With the return of motorsport on the horizon, Motorsport Australia is ensuring it is keeping up to date with the latest advice and guidelines from around the country.
Motorsport Australia CEO Eugene Arocca said the organisation was firmly focused on maintaining regular dialogue with all levels of government.
“We are doing everything we can to stay up to date with the latest restrictions and also provide state, territory and federal governments with as much information about the plans for our sport, including discussing our Return To Race strategy,” Arocca said.
“Each state and territory is doing things differently and we are making sure that we are across those differences to determine what motorsport events we can sanction and how our event organisers and clubs can meet their required obligations for running any events in the future.
“As we’ve outlined to the various representatives, and highlighted in our Return To Race strategy, motorsport is unlike many other sports. We are getting feedback from the various government representatives that they understand our situation and appreciate the information we have provided. They have also been impressed by the standard of our Return To Race document and the level of detail we have gone into. We believe this will help facilitate a return to action in the short term.
“More importantly, we would not want any club, event promoter or venue undertaking motorsport without a thoroughly detailed plan which should ideally be endorsed by Motorsport Australia, given we are the only four wheeled motorsport body - along with our delegates Karting Australia and ANDRA - in regular dialogue with governments across the country. We are also working very closely with our friends at Motorcycling Australia.
“Of course, the health and safety of our competitors, officials and event organisers is our first priority – and we want to make sure that when the sport starts to slowly return, no one puts themselves at any significant risk.”
Arocca also explained that Motorsport Australia was working with the government representatives to understand how larger events, such as national and state championships, may be able to receive exemptions from the restrictions.
“Like many major sporting codes, there are going to need to be exemptions for the larger motorsport events to proceed. We believe these events, such as our state and national level events, can go ahead safely, without spectators and do so with limited risk based on the guidelines we have in place.”
Motorsport Australia’s Return To Race strategy was released earlier this week, with a dedicated resource centre now available at www.motorsport.org.au/covid19.
More resources will be made available in the coming days, including relevant signage that can be utilised by our event organisers to highlight the importance of social distancing.