Perth’s planned Supercars street circuit could be used to attract the Formula E world championship after 2026, according to local media reports.
The West Australian government has announced with Supercars series organisers that the state’s round of the domestic championship will move from Wanneroo Raceway, approximately 40 kilometres north of the city, to a street course built around Burswood Park in 2026.
Burswood Park is east across the Swan River from the CBD and the site of the city’s casino and exhibition centre. The purpose-built venue will be semipermanent, employing public roads but also new infrastructure — similar to Melbourne’s Albert Park and Townsville’s Reid Park — including fixed grandstands.
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The state government hopes to increase attendance at its Supercars round by more than 500 per cent, with 50,000 daily spectators anticipated at the proposed street track, up from around 30,000 for the entire weekend at last month’s race at Wanneroo.
“The Supercars SuperSprint at Wanneroo has been a much-loved event on the annual tourism calendar for many years now, and this will no doubt take it to the next level on a much bigger stage for more fans and visitors to enjoy,” WA Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti said.
“We know how passionate and enthusiastic motorsport fans are, and I know locally they’ve been wanting this to happen for some time, particularly when they’ve seen similar circuits built in other cities across the country.
“It’s really exciting to see this vision start to become a reality, and of course will have broader community benefits year-round with permanent grandstands and upgrades to the park.”
Local authorities are also hoping to position the round as a focal point for motorsport in the broader Asian region, capitalising on WA’s time zone and sub-six-hour flight time to South-East Asian hub Singapore.
“I want Perth to be one of the major events capitals of the South-East Asian region,” WA Premier Roger Cook said, per the West Australian. “Major events bring tens of thousands of visitors to our state, creating local jobs, supporting local business and helping our economy remain strong.”
The circuit would be the centrepiece of a 10-day motorsport festival spanning the Perth CBD to the Perth Motorplex in Kwinana, best known for its speedway and drag racing, around 40 kilometres south of the city.
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The West Australian reported the WA government could also pitch to bring a round of the Formula E to the city in what would be the world championship’s long-awaited first round in Australia.
The Australian E-Prix has been hypothesised for years, and Formula E CEO Jamie Reigle told the Australian Financial Review in 2022 that Australia was in its top four markets for expansion.
The electric racing boss has previously revealed that the series had investigated races in Adelaide and Sydney prior to the pandemic. The sport made its first appearance of sorts on local shores last year, when a second-generation car was put on display at The Bend in South Australia.
Talk of a domestic round of the series, now in its 10th season, has since gone quiet, though Perth’s new street track could revive speculation that the category could finally make its first stop Down Under in coming years.
Formula E is the world’s only all-electric single-seater category sanctioned by the FIA. Though it started as a series predominantly set around inner-city street circuits, in recent years permanent tracks have formed an increasing percentage of the calendar.
Four of this season’s 10 venues are permanent circuits, while a fifth, the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit, is a street-style track set up on the apron of the disused Berlin airport.
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Wanneroo Raceway held its first Australian Touring Car Championship round in 1973, won by Allan Moffat in his Ford Falcon XY GT-HO. It has been held annually ever since 1978 except for 2010, when it was pulled from the calendar due to operational health and safety conditions in the paddock and pit lane, and in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic.
Perth-born reigning champion Brodie Kostecki said he was happy to see the Supercars calendar shaken up.
“I think it’s been the pipeline for a while,” he said. “There was a bit of noise around it during the Perth round.
“I think it’s important that we change things up and do different things over periods of time to spice things up.”
Supercars organisers expect to expand the sport’s 12-round calendar beginning next season with an extra two venues, addressing complaints by drivers that the series doesn’t race often enough.
Supercars holding company chairman Barclay Nettlefold is also targeting new races outside Australia and New Zealand from 2026.
Perth-born Blanchard Racing Team driver Aaron Love said Perth would be an obvious launching pad to open the sport to Asia.
“The Asian market has got a huge interest in motorsport, especially in GT,” he said. “I feel like they’d have a huge interest in Supercars, but … they haven’t been able to tap into it before because it’s a bit difficult logistically for them.
“But if you have it here in Perth, then it’s really easy for them.
“I know from my experience and my brother’s experience, we always did a bit of racing in Asia when we were younger, just because it was so easy.
“Flip it over, and we’re racing here and they can come here. It’s so easy for them. To be able to welcome them down to Perth and experience all the racing would be really cool.”
The switch from Wanneroo to a new street circuit keeps up the sport’s tally of races on public roads after the collapse of the Newcastle 500, which was canned by the City of Newcastle council at the end of last year in part due to a disagreement between state and local governments over a new contract for the race.
Newcastle’s absence was covered by the Bathurst 500 season opener this year.