been revealed, featuring a new night race at Barbagallo Raceway and changes to the endurance format.

The season will traditionally start on the streets of Adelaide in March and the season finale takes place on the Newcastle street circuit in November.

2019 Australian Supercars Championship Season Calendar
Date	Event	Location	Format
02-03 MAR	Adelaide 500	Adelaide Street Circuit, Adelaide	SuperStreet
15-17 MAR	Melbourne 400	Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne	Grand Prix
06-07 APR	Tasmania SuperSprint	Symmons Plains Raceway, Launceston	SuperSprint
13-14 APR	Phillip Island 500	Phillip Island Circuit, Phillip Island	SuperSprint
03-04 MAY	Perth SuperNight	Barbagallo Raceway, Pinjar	SuperNight
25-26 MAY	Winton SuperSprint	Winton Motor Raceway, Bennala	SuperSprint
15-16 JUN	Darwin Triple Crown	Hidden Valley Raceway, Darwin	SuperSprint
06-07 JUL	Townsville 400	Townsville Street Circuit, Townsville	SuperStreet
27-28 JUL	Ipswich SuperSprint	Queensland Raceway, Ipswich	SuperSprint
24-25 AUG	The Bend SuperSprint	The Bend Motorsport Park, Tailem Bend	SuperSprint
14-15 SEP	Auckland SuperSprint	Pukukohe Park Raceway, Auckland	SuperSprint
13 OCT	Bathurst 1000	Mount Panorama Circuit, Bathurst	Enduro Cup
27 OCT	Gold Coast 500	Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, Gold Coast	Enduro Cup
10 NOV	Sandown 500	Sandown Raceway, Melbourne	Enduro Cup
23-24 NOV	Newcastle 500	Newcastle Street Circuit, Newcastle	SuperStreet