Plug pulled on Speed Works

Changes to Auckland’s alert-level restrictions have left organisers with no choice but to cancel the Speed Works Events finale at Hampton Downs next weekend.

Although level three was lifted from 11.59pm on Sunday, August 30, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed Aucklanders will have to comply to the new level 2.5 rules when leaving the region. That means limiting groups that travel outside of the region to a maximum of 10 people.

“Unfortunately, with a number of competitors and officials coming from the Auckland region for this meeting, we felt it was impractical to go ahead and potentially compromise the detailed safety plan we had put in place for the meeting,” says Geoff Short, of Speed Works.

The Motorsport Back On Track event, due to take place from September 4 to 6, would have been the first major motorsport meeting to get the go-ahead to run since the alert level-two restrictions were reintroduced outside of the Auckland region following the re-emergence of the Covid-19 virus.

The meeting was due to run under strict safety protocols and without spectators after it was given the go-ahead by Sport New Zealand. This followed significant work and collaboration by MotorSport NZ and its acting chief executive officer Elton Goonan, Speed Works and Hampton Downs to deliver a workable safety plan Sport NZ was happy to sign off. 

Organisers and category officials are now looking at the feasibility of running the RYCO 24•7 V8 Utes Championship decider and non-championship Best Bars Toyota 86 Championship classes at the North Island Endurance Championship at Hampton Downs scheduled for September 18 and 19. It will run under the same safety plan.