MOTORSPORT: Malaysia still a chance for Supercars

The Virgin Australian Supercars Championship is still a strong chance to race in Malaysia this year following a dash to Kuala Lumpur by the category’s boss James Warburton last week.

Confirmation could come as soon as next Tuesday to either stick with the current August 12-14 date for the KL City 400, or shift to a new November 18-20 date.

But motoring.com.au understands the green light is dependent on paperwork being completed at the Malaysian end and a public expression of support for the event by the Malaysian government.

The Supercars category (then V8 Supercars) staged a five-car demonstration on a street circuit in Kuala Lumpur last year and Warburton subsequently confirmed a four-year deal to run championship rounds at the venue. But the race has been mired in a legal dispute between the original promoter, GT Global, and the new promoter, City Motorsports, since the latter was appointed by Kuala Lumpur City Hall to take over the event contract.

There was also widespread criticism of the demonstration race because of the disruption it caused to downtown traffic and the cost to KL City Hall of the circuit’s construction and pull-down.

Last week a Malaysian newspaper, Free Malaysia Today, reported Kuala Lumpur Mayor Abdul Aziz had confirmed the event would not take place in 2016. But Warburton’s trip to Malaysia has clearly convinced him the event still can happen in 2016, although it’s fair to say there is still widespread scepticism among teams.

If it does go ahead, the Supercars teams will share a multi-million-dollar sanctioning fee from the organisers. If it doesn’t, then the championship will drop back from 15 to 14 rounds.

It is understood that August remains the preferred date for the event, with concerns moving to November will mean running the risk of bad weather during the wettest month of the year. A back-up plan to run the event at the Sepang circuit just outside Kuala Lumpur has been ditched.

The Malaysian saga is the latest in a series of controversial overseas ventures for the category, which date back as far as China in 2005 and have also included Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and, most recently, Texas in 2013.

The appeal of racing in Malaysia - apart from the money – is that it is in the right time zone to still get decent TV ratings numbers in Australia and is a far more affordable transport proposition. It also taps into a booming regional economy.

Warburton has previously stated the category’s intention to conduct two overseas races per season (beyond New Zealand) in the Asian region commencing as soon as 2017.

Warburton is not attending this weekend’s round of the championship at Winton in central Victoria.