WILL the Bathurst 1000 be the Supercars series finale? Will the Great Race date be pushed back a week? Will the 161-lap epic at Mount Panorama be the only enduro of 2020?
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It is increasingly looking like the answer to all three of those questions will be 'Yes' as Supercars continues to review its calendar in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
No official words is expected until after the next fortnight, with Supercars staging back-to-back rounds at Townsville during that period.
But four-times Bathurst 1000 winner and Supercars commission member Jamie Whincup hinted at what could come during a press conference in Darwin last week.
"It would be okay for the Queensland teams because we'll go back home [after Townsville double-header], we'll be home for another week or so, and then we'll head down [to Bathurst]," he said.
"We may need to do two weeks' quarantine but most likely, and my guess is as good as anyone's, that it could be the end of the championship, at Bathurst.
"So we'll quarantine for two weeks and then have five months off."
Initially Supercars had planned to start this season's Enduro Cup with a 500 kilometre race at South's Australia's The Bend Motorsport Park. That was to be followed by the Bathurst 1000 and Gold Coast 600.
But the impact of the pandemic has seen the rounds planned for both The Bend and Gold Coast cancelled.
There is talk of trying to schedule a 500km race at Queensland Raceway prior to the Bathurst 1000, but Whincup pointed out the strain that would put on teams which have already had to make some difficult adjustments this year.
"500 kay, that's a lot of money, a lot of wear and tear, a lot of cars, the whole lot," Whincup said.
"We're going through componentry like you wouldn't believe, we're just trying to fix things and get cars together to get to the next race.
"We'd love to have a 500 kilometre or another enduro somewhere but realistically, the workload on the teams is massive.
"It's going to be so tough to get through what's proposed until Bathurst. I can't see it being possible to do a 500 kilometre race before the Great Race."
If the Bathurst 1000 is the only endurance race, it would place extra strain on co-drivers.
Tickford Racing's Cameron Waters, who is currently sitting sixth in the drivers' championship, admits trying to do a 500km race "would be a killer" for his Victorian-based team. However, he would like to see co-drivers allocated track time.
"You've got to get the co-drivers laps, you don't want to go to Bathurst and have co-drivers that haven't really driven the cars at all," he said.
"There is a safety thing as well, going around there you ask a lot of your co-drivers at the best of times so you want to make sure they're comfortable in the cars.
"It would be good if Supercars could put on a few co-driver sessions for them."
