WINTON Motor Raceway’s owners have called for the circuit to return to the Repco Supercars Championship next year.
Stephen Whyte, general manager of the Benalla Auto Club which owns the track, spoke about such a desire having seen Winton miss out on the 2023 calendar.
“We love them being here with testing et cetera but we would love them to race here,” Whyte said in a Repco Garage video.
“I mean we’re central in Victoria, we’re in the heartland of Victoria and the reality is we’re close to the border and close to the southern part of Victoria plus obviously the western part so a lot of travelling folk come to Winton as a bit of a pilgrimage, much the same as Bathurst.”
Winton is a popular camping destination for fans and has a rich history with the category, including hosting the very first ATCC round run to Group A regulations in 1985.
“Obviously Winton always seems to be in April or May (for Supercars), maybe even June sometimes, but it still lends itself to that weekend away,” Whyte continued.
“It’s not bad to be sitting watching car racing during the day and have a beer and a fire at night.
“From the track’s perspective, if we go back to our history, in ’85 we had the first ATCC round here with Group A and obviously that history burns bright and burns long in the club so we’d love to have them back here.”
Various question marks remain over the composition of the 2024 calendar, including a potential increase in events from the current dozen, and whether Supercars will venture back outside of Australasia.
“Our hat is in the ring, absolutely,” said Whyte.
“The media talk, the speculation is 15 rounds… if I could say something, the motorsport public is genuinely focused on making sure they look after the biggest show in town, Supercars.
“I would hate to think that their long-term plan is to go overseas because really that doesn’t leave the fan with much choice.
“Really, a track like ours is certainly accessible, it’s full of people that are enthusiastic about motorsport and they love their Supercars so at the end of the day I would hope that Supercars realises there is a huge historical value in being here but also engagement with their fans.”
Supercars last raced at Winton in May 2022.
The track held a Shannons SpeedSeries round on the weekend just gone with seven categories in action.