The Newcastle 500 has officially been postponed due to COVID-19 with the Sydney SuperNight to become the opening event of the 2022 season.
Supercars announced the postponement on Monday, which it said was due to the "concern surrounding the number of COVID-19 cases in Newcastle" and the "continuing uncertainty the virus is causing in parts of the local community".
"Given the continuing evolving and unpredictable COVID situation, it has become too challenging to stage a complex multi-faceted event on the streets of Newcastle for tens of thousands of race fans in March," Supercars CEO Shane Howard said.
"Putting on an event of the scale of Newcastle, in the middle of its CBD, requires an enormous amount of work to ensure it runs to a world-class standard.
"We have been in consultation with the City of Newcastle throughout January and understand that constructing and operating an event of this size during the current COVID period has caused concern in parts of the community."
The decision comes after two Newcastle councillors last week raised concerns about the potential for the motorsport race to become a COVID 'super-spreader' event.
The Newcastle round was locked in for March 4-6 back in September, before the Omicron outbreak in the region.
Supercars and Newcastle council had both indicated only a month ago the event would likely proceed and as late as Saturday work was taking place to prepare the track.
Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said while the Newcastle 500 would have been subject to a strict COVID safe plan, the right decision was to postpone the event given community concern remained high.
"City of Newcastle staff have been in regular contact with Supercars regarding the local situation. We all agreed that right now, and regardless of the additional precautions taken to run the Newcastle 500 safely, the community would feel more confident about the race proceeding later in the year," she said.
The March event was to be the opening round of the Supercars Championship season for the first time, in a change from the three rounds the city has previously hosted at the end of the season.
Supercars said the Newcastle 500 would be moved "to a later date in 2022", but gave no indication if it would fill the now shifted Sydney SuperNight event dates of November 18-20.
"As a street circuit built in the heart of the CBD, the [Newcastle] event provides enormous economic benefits to the region, and we want to ensure that happens again in 2022," Supercars CEO Shane Horward said.
"We are working to confirm the rescheduled date as soon as practicable.
"We thank our fans, volunteers, local businesses, Destination NSW, the NSW Office of Sport and City of Newcastle for their ongoing support.
"We fully intend to stage this year's Repco Newcastle 500 in Supercars' trademark style, and we are confident that we will be able to successfully do this later in the year."
