Supercars boss wary of Bathurst 'risk'

The revised 2020 schedule, revealed over the weekend, includes two rounds on the famous Mount Panorama circuit – the traditional Bathurst 1000 in early October and a new season finale on what is usually the Bathurst 12 Hour weekend in February.

The format for the second visit yet to be locked in, largely due to the uncertainty surrounding the 12 Hour and whether international crews will be able to make the journey to Australia for the Intercontinental GT Challenge opener.

Should the long-distance GT race not go ahead, it seems unlikely a Supercars enduro would take its place.

While prepared for the February event to be Supercars-only if needed, Seamer says there would be a 'tremendous risk' in trying to replicate the category's Great Race.

"We certainly wouldn't want to try and replicate the Bathurst 1000," he said.

"There's a tremendous opportunity going to Bathurst a second time, but tremendous risk as well. So we're going to have to be innovative and make sure it's different."

One option for Supercars would be to borrow ideas from the 'Mount Panorama Festival of Speed' that was unsuccessfully pitched as the new fifth Bathurst event last year.

Formats remain the key question mark over the resumption of the Supercars season, with the revised calendar light on specific detail regarding races.

The only hard confirmation was that the Bathurst 1000 will still be a four-day, two-driver 1000-kilometre enduro.

Whether there will be any other enduros remains to be seen, as does the fate of the Enduro Cup.

As it stands it would be difficult to stage a three-round, consecutive enduro series. While The Bend has retained its spot before Bathurst and could still feasibly be a 500-kilometre, two-driver race, the next two events after Bathurst are Perth and Tasmania – traditionally sprint rounds.

Sandown is an obvious candidate to be reinstated as an enduro in place of the Gold Coast, but is currently scheduled for mid-December, after Perth and Tasmania.

Seamer, however, remains adamant and Enduro Cup of some sort will go ahead.

"Yes of course," he said. "[But] it would be too early to speculate the final details for that.

"The key thing we wanted to do was get the sequence of the rounds right, get the locations of the rounds right, and we'll move forward on the specifics regarding formats over the coming weeks.

"We're all having to think outside the box."