Willowbank has instituted the most comprehensive overhaul of its racing season since the track opened in 1985. The calendar changes have been brought about by factors as varied as crowd figures, weather patterns and corporate requirements.

The new-look season will kick off in November and in general, date changes have been influenced by evidence from the track's own attendance figures that holiday weekends are favoured by the public for outdoor entertainment such as Willowbank provides. Also, there is less emphasis on big meetings during summer, although a late-December race is intended to be the raceway's biggest event outside the Konica Winternationals.

The season opener will be on November 11 and the exact format for this event has yet to be determined. Previously, Willowbank opened its season in October. The Castrol New Year Series is no more, but the Castrol Summer Championships, a two-day race meeting set for Friday and Saturday, December 29 and 30, will be such a large event that it will have the same impact as the three races had previously.

The Castrol Summer Championships will feature Australian championship rounds of Top Fuel, Top Alcohol, Top Doorslammer and Pro Stock. The back-up show will be the Wreckers Hotline Supercharged Outlaws (the new name for Top Comp), VPW Mail Order SuperComp, Morgan and Wacker Comp Bike, Ken Lowe's Drag Race School Modified, Cragar Performance Super Sedan, Whale's Motorcycle World Modified Bike, Redcliffe Dyno and Performance Super Street and Junior Dragster. It is intended that Comp Bike, Modified, Modified Bike and Junior Dragster be Australian Drag Racing Series rounds.

The new calendar also features a continuation of the splitting of Australian Drag Racing Series rounds at Willowbank. In the current season, the ADRS rounds were split between three events, and it is proposed that the rounds again be run over three races in 2000/2001.

A national open set for January 27, 2001, will feature non-traditional attractions of the sport, such as Frank Gafferio's Bandag Bullet. The support categories will be Supercharged Outlaws, Comp Bike, Modified, Super Sedan, Modified Bike, Super Street, Junior Dragster and an ADRS round for Competition.

A Pro/Am, the format which is normally run in May, is set for February 24, but that is an interim date subject to confirmation of the weekend the Nationals will be held. The Nightfire Championships has been replaced by The Tin Top Championships at Easter, 2001. As the name implies, the Saturday, April 14 event will heavily feature sedan racing categories.

The Tin Tops race meeting was one of the most successful events on the Surfers Paradise International Raceway calendar, often featuring titanic battles between the quickest sedans in the country.

The new Willowbank event will feature national championship rounds of Top Doorslammer and Pro Stock, as well as proposed ADRS rounds for Super Stock, Super Sedan, Super Street and Super Gas. Other categories include Supercharged Outlaws, Modified and Modified Bike.

A Pro/Am is scheduled for May 5, with the normally scheduled Super Eliminator extended to include Super Street, as well as Modified and Super Sedan competitors. As a bonus, racers in all three eliminators will be eligible to earn points in the Winters Smash Repairs Track Championships. Putting the track's best four-wheel DYO competitors together should provide excellent racing.

The 2001 Konica Winternationals is on June 8, 9 and 10 and the Willowbank Grand Finals national open is on July 28. A different format is under consideration for this event. As it has been moved to the middle of winter, the activities, including racing, will be limited to day-time hours. Associated activities such as show and shines are under consideration and a limited number of these added formats will be introduced at this July's event.