The Mayor of Bathurst says he expects a $20 million hit to the region's economy after Supercars announced a daily 4,000-spectator limit at this year's race due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Bobby Bourke said 50,000 people per day would normally attend the Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama.
He said the event injected $25m in the local economy annually.
"I say less than $5 million will come in, so the region will be down around that $20 million," Cr Bourke said.
"It'll have huge effect on our local businesses and right across the region.
"We're all affected by COVID-19 and it's going to be a disappointing year."
Mr Bourke said associated community events, including the annual street parade and family carnival would not be held.
Camping not allowed
Supercar announced camping would be prohibited and people would be restricted to reserved seating areas at the bottom of the mountain.
Chief executive Sean Seamer said the decision to limit spectator numbers around the 6.2-kilometre racetrack was "tremendously disappointing".
"Bathurst is a festival with a motor race and the campers are such an important part of the atmosphere, the DNA of that event," he said.
"That precinct presents a lot of challenges in putting COVID-compliant plans together, and that was as many people as we could get in there safely over that period of time."
Mr Seamer said the four-day event normally attracted about 200,000 fans.
"This time we'll be looking closer to 20,000 people in total over the four days," he said.
Despite the changes, Mr Seamer said he was pleased to see the race proceed.
"Nothing this year has been the same for anybody, in any facet of their lives," he said.
"So whilst its extremely disappointing, we're very happy that at least we're going racing at Bathurst."
