TBK-Light.com

Just noticed this amazing news! Seems to be aiming to be an international event like the Macau GP:

http://www.formula3.com.au/news.asp?id=822

Contradictory article though, first they announce that F3 will race there, then they reveal they're in discussions and it's not yet confirmed.

The unconfirmed bit is that a date hasn't been set for the race next year. The confirmed bit is that the track was passed as safe to race an F3 car around there, which was themajor goal to achieve.

I think it will be fantastic... i just hope they do it right. They should run the event, to start with anyway, on either the Saturday of the 12hr, or team up with the Easter meeting.... running an event themselves (as was alluded to in the Speedcafe article) , even with international participation, would not be a profitable experience for the promoter (in the current 'taxi-only' mentality we have in Australian racing at the moment)...

A race at Bathurst will be the first step in resurrecting open-wheel racing in Australia, the second step is probably for another thread

Ye should run alongside the 1000, would really turn it into an even bigger festival and potentially attract a slightly different type of crowd if it became successful. Unfortunately the F3 series here is not much to look at currently but hopefully this could be some kind of kick-start into improving open wheel racing in the country.

That would be the ideal situation, but is very unlikely to ever happen happen (hence why i never even considered it), for starters the V8Supercars seem to pride themselves on not having a faster car than them racing on the program...

The 1000 support bill goes to the highest bidder anyway, i don't think the F3 Association has that much in the coffers.

Agree totally

My thoughts are that to get some momentum going, to start with the formula would have to be something along the lines of "Formula Libre"... ie... any wings and slicks car. It would open up a tonne of cars to compete. Sure it would have the possibility of "buying wins", but to start with that would be the least of the worries.

Australian open wheel racing needs to be an aspirational category, not a stepping stone which is all F3 will ever be. It was a shame to read an F3 spokesperson a few weeks back crowing about how good F3 was as a stepping stone to V8Supercars.....