HOW CLUBS ARE PREPARING FOR UK RACING’S RESTART
Racing is finally due to begin this weekend, with the first three events set to take place. But these initial meetings will be very different from the club fixtures we’ve been used to
uly is normally the mid-point of the UK circuit racing season. But 2020 is not a normal year.
The coronavirus outbreak has meant that instead of 84 national race events having already taken place in the UK and Ireland this season, there have been none. But that’s all due to change this weekend when the club campaign finally gets under way.
Three events are set to take place to get proceedings off to a tentative start: the Castle Combe Racing Club is running a oneday meeting at the Wiltshire circuit, while the British Automobile Racing Club and Motorsport Vision Racing are holding two-day fixtures at Cadwell Park and Snetterton respectively. All eyes will be on these events to see how new procedures and protocols put in
Jplace to limit the risk of spreading COVID-19 work in practice. There is no getting away from the fact that these events will be very different from the typical club meeting held last year. There will be no spectators, team personnel will be restricted, and social distancing is the order of the day. Governing body Motorsport UK has set out a range of guidelines that need to be followed to ensure the meetings can take place safely, and that means a raft of alterations to how race days are normally run.
The CCRC has even put together a two-hour video with input from its competitions director, marshals secretary, chief medical officer and chief scrutineer to give competitors and officials a better understanding of the changes and the rationale for them.
“I think the paperless systems will be the biggest change –
people will have signed on by the time they get to the race meeting,” says CCRC chairman Ken Davies. “Cars are being scrutineered by declaration [beforehand] and kit is being authorised by declaration. The scrutineer will do some spot checks on the day and the main difference is there will be no queues at signing on or scrutineering.”
BARC general manager Ian Watson agrees that this will be one of the key differences and is crucial to maintaining social distancing at what are traditionally two of the busiest parts of a meeting. “The fact that we’ve not got any sign-on or [pre-event] scrutineering – the Motorsport UK guidelines allow us to do that electronically in advance – means our biggest pinch points have been alleviated and has made our lives a bit easier,” he says.
But signing on and scrutineering are far from the only changes to how events will be managed. The way incidents are dealt with will also be different. In order to aid social distancing, the number of marshals at each post has been reduced to two and drivers that stop on circuit for whatever reason are required to give a thumbs up to marshals if they are OK. If no signal is given, rescue crews with full personal protective equipment will deal with the situation. These restrictions have meant the CCRC has the unusual situation of turning away marshals as too many have offered their services for the 4 July event.
“Fewer marshals on each post means the chances of having a red flag have increased because if we get a blockage by a standard car breakdown, we’re not going to have the manpower to recover it,”
“WE’VE GOT NO SCRUTINEERING OR SIGN-ON, SO OUR BIGGEST PINCH POINTS HAVE BEEN ALLEVIATED”
explains Davies. “The chances of a red flag have gone up around 15-20%, but we’re telling competitors so they’re aware and can be more vigilant at this meeting for those reasons.”
Ultimately, it’s down to individual competitors to make sure they follow the guidelines. After all, if the virus flares up because someone at a meeting abuses the rules, it risks curtailing the racing season once more. “I think that people need to realise it’s down to them to be responsible for their own personal safety – individuals need to be responsible,” says Watson.
Another decision the CCRC took for this initial meeting was to limit it to only the club’s own categories instead of having any of its usual guest additions. By restricting the timetable to double-headers for the Combe Formula Ford 1600, GT, Saloon and Hot Hatch Challenge classes, there will be sufficient space in the paddock and it also means more room can be created in the timetable to deal with any incidents. The BARC too has been keen to allow for as much spare capacity in the schedule as possible at Cadwell to ensure all the races can still run.
But Watson admits the club was uncertain about whether or not to run the meeting if the government had not relaxed the rules surrounding hotels and overnight stays from 4 July.
“The biggest challenge was knowing what the government
was going to allow us to do,” he admits. “Their relaxation of [the restrictions] allowing hotels and accommodation to open has meant we can take this event forward. If they didn’t do that for this first one in July, I thought we might have to cancel.”
Fortunately, that was not necessary, but all the measures that the clubs have put in place would have been pointless if no one signed up to race at the meetings. It was the big unknown: whether or not drivers’ appetite to get out on track had been dampened by the financial impact of coronavirus.
And the answer, so far at least, has been an encouraging no.
At the time of writing, the CCRC has 22 drivers signed up for FF1600 and an incredible 39 for Hot Hatch – both figures far higher than the average 2019 entries. And it’s a similarly positive story with the BARC’S Cadwell event, with CNC
Heads Sports/saloons and the Junior Saloons leading the way on 24 drivers each.
“Entries are coming in pretty well and it looks like we will have a reasonable entry for the event,” says Watson. “All of the grids are doing quite well – we’ve been pleasantly surprised by how many are coming out to play.
“We’ve got one or two championships looking a bit thinner than we would like, but it could have been much worse.
“AS A RACING CLUB, IF WE’RE NOT GOING TO RUN MEETINGS, WHAT’S THE POINT IN US BEING HERE?”
Competitors and marshals were keen to get back out, so everyone is wanting to give it a try.”
MSVR has also been impressed by the level of entries for its first meeting. “We’ve had very strong interest from competitors and great support from marshals and officials too,” says competitions manager Joe East. “We’re expecting close to 200 entries for Snetterton, which should include some full grids. The MSV Trackdays series, including Enduroka, looks particularly strong.
“We’re looking forward to restarting and everyone at MSVR is extremely optimistic for the rest of the season. It’s been a long time since we’ve been racing and we’re all itching to get going!”
The CCRC has even had a couple of generous competitors step forward – anonymously – to pay for trophies to be handed out at the event. “We have one in Saloons and one in GTS,” says Davies. “That’s about £500 between them, but it’s £500 that would’ve come out of the club’s already depleted coffers. It’s a great gesture of support and epitomises everything great about motorsport.”
The devastation wrought by COVID-19 had led to many communities coming together to support each other through the tough times – and motorsport has certainly been no exception. Now, as racing finally gets under way, it is more important than ever that everyone plays their part.
As Davies says, these initial meetings will be a “voyage of discovery”, but it’s vitally important that they are successful and allow more ambitious events with fewer restrictions and more races to take place in the future. The CCRC, for example, was determined to hold the 4 July event and be one of the first to resume activities.
“It’s our raison d’etre – as a racing club and racing circuit, if we’re not going to run race meetings, what’s the point in us being here?” says Davies. “We’re hoping the racing, once people get out on track, will be as hard and as fair as normal.”
They may be very different from what we have been used to, but, finally, now is the time for organising clubs to focus on running race meetings once more.