The Historic Sports and Racing Car Association will run their annual Historic Autumn Race Meeting this weekend at Wakefield Park with event organisers working overtime to put the event on.
Eighty drivers will compete across a number of popular categories including regularities and supersprints, Group N cars and Formula Ford, all of which have between 10 and 20 cars in the field.
To make sure the event was adhering with the current restrictions set in place by the New South Wales government, the club have been proactive in implementing a number of safety measures throughout the event.
These measures include enforcing social distancing, markings of maximum people in all rooms, hand sanitiser available in many places and all other documentation checks in the open carport.
Another big factor was the club removing the need to do licence checking on the day by having already completed it before the event begins this weekend, which event organiser Mark Stockwell believed was the significant point of action.
“We restricted entries and streamlined documentation checks to have it completed already, so we didn’t not worry about it during the event,” Stockwell said.
“Everything has been done correctly. The main thing we tried to do was minimise the need to touch anyone else’s belongings, which is why we did the licence checks prior.
“By complying with the guidance of Motorsport Australia and the Government, we didn’t feel there was a need to cancel and if someone didn’t want to come, we fully understood and got them a full refund.
“Whilst the level of restrictions are where they are, we are minimising the risk in every way shape and form, therefore we will give our members a race meeting and they are very appreciative.”
Over the course of the two days, the competitors will get quite a lot of track time with each category to have a practice session, qualifying and up to five races on the track.
With practice to begin on Saturday morning, the racing is expected to go until Sunday afternoon, allowing the competitors to fit in all their sessions.
For Stockwell and the club, it was important to get the event up and running for their members’ sake and he lauded Wakefield Park's management for their assistance.
“There were few reasons to us running. We don’t know when the next event will be able to run again and we wanted to support the members, drivers and the enthusiasts, which at the end of the day, we all are,” Stockwell added.
“This event is giving those people an outlet to run their cars. A lot of these people can’t travel, so if we don’t give them events locally, they miss out altogether.
“Everyone who has turned up has commended us on running the event. Although we have had a fair few withdrawals, still having around 80 drivers in the current circumstances is pretty good.
“For this particular meeting, we have given everyone a honorary membership so we can bypass that stage of membership checking. We have all come together to try and strategise a way to run this event.
“Wakefield Park have been a great example of that and they have been extremely good to deal with. They have been very accommodating and given us their own guidelines to comply with. I couldn’t fault anything that anyone of the people have done.”
The Historic Autumn Race Meeting takes place at Wakefield Park on 21-22 March.
*Motorsport Australia is fully aware of the evolving situation regarding COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and understands that it is having a significant impact on the community, including those involved in motorsport.
However, Motorsport Australia believes that many events can continue to go ahead, with the appropriate precautions and infrastructure in place.
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