Supercars planning Christmas talks with IndyCar and NASCAR
Supercars CEO Sean Seamer will continue talks with both IndyCar and NASCAR during a trip to the US over the Christmas period.
The Aussie Touring Car series has both major American categories on its radar at the moment, following a succession of links to the Gold Coast event.
It started with news that Supercars is in talks with NASCAR about an exhibition race at the Surfers Paradise event, as first revealed by Motorsport.com on the eve of this year's Gold Coast 600.
Just weeks later a movement to get IndyCar back on the streets of Surfers was kicked off by Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, which led to IndyCar CEO Mark Miles travelling to Australia for what he described as encouraging talks.
Supercars has different levels of involvement in each plan, having led the NASCAR talks, while taking on what's been described as an 'interested observer' role with the IndyCar return – particularly given the complications that the slated February 2020 date might cause to the Supercars schedule.
And while coy on the progression of any aspect of the Gold Coast event future, Seamer says he'll be meeting with representatives from both NASCAR and IndyCar in the coming weeks.
“I am heading to US over Christmas where I plan to catch up with as many people as I can including the guys from NASCAR and IndyCar," he said.
"There are no updates other than that.
"We are in constant contact with the [Queensland] government and Tourism and Events Queensland with our partnership continuing to deliver strong growth. The Gold Coast 600 is a proven economic model the government supports, which meets all KPIs and delivers an extremely positive return on investment.”
The Gold Coast event has retained its now-traditional post-Bathurst spot on the Supercars schedule for next year (), however a plan to turn it into a single 500-kilometre race rather than two 300-kilometre heats has recently been shelved.
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| Series | Supercars , IndyCar , NASCAR , NASCAR Cup |
| Author | Andrew van Leeuwen |
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