SUPERCARS have today confirmed the cancellation of this season's Newcastle 500.
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As revealed on Friday by the Newcastle Herald, the Newcastle round of the series was facing the axe because of the costs involved in setting up a street circuit which would have no fans.
The worst fears of Hunter motorsport fans has been confirmed this morning with the release of the Supercars calendar for the rest of the season.
The Newcastle and Gold Coast rounds of the championship were dropped from a season which will resume on June 27-28 at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Supercars CEO Sean Seamer said details were subject to change given the nature of the COVID-19 situation.
"This is a fixed stake in the ground that we can now move forward on, and we all need to be flexible on how much racing we can and can't do over the coming eight months," he said.
"We looked at everything. We looked at bubble concepts, we looked at back-to-back rounds.
"But the calendar has been formulated in such a way that we've been able to maintain the spacing between the rounds, for both medical and cost reasons.
"We believe it allows us to maintain our national footprint, which is really important to us."
Revised 2020 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship
June 27-28: Sydney Motorsport Park
July 18-19: Truck Assist Winton
August 8-9: BetEasy Darwin Triple Crown
August 29-30: Townsville
September 19-20: OTR The Bend
October 8-11: Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000
October 31-November 1: PIRTEK Perth
November 21-22: Tyrepower Tasmania
December 12-13: Penrite Oil Sandown
January 9-10: ITM Auckland
February 5-7: Bathurst