Sepang Supercars decision expected within weeks

Razali met with Supercars officials in Perth last weekend, having coincidentally travelled to the West Australian capital to promote the final Malaysian Grand Prix at the same time that the series was making its annual trip to Barbagallo Raceway.

It wasn’t the first contact between Razali and Supercars, though, the circuit boss and series CEO James Warburton having already been in talks for some time about bringing a championship round to Malaysia.

Those talks are now reaching crunch time, with Razali confirming to Motorsport.com that a decision is likely to be made by the end of his month.

“We spoke to them even before last weekend, it was just a coincidence that I happened to be in Perth when Supercars was there too,” he said. “So we spoke about what we can do next year.

“We’re currently going through the viability, to make sure that both sides can win, that it can be a win-win situation. And we hope that by this month we will come to a conclusion to whether we can host Supercars or not.

“Based on the dates that we’re looking at, April, May, or June, that would give us enough time to plan, prepare, and promote as much as we can for next year.”

Local interest key to deal

With the Sepang circuit set to host its final Formula 1 Grand Prix later this year, Supercars could provide an ideal replacement in terms of a high-profile four-wheel series.

But continuing with the win-win idea, Razali says the event would need to be packaged to appeal to both local motor racing fans and travelling Australians if it were to be successful.

“For us, events like Formula 1, MotoGP, and even Supercars, it has to be somehow strongly supported by the locals,” he added.

“We need to make sure that there is proper awareness, proper education and marketing to ensure that the local fans appreciate it and are curious enough to come and pay to watch Supercars. That’s important.

“We are also very much hoping that it will attract spectators from Australian and around the region as well. It’s important that it makes sense for Australians to come all the way to Malaysia, so we need to repackage, or package it differently as a holiday – come to Malaysia where we have good food, value for money, good accommodation, and you can watch the Supercars.

“It’s about repackaging for the Aussie market. And we hope other regional markets will be excited by it as well, and come and watch the Supercars next year.”

Supercars has a turbulent recent history when it comes to Malaysia; back in 2015 a five-car demonstration took place at the KL City Grand Prix, which was supposed to be the start of a four-year deal that would run between 2016 and 2019.

However the event hit legal and financial roadblocks before it could go ahead for a second time, leaving Supercars without a round outside the Australia/New Zealand region.