Postponement of SMRC Race Meetings
After much consideration, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the first two events of the 2020 Scottish Motor Racing Championship, which were scheduled to take place at Knockhill on Sunday 5th April and Sunday 3rd May.
The decision has been made due to the rising concerns and government advice around Coronavirus (COVID-19). Last Thursday, Scottish Government issued a statement that “all large gatherings above 500 people with the potential to impact the emergency services should be cancelled”. Over the weekend, Scottish Government have issued further guidance to event organisers which clarifies this advice applies to all mass events of 500 people or more – indoors or outdoors.
Even without spectators, the number of drivers, support crews, marshals, officials and circuit staff anticipated to be on site would take us over the 500 mark. Whilst action could be taken to reduce the overall number of people on site to below 500, clearly our events require a medical team and we therefore have to consider the potential impact this could have on the emergency services, at a time where they will be under great pressure. This – combined with the expectation that UK Government will issue legislation, that places restrictions on events and gatherings in the coming days – means that we have ultimately concluded that it would not be responsible or morally correct to proceed.
The situation with Coronavirus is evolving on a daily basis and we will continue to monitor this and advise our members and followers on future events, as soon as we can. To clarify, the first two race meetings have been postponed; we cannot guarantee the events will be re-scheduled to a later date but we will evaluate options and keep you up to date as the situation progresses.
As detailed in our statement released on Friday, we can re-assure competitors that we will move forward or refund any entry fees received for cancelled events. We have opted to waive the £25 admin fee for cancelations, which is detailed within our supplementary regulations, so competitors will incur no charge.
Please contact our Competitions Director – Steve Burns – on steve.burns@smrc.co.uk to arrange entry fee refunds or transfers.