MOTORSPORT: Newcastle set for Supercars finale

The NSW regional city of Newcastle is set to host the finale of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship for five years from November 2017.

The deal for a beach-side street circuit in the Hunter Valley capital to take over from the Homebush venue in Sydney is understood to have been locked away between the championship, Newcastle City Council and Destinations NSW, which provides critical financial backing in return for the rights to the finale.

While another regional city, Gosford, was officially withdrawn from making any bid for a race by its city council last week, sources insist that was a face-saving measure because Newcastle had already won the rights to the event.

Whether that detail is true or not, the move to Newcastle from the Sydney Olympic Park precinct will be one of the big changes for the 2017 calendar, although Supercars CEO James Warburton would not be drawn to confirm the Newcastle reports.

"I think we will be in a good place," he told motoring.com.au. "We are still very confident of having a New South Wales regional event to conclude the calendar and that will bring us the ability to collapse the calendar into that middle of November finish.

"November 17-19 is the target for that; I am very confident we will achieve that.

"In New South Wales we have lots of different options," he said. "We are getting very close to concluding discussions on those and we will be very happy with where we head."

The Newcastle Herald newspaper is reporting a circuit of about 3.5km in length has been proposed for the race, which would wind through the east end of the city.

"It would be absolutely picturesque," Tourism Hunter chairman Todd Creedon was quoted as saying. "You can imagine the aerial footage with Nobbys, the harbour, the beaches. From a spectator and television perspective, it would be just phenomenal."

Homebush first hosted a Supercars race in 2009, but the venue has always had some controversy attached to it, firstly because of the way former championship czar Tony Cochrane gained approval for the race from the former Labor state government, and then because of the cost of setting up and tearing down the temporary track.

By contrast, Supercars has had better luck and support at smaller centres than Sydney. The Clipsal 500 in Adelaide is hugely popular, while deals with the Queensland state government and Tourism and Events Queensland for Gold Coast and Townsville races have just been extended for a further three years.

In Victoria, however, a push for a Geelong street race has been rejected by the state government.

While some motor racing fans complain about the millions of dollars poured into temporary circuits by governments, the big street races are important revenue spinners for the Supercars championship.

Meanwhile Warburton enthusiastically endorsed the prospect of two Asian races in 2017, despite the Kuala Lumpur outing being cancelled this year because of a legal case that is yet to be resolved.

"With KL we have to wait on the court case until the middle of August, which still gives us a couple of weeks before calendar," he explained.

"We won't be in a situation where we will put it on the calendar if there is any risk and we are very confident of including a second Asian venue, so a 16 or 17 race calendar across 37 weeks is what we plan to be announcing."

The full calendar will be revealed just before the Coates Hire Sandown 500 in September.

Disclaimer: Bruce Newton is a paid contributor to the official supercars.com website.