Eastern Creek Raceway Photo credit: Australian Racing Drivers' Club
Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney has been added to this year's championship calendar.
The event will take place on 24-26 August, originally scheduled as the Winton Motor Raceway V8 Supercars meeting. Sydney is now host two rounds of the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship, with the Sydney Telstra 500 street race taking place in December.
Winton's event has in turn been moved to the penultimate event of the championship on 16-18 November, and takes the place of the previous 'to be announced' international slot which was due to take place on 9-11 November.
“We believe Australia’s largest city can have motorsport nirvana with a thrilling circuit race at a great permanent venue followed by all the street circuit bells and whistles of the Sydney Telstra 500,” said V8 Supercar CEO David Malone.
“We compete three times in Victoria and three times in Queensland each year so our view is we can sustain three New South Wales events, certainly for this year, based on their different market appeal, location, timing and format.”
The Championship returns to Eastern Creek after an absence of three years, although last year it hosted the pre-season Official Test Day and Launch Day which attracted in excess of 10,000 fans. The venue has recently undergone an AUS $11 million upgrade.
Glenn Matthews, CEO of the Australian Racing Drivers' Club (ARDC), managers of Eastern Creek International Raceway, said that since the venue’s refurbishment, Sydney's motorsport fans had been loud and constant in their call for V8 Supercars to return.
“Eastern Creek is the only permanent race circuit in Sydney and is a perfect complement to the street circuit event held at Olympic Park in December,” said Matthews.
“Having the V8 boys back is ideal to re-launch the new Eastern Creek, with exhilarating new circuit layouts, refurbished pit lane and upgraded spectator facilities almost complete, combined with September marking the 60th Anniversary of the ARDC.”
