SRO Takes Over Fanatec GT Australia Parent Series for 2025

SRO Motorsports Australia has announced it will take over full control of the parent series of Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS in 2025.

As part of a new arrangement between SRO and Motorsport Australia, the national governing body, the ‘Shannons SpeedSeries’ banner under which Fanatec GT Australia race weekends have generally been held in recent times will be phased out.

Taking its place will be a new series encompassing Fanatec GT Australia and the similarly SRO-run Monochrome GT4 Australia series, as well as “many of the high-profile national circuit racing categories” that have been part of the current structure, with Motorsport Australia remaining involved in a reduced capacity.

It follows the SRO taking the lead in promoting the inaugural GT Festival at Phillip Island, the fourth round of the season, earlier this month.

The 2025 schedule remains identical to that announced in late June, with Phillip Island set to host the season opener and New Zealand’s Hampton Downs the finale.

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

2025 Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS Schedule:
March 25 – Official Media and Test Day (Phillip Island)
April 4-6 – Phillip Island
May 2-4 – Sydney Motorsport Park
June – TBC
Aug. 1-3 – Queensland Raceway
Sept. 5-7 – The Bend
Oct. 31-Nov. 2 – Hampton Downs (New Zealand)