AUSTRALIA’S premier open wheel category will complete a brief four-round 2021 Championship before shifting to a full-blown Summer series later next year.

WORDS: Richard Craill IMAGES: S5000

S5000 Australian Drivers Championship organisers have confirmed that the championship will shift to a summer-centric series across 2021/22, while keeping four rounds in a condensed start to next year in a bid to get the category – finally – racing.

Following two trial events in late 2019, S5000 was due to debut as a championship proper at this year’s cancelled Australian Grand Prix.

Instead, the first running of the Australian Drivers Championship since 2014 will commence at Symmons Plains in January next year, before tackling races at Phillip Island, Sydney Motorsport Park and a yet-to-be confirmed venue in March.

“After the frustration of last March’s Grand Prix cancellation, where S5000 was poised to make a serious statement, and the extended COVID-19 shut-down since, it really is exciting to confirm the re-launch of the S5000 Australian Drivers Championship (Gold Star) series, across the upcoming summer,” said S5000 Category Manager, Chris Lambden.

“It was always my view that S5000 should avoid the downsides of racing across winter in the southern states, and that’s exactly what we will now be doing. This series, slimmed back to four championship rounds in four months due to the delayed start and aimed at keeping series entrant costs down while the country gets back on its feet, will decide the first S5000 Gold Star Champion. We will then take a winter ‘off-season’ break and kick off a full 6 or 7 round 2021/22 championship in September, at Sandown, running through to April again.

A return to the Australian Grand Prix on that March date is considered likely following the S5000s impressive, if brief and unfulfilled, debut this year.

S5000 cars will also be demonstrated at Hobart’s Baskerville Raceway the week following the opening round at Symmons Plains as part of the week long ‘Race Tasmania’ festival next January.

Organisers have announced that the calendar for the 2021/22 S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship, expected to start at Sandown in September, will be confirmed later in the year.

The ‘summer’ series will include a visit to Mount Panorama for championship points as part of the Bathurst International later in 2021 (date TBA).

Shifting to a summer schedule also opens the door to a return of the famous Tasman Series, once a staple Down Under in the European Winter months.

S5000 organisers have long held ambitions to make the category a Trans-Tasman showcase and with New Zealand’s major categories racing across the Southern hemisphere’s summer, the calendar shift could allow for S5000 to join existing events as well as attracting European or American drivers otherwise stuck in winter conditions.

2021 S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship calendar

1 Symmons Plains Raceway January 24-26

2 Phillip Island February TBA

3 Venue TBA, March TBA

4 Sydney Motorsport Park, April 30-May 2