Second Darwin Supercars round locked in for August 22-23
Supercars action, such as David Reynolds leading in 2018, returns to Darwin on August 22-23. Photo: AAP
The Supercars’ second Darwin round of 2020 will be held on the same day as the Northern Territory election and a blockbuster AFL match in the top end.
The Darwin Supersprint has been moved to August 22-23 after the NT’s first Supercars event was postponed due to COVID-19 complications.
Teams were forced into quarantine for two days upon arriving in Darwin last Wednesday after the NT government declared certain areas of southeast Queensland as coronavirus hotspots.
That decision saw the Darwin Triple Crown moved back a week to this Saturday, but the NT government has since revoked the declaration of hotspots.
Four successive weekends of racing inbound 🙌
➡️ https://t.co/bbg0p1rN2a #VASC
— Supercars (@supercars) August 11, 2020
Supercars bosses had been toying with the idea of staging a midweek twilight round to avoid a clash with NT election, but that became too difficult to pull off.
The AFL’s Dreamtime game between Richmond and Essendon will also be staged on August 22 at Darwin’s TIO Stadium.
It means four Supercars rounds will be crammed into consecutive weekends, with the first of two events in Townsville taking place on August 29-30.
Red Bull Holden veteran Jamie Whincup says drivers are raring to go after being couped up in hotels since flying to Darwin.
“We got here quite early last Wednesday and there were some definite complications,” Whincup said.
“The isolation was OK, just the lack of airflow was the biggest killer.
“We were pretty keen to get out of there by the end.
“It was high-fives all round and down to the pool once we got the all clear.”
-AAP