JMMC targeting June for restart of motor racing
Published:Saturday | April 11, 2020 | 12:19 AM
Jamaica Millennium Motoring Club (JMMC) president Stephen Gunter says that the association is targeting a return to racing in June if the current health crisis subsides.
Many local motorsport racing meets have been rescheduled because of the coronavirus pandemic. Among the events postponed is this Easter weekend’s event at Dover Raceway. A moratorium has been in place from March 12, when the first two cases of the virus in the island were confirmed. Gunter says that the respective affected entities: the Drivers Rallysport Club (DRC), Jamaica Karting Association (JKA), Jamaica Racer Drivers Club (JRDC) and Kent Racing have submitted new proposals for dates later down in the year. He hopes that full racing activities can resume in the summer when the moratorium ends on May 31, and if approval is given from the Ministry of Health & Wellness.
BEST SCENARIO
“The respective entities were supposed to submit new dates in the second half of the year for those events to be staged and they have done so,” Gunter told The Gleaner. “The JMMC is in the process of compiling those dates and working out a new calendar with the hope that in the best case scenario we can return to racing in June. “Of course that is dependent on guidance from the Ministry of Health and the Government.”
While Gunter says that he does not anticipate difficulties in accommodating a packed racing schedule for the second half of the year, he believes that the potential impact the period of inactivity has had on the sport will not be fully determined until racing resumes.
“The impact is very difficult to predict. I think it will come when racing does restart and it will manifest itself in spectatorship, that is the amount of persons that will come out to see the events,” he said. “It might be very well be that people might be super cautious or they might come out in great numbers having been asked to self-quarantine and stay at home for a number of weeks.”
Similarly, international racing has suffered because of the pandemic. The Formula One season has been delayed with nine events on the calendar having been postponed or cancelled.