SUPERCARS CEO Shane Howard says the motorsport series will "100 per cent" return to the city and the Newcastle 500 won't drop off this year's calendar despite the event being postponed from its March dates on Monday.
Speaking with the Newcastle Herald after the postponement, Mr Howard assured race fans the city would still host a round this year and said "no date" was "off the table" for when it might occur.
"We'll look at the most appropriate time to put it on ... but the Newcastle 500 will definitely back in the city this year," he said.
"100 per cent we will be back."
The newly appointed CEO also expressed Supercars' desire to extend its stay in the city beyond this year, saying the Newcastle 500 was one of its "premier" rounds.
This year's event is the last under a five-year contract with council, but Supercars has an option to extend the deal for another five years.
Mr Howard acknowledged that there was a section of the community which opposed the east end race location, but said the event delivered the region significant benefits.
"As long as the event is delivering, it has to deliver the economic results for the city, but as a sport - it's a world-class event and we would love for it to stay," he said.
Newcastle was due to host the opening round of the Supercars season on March 4-6, but was replaced by the Sydney SuperNight due to the "concern surrounding the number of COVID-19 cases in Newcastle" and the "continuing uncertainty the virus is causing in parts of the local community", Supercars said.
"Given the continuing evolving and unpredictable COVID situation, it has become too challenging to stage a complex multi-faceted event on the streets of Newcastle for tens of thousands of race fans," Mr Howard said.
"Putting on an event of the scale of Newcastle ... requires an enormous amount of work to ensure it runs to a world-class standard."
The decision comes after two councillors raised concerns about the race becoming a 'super-spreader' event.
The March dates were scheduled in September before the Omicron outbreak, but Supercars and council both indicated only a month ago the event would proceed and as late as Saturday work was still taking place to prepare the track.
Lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said while the event would have been subject to a COVID-safe plan, the right decision was to postpone given community concern about COVID remained high.
"City of Newcastle staff have been in regular contact with Supercars regarding the local situation," Cr Nelmes said.
"We all agreed that right now, and regardless of the additional precautions taken to run the [event] safely, the community would feel more confident about the race proceeding later in the year."
The Newcastle 500 was to be the opening round of the Supercars season for the first time, in a change from the three season-ending events the city hosted annually through 2017-19.
It will move "to a later date in 2022", but Supercars gave no indication it would fill the original Sydney SuperNight dates of November 18-20.
"As a street circuit built in the heart of the CBD, the [Newcastle] event provides enormous economic benefits to the region, and we want to ensure that happens again in 2022," Supercars CEO Shane Howard said.
"We are working to confirm the rescheduled date as soon as practicable."
The postponement was welcomed by Newcastle East Residents' Group but spokesperson Christine Everingham questioned whether the elected council would have a say in the new dates, given the motion it passed in September which specified any changes to council's agreement with Supercars regarding the "timing, staging, access or other aspects" of the 2022 event need to "be reviewed and approved by the elected council".
"It's the obvious decision [to postpone] and I think that it reflects what living with COVID in the future is actually going to mean," Ms Everingham said.
"These events are a dinosaur. Streets events ... you can't do them in these times. They're not the future, in the near future, anyway."
Some residents and traders in the east end take issue with the amount of time it takes to set up and remove track infrastructure, a disruptive period that was due to be slightly shorter this year with the event being the season's opening round.
But asked if there was a time of the year east end residents would prefer the event to be held, Ms Everingham said the Sydney SuperNight's original November dates would cause problems for businesses which rely on strong pre-Christmas trade.
"No time of the year is good, but especially [before] Christmas," she said. "It's just so disruptive."
City of Newcastle CEO Jeremy Bath said a report about potential dates for this year's event would be put to councillors, possibly next month.
No Supercars driver had publicly commented on the event's postponement by late yesterday, but 2018 race winner David Reynolds told News Corp last week he hoped it would become a mainstay in the series.
"I've always loved that street circuit and I think it should always be included on the racing calendar," the Rove Racing driver said.
"It's a challenging track but it suits my style of racing. Being a season opener, you always want to do well. It's sort of sets the tone for the rest of the year."
Tickets for the Newcastle 500 will remain valid for the future event date.
