SRO Motorsports Australia and Motorsport Australia announce new national racing series

SRO Motorsports Australia will take a lead role as the promoter for a premier national circuit racing series from 2025. 

This new arrangement means the Shannons SpeedSeries - which has served as the home of national circuit racing in Australia for almost two decades - will be phased out and give way for a new look national racing series created and managed by SRO with Motorsport Australia’s support.

SRO itself currently acts as the category manager for the ever-growing Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia Powered by AWS and Monochrome GT4 Australia series, with both categories to continue leading the new home of national level circuit racing.

Alongside SRO’s GT categories, the new SRO-led series will showcase many of the high-profile national circuit racing categories to appear as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries over the years.

The organisation also forms part of the internationally renowned SRO Motorsports Group, which boasts more than 30 years of industry experience and operates championships and events across four different continents. 

The announcement comes after SRO promoted and executed a highly successful debut event last month - the SRO GT Festival at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.

A provisional SRO Motorsports Australia 2025 calendar was released earlier this year, with

more details on the new racing platform, including commercial partnerships and potential broadcast arrangements, to be announced in the coming months.

Provisional 2025 SRO Motorsports Australia Calendar

Official Media / Test Day, March 25: Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit

Round 1, April 4-6: Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit

Round 2, May 2-4: Sydney Motorsport Park

Round 3, June: TBC

Round 4, August 1-3: Queensland Raceway

Round 5, September 5-7: The Bend (Shell V-Power Motorsport Park)

Round 6, October 31-November 2: Hampton Downs (New Zealand) 

QUOTES

Ben McMellan 

SRO Motorsports Australia CEO 

“We are extremely pleased to bring SRO’s globally recognised international capabilities for national circuit racing to the Australian marketplace,” said McMellan.

“Motorsport Australia has done a fantastic job in building the Shannons SpeedSeries into the successful product it is today, and I have no doubt that we’ll continue to build on this with the new racing series. 

“It will be great to have Motorsport Australia remaining involved for future events as it offers plenty of good experience and good people, so I’d like to thank Sunil and the whole team for their support and look forward to working closely with them moving forward.

“We are coming off the back of a highly successful GT Festival at Phillip Island, which is the template for how we see our future events taking place.

“Our goal is to offer premium motorsport events featuring top level brands and star drivers, while putting a significant focus on developing off track activations to complement the entertaining on-track racing.”

Sunil Vohra

Motorsport Australia CEO

“Motorsport Australia has delivered a strong outcome for Australian racing in helping to start the transition of the national circuit series to a new platform led by SRO, who we view as one of the more successful motorsports promoters globally,” said Vohra.

“This new arrangement deals with some of the recent uncertainty and allows us to move the national circuit series into a new, exciting era. In working with Ben and the SRO leadership team, we are pleased to achieve the dual goals of having a proven promoter leading the commercial aspects of the national series and improving the financial sustainability of Motorsport Australia.

“With SRO taking the lead as event promoter, we can focus on the development of our sport, on state championships and supporting our officials at all levels. 

“SRO has a proven track record internationally, and we are pleased to see the foundations of the fantastic product our team have built continue – with our support - under the expertise and commercial leadership of the SRO Motorsports Group.”

“We look forward to continuing to partner with Supercars and the Australian Grand Prix as major partners, and alongside this SRO-led national racing series, we will now be consulting with State Council’s and others to provide opportunities for enhanced state championship racing. 

“We will be making further important announcements in the coming days regarding the management of other key national championships.”