VALUE for money is at the heart of how SRO Motorsports Australia intends to distinguish its SpeedSeries from other previous recent attempts at running the national second-tier platform.

Promotion and management of the SpeedSeries has bounced around in the post-COVID era from the Australian Racing Group to Motorsport Australia to SRO.

The 2025 Shannons SpeedSeries has been headlined by SRO’s own GT4 and GT World Challenge categories and rounded out by Radical Cup, Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge and Ferrari Challenge Australasia.

The new-for-2026 Mustang Cup has already pledged its commitment to the SpeedSeries.

Making finances stack up while delivering a desired television package and handling an at-times volatile market has tended to be a difficult proposition, but SRO appears full steam ahead past the halfway point of its first season in charge.

“I think the events business in general is difficult. There’s so many factors,” SRO’s Australia chief Ben McMellan told V8 Sleuth.

“For us, it’s using those learnings that we have globally; obviously operating on four continents, we can take little bits and pieces from specific markets and apply them to Australia.

“As always, whether it’s a fan, a sponsor, a driver, a team, it’s all about value for money.

“So one focus we’ve made is rather than the SpeedSeries in the past probably having seven or eight categories at an event, it’s five categories and there’s building a little bit more downtime between sessions so that if there is a red flag, there is the opportunity to potentially extend and ensure categories get their full amount of time.

“And by creating these gaps and reducing the number of categories, there’s ways to enhance fan experiences, whether it’s more grid walks and the like.

“So for us, it’s a really strong focus: motorsport is expensive and the key for us is delivering value to all involved so that people want to continue spending their money doing what we’re doing.

“The overall product and level of service we can provide is the key.”

The Bend Motorsport Park will this weekend (September 5-7) host the penultimate round of the 2025 SpeedSeries, with the finale taking place across the ditch at Hampton Downs (October 31-November 2).

A six-round provisional calendar for 2026 was released back in June, involving visits to Phillip Island, The Bend, Queensland Raceway, Darwin, Sydney Motorsport Park and Sandown.

Motorsport Australia is set to have a stronger presence in the events space next year too following its announcement of a reborn Nationals platform.