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S5000 to return open wheel racing to Adelaide streets
HISTORY will repeat as a top level open-wheel championship concludes on the streets of Adelaide in 2022.
The final round of the S5000 Tasman Series will be contested at the 2022 Adelaide 500 this December 1-4, returning ‘big banger’ open wheel cars to the iconic circuit that first delivered Formula One World Championship racing to Australia in 1985.
The Tasman Series is a three-round championship with races on the Gold Coast, Mount Panorama and Adelaide, that harks back to the iconic trans-Tasman battles between some of the world’s best drivers across the Summers of the 1960s and 1970s.
The series’ was re-born last year by S5000, Australia’s newest open-wheel category that features a field of 560hp V8-powered ‘wings and slicks’ racers that are a modern interpretation of the classic Formula 5000 cars of the Tasman Series era.
The S5000 field will herald the return of fast open-wheel cars to the Adelaide Parklands circuit for the first time since 2014, when Formula 3 featured on the Adelaide 500 program.
The cars are the quickest in Australian Motorsport, with the outright lap record of 1m17.9726s set in 2014 likely to be challenged by the S5000 field this December.
Adelaide will be the final event in a three-round, nine-race series that will decide the 2022 Tasman Series Champion.
A host of talented drivers from Australia, New Zealand and further abroad are expected to compete this year.
Adelaide is the home to Team BRM, the most successful team in the history of top level open-wheel racing in Australia. The team recently secured their second S5000 Australian Drivers’ Championship and seventh Gold Star award when Joey Mawson clinched the 2022 championship in Darwin.
While not yet confirmed, Mawson is expected to reunite with the team for the Tasman Series.
“The Adelaide circuit is iconic and to even have the opportunity to race on it, let alone drive an S5000 on it, would be very special,” two-time Gold Star winner Joey Mawson said.
“I grew up watching the Adelaide 500 on TV and watching replays of the Formula 1 era. To know there’s a chance I could be racing there is very exciting and would be a highlight of my career for sure.
“It’s a great track that is suited to open-wheel cars and always produces great racing. Our cars are very spectacular, very fast and exciting to watch so I’m sure we’ll put on a great show for the fans.”
The 2022 S5000 Tasman Series will commence at the Boost Mobile Gold Coast 500 in October, before tackling Mount Panorama, Bathurst at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst International in November.
The series will then head to Adelaide for the finale’ on December 1-4.