The Auckland round of the Australian Supercars Championship has been moved to 2021.
Scott McLaughlin Photo: Photosport
A new 12-round series calendar has been unveiled, with the championship having been on hold since the Covid-19 lockdown began in March.
Sydney Motorsport Park will host the first round back on June 27-28, with a further 10 events to follow through to the new season finale at Mount Panorama in February.
The Auckland event, which was originally scheduled to be held over ANZAC weekend this year, will now take place as the penultimate round in the second weekend of January.
"There is a clear priority to get that border open again and to work as trans-Tasman partners, and that flows through to the event date," Supercars CEO Sean Seamer said.
"We're confident that based on all the advice we're getting right now that the date will be achievable."
All events bar the cancelled Albert Park Formula 1 Grand Prix and the street circuits of Gold Coast and Newcastle have been retained.
Other than Bathurst - which will retain its four-day layout for the 1000, and three days for the finale - all rounds are currently scheduled as two-day events. Race formats are to be announced.
Seamer was pleased to deliver the news to fans, but stressed all details are subject to change given the nature of the Covid-19 situation.
"This is a fixed stake in the ground that we can now move forward on, and we all need to be flexible on how much racing we can and can't do over the coming eight months," he said.
Seamer said all options were considered, including re-visiting circuits such as Queensland Raceway and Phillip Island or even doubling up at a venue like Sydney Motorsport Park.
"We looked at everything. We looked at bubble concepts, we looked at back-to-back rounds," he explained.
"But the calendar has been formulated in such a way that we've been able to maintain the spacing between the rounds, for both medical and cost reasons.
"We believe it allows us to maintain our national footprint, which is really important to us."
Revised 2020 Australia Supercars Championship
June 27-28: Sydney Motorsport Park
July 18-19: Winton
August 8-9: Darwin Triple Crown
August 29-30: Townsville
September 19-20: The Bend
October 8-11: Bathurst 1000
October 31-November 1: Perth
November 21-22: Tasmania
December 12-13: Sandown
January 9-10: Auckland
February 5-7: Bathurst