Whincup and Skaife stunned by loss of Adelaide event
SUPERCARS legend Jamie Whincup has pleaded for the Adelaide 500 to be revived while V8 great Mark Skaife says the sport lost “its No.1 event” after the shock axing of the marquee race.
In a major blow to the Supercars championship, the South Australian government announced it was scrapping the Adelaide 500 – one of the headline races on the series calendar – due to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.
It’s the third major loss for the sport in a week following Team Penske’s announcement it was pulling out of Supercars and confirmation of three-time series champion Scott McLaughlin’s move to race IndyCars in the US full-time in 2021.
The decision to cancel one of Supercars’ biggest and most popular events sent shockwaves through Australian motorsport. A 11-time winner in Adelaide, seven-time Supercars champion and Triple Eight star Whincup described the move to terminate the event as a major loss.
“I can’t sugar-coat this, losing the Adelaide 500 feels like we’ve lost a sibling,” said Whincup, who has won more races than any driver in Adelaide.
“While I can understand the decision from the SA government to stop the event in these difficult times, we pray they are open to discussions to put the Adelaide Parklands event back on the calendar sometime in the future.”
The Adelaide 500 has owned a place on the Supercars calendar since 1999 and has traditionally provided a blockbuster opening to the season.
It had already been announced the event would be pushed back towards the end of the yet-to-be-confirmed calendar next year before the shock call to cancel it completely.
Skaife, a four-time race winner in Adelaide, said Supercars had lost its biggest event.
“For the last 15 years at least I have been saying that it’s the No.1 event of the year for us,” Skaife said.
“It’s not just South Australia’s biggest sporting event but one of Australia’s biggest sporting events, bordering on 300,000 people over four days.”