North West 200: Running of 2021 meeting 'touch and go' - Whyte
- Published
Richard Cooper and Dean Harrison in action during a Superstock race at the 2019 North West 200
North West 200 Event Consultant Mervyn Whyte says the running of the 2021 event is "touch and go" in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The 2020 meeting fell victim of the Covid-19 outbreak and there are fears that this year's race may also be called off to protect public health.
Whyte says the event's scheduled May dates look "out of the question" but dates of 10-14 August are pencilled in.
"It will probably be early February before we make a decision," said Whyte.
"At the moment it is hit and miss whether anything goes ahead this year and it will be three or four weeks before a final decision is made by the club," he added.
The Isle of Man TT made an early decision to cancel their 2021 event at the end of November but North West organisers decided to wait until the new year to assess the prospects for their meeting potentially going ahead.
News of vaccination programmes to combat the spread of Covid-19 offered cause for optimism but the recent surge in cases has raised doubts over motorcycle road racing in 2021.
A case of 'wait and see'
"We applied for the dates from 10 to 14 August and those have been accepted by the governing body and agreed with the British Superbike organisers who had already published their provisional schedule for the year," explained Whyte.
"We will just have to wait and see but we are aware of our responsibilities and the duty of care we owe to everyone in the north coast area.
"We run an event in an area that is highly populated, with some 2500 people living around the course, and there are a lot of stakeholders with an interest in the race.
"We would be attracting anything from 75,000 to 100,000 people to the area from all over the world, with some of those not vaccinated, so we have to assess the risk of spreading the virus in the community.
"We don't want to see the event cancelled for a second year but we would need spectators in to make it financially viable.
"We could say we are going to run the event but the Northern Ireland Executive may tell us we can only run it with substantially reduced numbers and that just wouldn't work for us."