V8 boss vows to race on

SEAN Seamer has vowed to deliver a V8 season with the Supercars boss declaring the coronavirus will not stop the sport from crowning a champion – even if they are forced to abandon their next three events.

Following the stunning cancellation of the Melbourne 400, Seamer spoke to News Corp of his worst case scenario.

“Our number one priority is to deliver a championship,” Seamer said.

“If we are forced to make postponements or cancellations, we will but we will still get a championship away in 2020.”

After being forced to abandon a full championship round after a confirmed case of COVID-19 in the Formula One paddock forced the Australian Grand Prix to be abandoned, Seamer admitted Supercars could be stopped for three months.

Starting with the Tasmanian 400, set to begin in just 20 days, Seamer hinted that a series of events could be postponed with the sport preferring to reschedule races to ensure fans can attend rather than conduct television only rounds.

“Supercars is such a visual and interactive sport,” Seamer said.

“It is fast, loud and we know that our fans love our sport because of the event experience.

“We would prefer to reschedule a race than run an event without a crowd.\

“The situation is fluid and we are getting hourly updates from the Federal Government. We are following that guidance.’’

Seamer said a call on the Tasmanian 400 will be made at least seven days before the scheduled start of the event, which is April 3.

“The latest the teams could make a call is the Friday before,” Seamer said.

“And that is when we will be forced to make a decision.”

Despite the prospect of having at least two race meetings scheduled, Seamer said the V8 calendar would allow for multiple make up races.

“We are looking at what other sports are doing,” Seamer said. “But the big luxury we have is that we have a lot of space in between each round.

“I am not a medical expert but if you look at the trajectory of the virus, we are contemplating being affected for two to three months.

“We will start working on all the permutations of the calendar over the weekend.”

Holden hero Mark Winterbottom said the welfare of the people in pit-lane was more important than the Supercars season.

“Racing in front of no crowd would be bizarre” he said.

“I hope we don’t have to do that, but even then, the question will need to be asked about the people in the teams.

“There are a lot of people in pit-lane and we have to think of their welfare too.”

“I hope the season goes ahead but people are bigger than the sport.

“We will let others decide and only time will tell.”