Second Sydney round in doubt as Victoria and NSW shut borders at midnight

Round two of the resumed Supercars Championship season is in doubt after the Victorian and New South Wales state governments announced that their borders will close at midnight tonight due to a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in Melbourne.

Set to be held at Sydney Motorsport Park, it is unlikely that the teams from Victoria will be able to cross over into New South Wales for the fourth round of the championship in a fortnight’s time as the rules come in to place.

The announcement was made this morning by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and has been supported by Prime Minister Scott Morrison as well as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

“From 11:59pm, midnight tomorrow night, the border with New South Wales will be closed,” said Andrews.

“That is the result of a phone hook-up between the Prime Minister, the Premier of NSW and myself just an hour or so ago where all of us have agreed that the best thing to do was to close the border.

“That closure will be enforced on the NSW side so as not to be a drain on resources that are very much focused on very much fighting the virus right now across our state, and I’m very grateful to the Premier of NSW for her support in giving effect to that.”

Around half of the championship’s teams are based in Victoria while squads like Brad Jones Racing are based in Albury, a town just on the NSW side of the border though drivers Nick Percat and Todd Hazelwood live in Melbourne.

Should the round go ahead, Supercars has already announced a plan to split the Queensland and Victorian teams at opposite ends of the pit lane.