ITM 500 Auckland returns to November

The ITM 500 Auckland, one of the country's largest annual sporting events, will be a pivotal stop in the 2015 V8 Supercars Championship.

The New Zealand event will return to its traditional November date as a SuperSprint event, V8 Supercars confirmed today in launching the 2015 race calendar.

The event moves into a critical stage of the Championship immediately following the PIRTEK Enduro Cup, into a clear sporting space and an ideal weather period.

November was the preferred date for the original V8 Supercars events at Pukekohe, with organisers and stakeholders agreeing on the benefits of returning to this timeframe.

"New Zealand is an outstanding event that we believe has great potential for growth in the November timeslot," V8 Supercars CEO James Warburton said.

"The later date sits well with our New Zealand partners ATEED during that the tourism shoulder period, the weather patterns are much better and it is sits in a critical part of the Championship."

The ITM 500 Auckland will be one of eight SuperSprint events that have proved so popular with drivers and fans. This will comprise two sprint races on Saturday and one 200km race with pit stops on the Sunday.

The sharp Saturday sprint races are designed to encourage drivers to attack by alleviating the need to be conservative while trying to maintain tyre life.

Each SuperSprint event will include 120 minutes of Friday practice to incorporate team testing. Teams will be able to test at these eight SuperSprint events along with one discretionary private test.

"It made sense that instead of testing away from the fans to combine Friday practice and allow teams the ability to adopt testing procedures as required," Warburton said.

"That achieves two key objectives: more V8 Supercars on track for the fans and reducing the high costs to teams of testing away from race meetings."

The event, staged over ANZAC weekend this year, will retain the Returned and Services' Association (RSA) as its official charity.

Click here for the full 2015 V8 Supercars Championship.