BIKE RACING
Percentage of normality 75%
A real mixed bag here. The bad news is that a lot of major events — including the TT and Classic Tt/manx and the North West 200 — have already been cancelled. Better news on the mainland though, where BSB is ready to roll after some last-minute tweaks, as series boss Stuart Higgs explains; “We’d originally planned the first round at Oulton for the end of May but with the government’s roadmap, that would have meant the first few rounds would have been in the transition period when only 4000 spectators were allowed. So we’ve scheduled testing for May, so we can let some fans in for that, and pushed the first race back to the last weekend in June. That allows us to have more spectators, with fewer restrictions — the fans are the lifeblood of the championship so we’ll do all we can for them.”
For 2021 that spectacle includes three races at every round — a sprint race on Saturday and two main races on Sunday. “It’s all about maximising track-time. Everything’s a learning experience and we found last year we could get an extra race in and still give teams enough practice and qualifying, so it spreads the excitement over the weekend.” Squeezing 11 rounds into half the season means there’ll be a few back-to-back weekends, and the traditional Assen away round has been lost.
“It’s all a learning experience, and we don’t know yet if we’ll be able to have pit walks, for example — maybe we could have shorter, more frequent walks for smaller groups. We’ll have to wait and see as the restrictions evolve and ease.”
The same easing of restrictions from late June should mean more club racing as well, again with the opportunity to spectate — Bemsee is starting up on May 7/8 at Oulton, for example. Trackdays will be resuming too, although MSV, for example, will be restricting access to rider and one helper only, with no spectators and no overnight camping.
RIDE SAYS BSB’S sensible action means we should be able to watch some racing this year — and the British Motogp is on, too.