The annual Ashley Forest Rallysprint set to go 19-20 September has been cancelled as a result of the Covid-19 uncertainty hitting the country.
Organisers released the following comment, “Despite a fantastic field of cars and competitors this year, with the Covid alert level remaining at Level 2 for the majority of New Zealand until at least September 6th with no guarantee of a downgrade, Ratec Motorsport Inc. regrettably advises that this years Ashley Forest Rallysprint has had to be cancelled.”
The event now joins a number of others that have been called, cancelled or postponed in the last seven days. This includes Targa NZ which was set to take place 14-18 October which is now looking for a new date. With the 17 October election date right in the middle of the event, organisers could foresee that closing roads would almost be impossible, coupled with the current Covid-19 ‘lockdown’ levels.
Toyota Racing has called the Best Bars Toyota 86 Championship which was due to see its final round run in September. Again, due to uncertainty over NZ’s coronavirus levels heading into the spring and the difficulty of overseas competitors making the trip to NZ including quarantining, organisers have declared Peter Vodanovich as the winner.
There had been plenty of hype heading towards the running of the Ashley Forest Rallysprint with the big question of how close could current title holder, Hayden Paddon, get to the magic 50 second mark? We will have to wait another 12 months to find out.
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