SUPERCARS and its teams are set to engage in decisive discussions to resolve the key question regarding the 2026 calendar: 13 or 14 rounds?

The common belief is that the parties will likely find a happy middle ground to make expanding to 14 rounds possible, but it may involve compromises on both sides.

That relates to the extra payments which Supercars owner RACE must make to teams for each event beyond the minimum annual dozen.

The Teams Racing Charter stipulates that a 14-round schedule would necessitate RACE paying $120,000 per licence (i.e. $60,000 per event above 12).

The numbers have got to stack up for RACE as well as teams, leading to negotiations about where that figure ultimately lands.

A meeting is being lined up to take place in Sydney in early September hot on the heels of the Bathurst 1000 launch.

“We’re due to sit down and talk about the calendar and a whole range of things, which we’ll do post the launch coming up on September 1,” Supercars CEO James Warburton told V8 Sleuth.

“So it makes sense with everyone in town that we’ll get together in that week, depending on everyone’s diaries, and sit down and talk.

“First thing’s first, I’d like to present my plan for the sport.

“So again, going around to the teams and talking, I put quite a detailed letter to them, and then talking about the things that matter, an opportunity for them to put things on the table and have a constructive conversation about the future. That’s all underway.”

If 14 rounds eventuates, the new Ruapuna event would simply join the existing 13. Otherwise, Queensland Raceway appears at risk given that most other fixtures have contracts covering the mid-term future.

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James Warburton. Pic: Supplied/Mark Horsburgh

Expected to form part of that vision is the bold internationalism concept which Warburton floated in June.

“It’s a ’27 plan but there’s been a lot of work that’s gone on before me and then obviously having lived it for those four years (during his previous 2013-17 tenure), I have got a lot of thoughts about that as well,” Warburton noted.

“The key thing for us is actually innovating and moving at speed. Speed has always been a weapon in business and for us it’s something that is going to be important.

“Certainly by having Shane (Howard) in his ability to work on more strategic projects versus the day-to-day, same as Mark Pejic, means we can do things like that in a much more progressive and quicker way.”