2024 Australian Formula Open calendar released
Australia’s premier open wheel development series, Australian Formula Open (AFO), has today announced a record seven-round calendar for 2024 that includes an expanded TV and online streaming broadcast package.
With a mixture of Shannons SpeedSeries, state championship and national marquee events from February to November, the expanded coverage will consist of three rounds with Shannons SpeedSeries and their soon-to-be-confirmed broadcast partner plus four rounds of online streaming.
Starting in February, AFO will open the 2024 season at Sandown Raceway for the first of three Shannons SpeedSeries appearances; the other two being in July and October. Also included are two state championship events at Winton Raceway and Sydney Motorsport Park, the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia round at Shell V-Power Motorsport Park in June, before again headlining the 2024 Island Magic in November.
After a successful maiden year under the AFO banner in 2023, the series has become the home of a variety of open-wheeler race cars including the premier class Formula 3, plus F4, TRS FT50, Formula Toyota, Formula Renault, Formula Atlantic and other junior open wheel categories.
The series’ extensive national calendar gives upcoming driver talent the opportunity to regularly hone their open-wheeler racing skills before heading on the overseas career path, while also giving a home to single-seater cars which may not have a place to race in Australia.
Adopting a multiple-class format also allows AFO to cater to a wide scope of cars that contribute to healthy grid sizes.
“AFO is really pleased to secure a broadcast package that will see every round of 2024 either on free-to-air TV or streamed online so that means no-one misses out on watching our races,” said AFO founder Tim Macrow.
“There’s been a lot of work behind the scenes this year to build the foundations of this unique class structure, supporting all types of open-wheelers that we know want to race in Australia, and to have such a strong .mix of national events as well helps the category move forward stronger than ever next year.”
AFO organisers will be announcing new series commercial and technical partners in the coming weeks.
The final round of the 2023 championship is being held at Island Magic, Phillip Island (Vic) this weekend, November 24-26, 2023.
2024 AUSTRALIAN FORMULA OPEN CALENDAR
Round 1 – Sandown International Raceway, Vic - Feb 9-11 – Shannons Speed Series
Round 2 – Winton Motor Raceway, Vic – Apr 26-28 – State Championships
Round 3 – Sydney Motorsport Park, NSW – May 24-26 – State Championships
Round 4 – The Bend, SA – Jun 7-9 – Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia
Round 5 – Queensland Raceway, Qld – Jul 19-21 – Shannons Speed Series
Round 6 – Sydney Motorsport Park, NSW – Oct 18-20 – Shannons Speed Series
Round 7 – Phillip Island GP Circuit, Vic – Nov 28-30 – Island Magic