THE prospect of two rounds of the Supercars Championship in Bathurst has been welcomed by councillor Warren Aubin.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Supercars suspended its 2020 championship mid-way through the Australia Grand Prix in March due to the threat of coronavirus.
The organisers of the sport are now trying to determine when racing can resume, and how to rework its calendar to fit all its races in.
During last week's Supercars Sidetracked program, the sport's CEO, Sean Seamer, flagged the idea of potentially holding two rounds at Mount Panorama, including moving the finale from Newcastle to combine it with the Bathurst 12 Hour.
"It's absolutely on the cards and under consideration at the moment," he said.
"It's an event that we promote and it is an opportunity for us to capitalise on that. It won't be another 1000, we'll have to think of something different like a sprint format.
"But there is an opportunity for us to go there and to potentially finish the season there in New South Wales."
It's an idea that Cr Aubin can certainly get on board with.
"It ties right in with the Europeans coming here as well, so it would work quite well," he said.
"... I think we will still have to tread carefully [due to coronavirus], but if February comes around and it is all back to normal, to have the final round as the Bathurst 12 Hour would be a boon for Bathurst."
He said the two events would attract different crowds of people, increasing the number of visitors to the city.
"It would be like the Easters of years gone by when you had the bikes race with their crowd and then the cars would come in for the second half of the weekend and bring in their crowd. I think it would be something like that," Cr Aubin said.
An increased crowd would benefit the accommodation providers and many other businesses in Bathurst, especially as the event would likely have to be extended to allow there to be enough sessions for both categories.
If a second round eventuates, Cr Aubin said it would be more important than ever before for council and businesses to take advantage of the extra people.
He said this could be with new events, taking inspiration from the Bathurst 1000 festival, to help the region bounce back from the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis.
"People hanging around for a week rather than two to three days, you tie in the old equation of $250 per person per night, you'd be looking at a substantial figure," he said.
Supercars has said it will know by the end of the month when racing can resume. The initial prediction was in June at Winton, but this may change.
