Drag racing fans can look forward to an exciting year ahead after the 400 Thunder Professional Series calendar for the 2019-2020 season was revealed by Australian Professional Drag Racing.
The Series will be contested over six events shared between Sydney Dragway and Willowbank Raceway. The opening round will occur at the Atlantic Oils East Coast Thunder in Sydney on November 1-2 with of all six Professional Australian Championship categories competing under the traditional eliminator format sure to launch gripping, season long championship battles.
The following four events will then be conducted under the three round, all run format so popular with race fans. Queensland’s Willowbank Raceway hosts the next event with rounds of Top Fuel, Pro Alcohol, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Bike at the New Year’s Thunders on January 4.
The Top Fuel dragsters will be joined by Pro Slammer at Sydney Dragway for the Santo’s Summer Thunder on January 18 before the series returns Willowbank with rounds of Top Fuel, Pro Slammer, Pro Alcohol and Top Bike at the Super Thunder on Good Friday, April 10.400 Thunder_1920 Calendar Pro
All six Professional categories come together again for the Gulf Western Oil Nitro Thunder at Sydney Dragway on May 2 and the season grand finale at Willowbank Raceway’s Gulf Western Oil Winternationals on June 4-7. The Winternationals will be conducted under the traditional eliminator format with Championships going down to the wire.
The Sportsman Series calendar is also close to finalisation and expected to be released soon.
APDR Chairman, Tony Wedlock, commented, “400 Thunder is continuing to discuss potential dates with other venues and these discussions are ongoing. There may be a possibility of additional dates being added into the 2019-2020 calendars for both Professional and Sportsman Championships.”
The coming season of 400 Thunder Professional Series Drag Racing will benefit from extensive television exposure with a combination of Global live web broadcast and Australia wide free to air and subscription TV. In addition to approximately 100 hours of live stream coverage, 28 one hour highlights shows are planned for broadcast on Sunday afternoons by SBS Speedweek with multiple replays of each show on Foxsports.
With the release of the new Professional Series calendar, 400 Thunder and its Live Broadcast Partner, OVO, are launching three levels of subscription to the world wide, live coverage of all rounds of the Championship.
Pricing will be as follows:
7 day pass: AUD $9.99
3 month pass: AUD $24.99
12 month pass: AUD $49.99
Announcing the new offer, OVO CEO Matt Jones, said “Customers now only need to subscribe once to get all the action across the whole season. This pricing encourages racers and fans to make the call to get an annual pass for all six events, versus bothering with seven days, or at best, fitting two events into a $24.99 pass when six events are only $49.99. That’s less than fifty cents per hour of live coverage.”
In addition to all the live event broadcasts, all subscription levels include unlimited access to catchup viewing of OVO Play’s complete library of previous 400 Thunder events including past seasons. OVO Mobile customers will again be able to stream all content data free. Passes will be available in October prior to the start of the new season at https://play.ovo.com.au
Recently appointed 400 Thunder General Manager, Steve Bettes commented, “Coming into this role I can see how far 400 Thunder has progressed, especially within our professional ranks. However, I am more excited by where we intend to take the sport moving forward. In particular, the continued development of the OVO Play Live Broadcasts provide everyone, no matter where they are situated, the opportunity to share in the exciting, world class racing being provided by our teams. We are working on some great opportunities which we look forward to sharing with the public soon. I am certainly looking forward to a great season of racing ahead.”
– 400 Thunder media release
