Bathurst 1000 postponed as part of a wider calendar reshuffle, but Scott McLaughlin set to benefit
The annual Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama won’t go ahead in October, but the decision to move the date plays handsomely into the hands of a two-time winner.
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The postponement of the Bathurst 1000 has opened the door for former Supercars champion turned IndyCar racer Scott McLaughlin to make a possible return to Mount Panorama this year.
In a Covid-enforced calendar reshuffle due to the Sydney coronavirus outbreak, the Great Race has been pushed back from October to November 4-7.
After making the switch to IndyCar, McLaughlin had initially hoped to make a cameo as a co-driver with his former team Dick Johnson Racing at this year’s Bathurst 1000.
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But the original October dates for the endurance classic would not have provided enough time for the necessary 14-day quarantine period upon arrival in Australia following the final IndyCar race of the season.
The last race of the 2021 IndyCar calendar is scheduled to be held on September 26 on the streets of Long Beach, California.
But McLaughlin, in his rookie IndyCar season, suggested on Friday his hopes of returning for another crack at the mountain could now be a possibility after Bathurst was delayed.
“Well. Hello Bathurst. Let’s try make this work again,” McLaughlin tweeted.
A three-time Supercars champion, McLaughlin won the Bathurst 1000 in 2019 and would be a weapon as a co-driver for the DJR squad.
Racing for Team Penske, McLaughlin sits 13th in the IndyCar standings in his first year of full-time racing in the United States.
The former Ford flyer told News Corp earlier this year he would be disappointed if he could not race at Bathurst but the quarantine arrangements would make it difficult.
“I have got a deal in place with DJR to race there,” McLaughlin said.
“But if the quarantine stays the way it is, I won’t be racing, that’s pretty simple … at the end of the day, my IndyCar thing is first and foremost what I need to focus on and that will come first.
“If I have to not race Bathurst this year it will suck but it’s just how it works and how this pandemic is, but who knows things might change, hopefully if I get a vaccine that will help the process if there’s things going on.”
Bathurst 1000 postponed as Covid chaos hits Supercars
Supercars chief executive Sean Seamer says the series has bought itself time to deliver the “best possible Bathurst” after confirming the new November date for the Great Race.
In a Covid-enforced revision of the second half of the Supercars calendar, the Bathurst 1000 will move from its usual early October slot to November 4-7 this year, as the category tries to put distance between its showpiece event and coronavirus outbreak in New South Wales.
The Bathurst 1000 was originally scheduled for October 7-10, but faced limits on attendance due to the ongoing restrictions in the state.
The Bathurst date switch is part of a wider calendar reshuffle with the upcoming rounds in Perth, Queensland Raceway – which was a late replacement for Sydney Motorsport Park in August – and New Zealand all ditched.
The postponed Winton round is back on October 2-3 while Supercars are also expected to race at Phillip Island on October 23-24, although this is still to be confirmed.
The night event at Sydney Motorsport Park has been rescheduled for November 19-21 and the final round – the Gold Coast 500 – remains as planned on December 3-5.
Now facing a longer than expected mid-season break, without racing until October, Seamer said the series had needed to give itself time for the Covid situation to improve to “mitigate risk”.
He hoped Supercars would be able to run the Bathurst “as normal” in early November.
“This decision was purely around getting ourselves as much time as possible for things to improve and deliver an experience in NSW that was as close to the best Bathurst 1000 that it could possibly be and that required us to buy some time and delay that event,” Seamer said.
“We are working on options to get as many flights directly in and out of Bathurst for both our people and fans so that they don’t need to travel through metropolitan Sydney in order to attend that event should things in Sydney not improve by that point in time.
“What we have done by moving that date back a month is given ourselves the best possible chance to deliver the best possible Bathurst.”
It will be the first time since 2000 the biggest race on the Supercars calendar has not been held in October. Last year’s Bathurst 1000, won by Shane van Gisbergen and Garth Tander, was staged with a crowd cap of 4000 per day.
Seamer said the calendar revision had been made with the hope of avoiding any further changes, and the need to bypass travel through metropolitan areas.
Supercars has held seven rounds of the 2021 championship – the Bathurst 500, Sandown, Symmons Plains, Tailem Bend, Darwin and a Townsville double-header – and needs five more to complete its 12-round season.
Seamer was confident Supercars would be able to complete 12 rounds but said there were contingencies for double-headers, should there be more enforced Covid change.
“We will get to the 12,” said Seamer, who has QR on standby as a back-up option.
“We don’t want to have to do double-headers and make too many changes unless we have to but we do have contingency plans.”
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