ONE of the few positives about the current situation is that this part of the world has managed it rather well – at least, by comparison to some others.
Though it remains early days, it seems the reasonably quick approach to locking down borders, affirming social distancing guidelines and mandating that people stay at home unless absolutely vital will help stem the tide of COVID-19 in our corner of the globe quicker than many others.
New Zealand has led the world in shutting things down quickly to manage the spread and bring some element of control to the situation – which means that the subsequent recovery is likely to be brought forward as a result.
Australia was a week behind New Zealand, and that coupled with the complicated web of State and Federal governments meant that some States acted faster than others to secure their borders – but now each state is isolated from each other and we’re all hoping that within a week or two we’ll see the effects of that in reduced infection rates.
And it wasn’t the mass gathering rules (well, at least when they stood at 500 people) that stopped sport from functioning – the closure of state borders and requirements for people crossing them to quarantine themselves for 14 days afterwards was what really shut sport down.
What does that mean for motorsport, then?
Border controls are the key element to the sport (most forms of sport, in reality) returning so the sooner they’re gone, the sooner the wheels can begin to turn.
One likely scenario is that as restrictions on group gatherings are eased, state-level racing will be the first to return.
Once governments are certain that the spread is controlled, the state borders will open and full national-level racing will be able to return along with all the major sports.
The border controls are the number one thing keeping motorsport from functioning.
While the rules prohibiting gatherings of any groups make it challenging, even if they are eased back to, say, 500 or 1000 people maximum then racing can continue – without crowds.
Supercars has been clear that they will look at the prospect of operating events for TV only, with minimal staff and only the essentials to operate in order to hit their marks for TV contracts and sponsorship.
Other series’ generally don’t attract much of an attendance anyway so should be able to fire up as well.
And that’s the hope – that at some point in the (near) future restrictions ease enough so we can at least get back to some form of normalcy. The short-term pain we’re all copping now will result in a faster return to that, too.
The next question that arises is, when do the international borders open?
That question is similar to the famous: How long is a piece of string?
Given so many cases in Australia and New Zealand have come from international travellers returning home, or jumping off cruise ships, it’s likely that the international shutdown is going to last a lot longer than the domestic ones – Governments are going to be very careful about opening their borders when places like the ‘States and Europe look like they’re going to be battling this thing for some time to come.
Experts have already made it very clear that there are chances for a second wave of infections so you can bet that even if it is controlled on a domestic level, international borders will remain closed for a lot longer than internal ones.
Australia and New Zealand are in a fortunate position in that their close collaboration could allow for Trans-Tasman links to be re-established before any others, should the domestic situation warrant it.
But it’s clear that the longer this goes on, the longer the international borders are going to remain firmly shut – placing an end to any New Zealand contributions here, or vice-versa.
That alone will put into doubt the chances of the Kiwi Supercars round going ahead this year.
Are there other ramifications to that? Not having ‘NZ’ listed on the calendar may hurt the Supercars’ series status as an ‘international’ series, but then again these are times where compromises need to be made so it’s unlikely the French will kick up too much of a fuss about that.
Reading into everything going on, it’s easy to see racing in this part of the world coming back a long time before it does everywhere else – certainly, I’d wager racing in New Zealand being amongst the first in the world to recommence given the rapid steps to isolate the country that the Kiwi government has taken.
Hopefully, we’re seeing them open sooner rather than later and we can enjoy a motorsport-led recovery to normal life.. even if it is only from Australia and New Zealand.
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