On Tuesday the 17^th of March our governing body, Motorsport UK, announced it was suspending all operating permits to operate motorsport events until the 30^th of April, later extending it to the 30^th of June. Whilst incredibly disappointing, it clearly was the correct and proper thing to do. Fast forward to the end of May and the government is opening up the economy by easing restrictions on travel, retail and sporting events. Motorsport UK are also allowing clubs to apply for operating permits for events from the 4^th of July, but with several key changes to how a weekend operates. This move is contingent on the government continuing with measures to open up society and that further restrictions resulting from any additional waves of COVID-19 are not required. There will be a number of caveats of granting event permits, including that event organisers commit that their events will be held behind closed doors, appropriate PPE requirements are met, and that each organiser must appoint a COVID-19 officer to ensure compliance with any relevant guidelines.

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Motorsport UK has issued a Covid 19 Guidance document to the organisers and participants of race meetings, and in summary the changes will be:

• In place of the normal scrutineering arrangements, we will be required to complete and submit a pre-event declaration, either by email or an online administration system, detailing their equipment and expiration dates as appropriate. We will also be signing to declare that our vehicle and equipment is of the required standard and in compliance. The Scrutineers will have sight of the information and can perform sight checks.
• Marshal reports are to be verbal and not necessarily supported by written reports. Further guidance will be issued in respect of judicial matters in due course.
• We will be required to wear appropriate PPE in line with Government advice in effect at any given time.
• There will be no of spectators.
• Organisers and venues may limit attendance to ensure that they are able to adhere to social distancing requirements and any limitation on gatherings.
• Prizegiving will be outside (if at all), adhering to social distancing rules.

‘Providing we are given the “green light” to run events from July onwards, our current plan is to run all of the remaining race meetings on our 2020 schedule and also participating in any extension of the season into November. There is a good chance the organisers will be combining suitable grids at some events and moving championships to predominately single day formats in order to reduce the volume of people in attendance at a venue on a given day.

Once promoted events such as the British GP, British Superbikes and BTCC finalise their revised calendars it is likely that we will be able to confirm our new schedules in reasonably quick succession. What is left of the pre-lockdown calendar is shown below this and it is likely we will attend these events as a minimum:

• 18^th & 19^th of July – Snetterton 200
• 16^th of August – Brands Hatch
• 12^th & 13^th of September – Anglesea / Trac Mon Costal
• 10^th October – Oulton Park Island

In the meantime, stay safe, keep your spirits up and join us in looking forward to a resumption of all club, national and international racing very soon.