Photo: Rhys Vandersyde/InSyde Media
Nettlefold confirmed to Speedcafe on Sunday at the Gold Coast 500 that there is now “collective agreement” for critical changes to the Teams Racing Charter to take place.
Speedcafe revealed last week that the Nettlefold-led RACE consortium that owns Supercars had struck a deal with the five ‘breakaway’ squads that had knocked back its earlier offer.
Supercars planned to announce its long-awaited calendar at the showcase event, but delayed the rollout while details of the deal with its other seven teams were still being finalised.
Pending any further dramatic developments, final sign-off and ratification is expected to take place in the coming days, followed by a public calendar announcement.
“We’ve got a collective agreement between all the team owners with regards to how the TRC will be finalised,” Nettlefold told Speedcafe on Sunday.
“We’ll be working over the next few days to conclude the TRC and we’re looking forward to the future.
“Everyone is fully committed to a 14-round calendar and we hope to be able to put that out once we’ve got everything agreed in the next week.”
The structure of the existing TRC agreement left RACE needing to renegotiate terms in order to ensure the calendar did not shrink to 12 rounds.
It was revealed at the Bathurst 1000 that seven teams had agreed to a revised deal, but five others – namely Triple Eight, Grove, Erebus, PremiAir and SCT – knocked it back.
The seven publicly urged the breakaway five to join them in signing the agreement, issuing a statement stressing the importance of making concessions for the health of the sport.
Last week’s revelation that RACE had struck a different deal with the other five came as a shock and means the pit lane will be operating on two different payment structures.
The five will receive a higher annual payment, while the seven are now expected to score a bonus payment when RACE sells the business.
Both groups of teams appear to be declaring victory following the negotiations, with the seven effectively investing in the success of RACE to achieve a higher overall return.
That group of seven included the four owners – Ryan Walkinshaw, Brett Ralph, Brad Jones and Matt Stone – who had been selected to represent all teams in the original negotiations.
The calendar must be finalised this week if teams are to meet an end-of-month 2027 entry deadline, which has already been pushed back once amid the uncertainty.
A rejigged calendar will include Phillip Island returning to the schedule for the first time since 2019, taking Sandown’s place in the Finals Series.
Sandown is expected to be repositioned as a third Enduro Cup event, while Queensland Raceway – which lacks significant government funding – is set to drop off the schedule.
The release of a Supercars calendar will come as a relief to the Australian motorsport industry, as it has knock-on effects for other classes, officials and fans.
Motorsport Australia is believed to have recently issued Supercars a ‘please explain’ regarding the ongoing lack of calendar clarity due to its widespread impact.