With Victoria’s lockdown restrictions likely to be eased in the coming months, the Phillip Island Auto Racing Club (PIARC) has announced plans to host three events in November.
Should all go to plan, PIARC will look to run events over three consecutive weekends at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, starting with the annual Festival of Motorsport
on 7-8 November.
The following week will see the iconic track host a closed Supersprint event, before the highly popular Island Magic rounds out the three events on 21-22 November.
PIARC Club President Warren Reid was excited the club could put a tentative plan together and was confident their COVID-19 plan would meet all the necessary requirements.
“We are working incredibly closely with Motorsport Australia to adapt our events, layout and our access to ensure that we can host these three events in the safest conditions possible,” Reid said.
“Motorsport plays such an important part in the mental health and wellbeing of all our members and we will do whatever is necessary to get them back beside or on track – providing the Victorian coronavirus crisis allows us to return to the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.
“We are having to change a lot of things in the way our events operate and will be ensuring that all facets of our event that can safely be managed via contact free resources will be done in this way.
“Anyone that has any questions about how we are safely going to return to racing can either contact us or reach out to Motorsport Australia for further information.”
Working under the guidelines of Motorsport Australia’s Return To Race document, PIARC has confirmed only one working mechanic/support person will be allowed for each entry across all three events, while categories will be kept segregated from each other to maintain social distancing.
While the supersprint should be fairly straight forward with numbers, both the Festival of Motorsport and Island Magic will have a large variety of categories take part in each event.
This year’s Festival of Motorsport will be the 30th running of the prestigious event and will include categories such as E30 BMWs, 2lt Sport Sedans, Excels, Victorian V8s, the Superkart Victorian Championship and the Porsche 944s.
The Porsche 944s and Sports Sedans will be back in action two weeks later at the Island of Magic, with Formula Ford, Formula Vee, Sports Cars, Improved Production, Saloon Cars and Historic Touring Cars to join them.
Motorsport Australia Director of Motorsport and Commercial Operations Michael Smith was grateful for the hard work undertaken by PIARC to complete the permits.
“We congratulate everyone at PIARC for putting detailed plans in place to allow for these events to return at one of the most iconic venues in Victoria," Smith said.
“PIARC has worked closely with Motorsport Australia to prepare for these events, which will be held in line with our successful and highly publicised Return To Race strategy that has helped motorsport return at venues around the country in a COVID safe way.
“After several months of lockdown and no motorsport, Victorians can now look forward to a number of events taking place in November and December across the state, with Phillip Island likely to be a very popular venue in the months ahead.”