Top-level motor racing "is facing a track crisis" if marginal existing circuits and proposed new sites do not receive government assistance, according to Mark Fogarty of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Supercars, which stages Australia's most popular car racing championship, "warns that it is in danger of running out of local international-standard tracks as it looks to expand its schedule." The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport, the national governing body, is "also concerned, citing the urgent need for a multi-purpose circuit in Victoria." The expectation that Melbourne's Sandown raceway will close and the postponement of Supercars' Kuala Lumpur street race event "have highlighted the lack of suitable tracks in Australia." The "demise of Sandown would leave the sport without a permanent metropolitan track." Supercars was "forced to cancel" next month's KL City 400 in the center of the Malaysian capital. Dropping the event "creates a five-week gap in the calendar" that could not be filled with a local event without returning to a track. Supercars CEO James Warburton said, "I've said all along we're running out of tracks. We're running out of tracks and we're running out of facilities." Preliminary construction has begun on a circuit at Tailem Bend, 100km north-east of Adelaide, "while a second, shorter track has been proposed alongside the Mount Panorama course in Bathurst" (SMH, 7/2).
