V8 Supercars Announces Compressed 2016 Schedule Featuring Overseas Race

V8 Supercars confirmed a "more compacted" calendar for next year's expanded championship, which includes the return of an int'l event, according to Mark Fogarty of THE AGE.

The '16 V8 season will begin with the Adelaide 500 on March 4-6 and end at the Sydney 500 on Nov. 26-27, "shaving two weeks off the racing schedule." The V8s will race outside Australasia for the first time since '13 with confirmation of the series' "headline appearance" at the Kuala Lumpur City Grand Prix in Malaysia, racing on a city center street circuit overlooked by the Twin Towers.

Along with the addition of Kuala Lumpur, boosting the championship to 15 events, "the biggest change to running order is the Phillip Island event's move to mid-April" from early November in the hope of "better weather attracting a bigger crowd." Scheduling events "no more than three weeks apart either side of the winter break" addresses the "widespread criticism" of several four- and five-week gaps in this year's calendar. The two-day preseason test in February has also been dropped.

2016 V8 SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP
March 4-6 Adelaide 500
March 18-20 Tasmania SuperSprint, Symmons Plains
April 1-3 F1 Australian Grand Prix* Albert Park
April 16-17 Phillip Island SuperSprint
May 7-8 Perth SuperSprint, Barbagallo Raceway
May 21-22 Winton SuperSprint
June 18-19 Darwin Triple Crown Hidden Valley Raceway
July 9-10 Townsville 400
July 23-24 Ipswich SuperSprint
August 12-14 KL City Grand Prix
Aug 27-28 Sydney SuperSprint
September 17-18 Sandown 500
October 7-9 Bathurst 1000
October 22-23 Gold Coast 600
November 5-6 Auckland SuperSprint
November 26-27 Sydney 500 The Age