16 Dec

The saga of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic and historic sporting trials

by admin with 2 Comments

The Covid-19 virus started to spread alarmingly in the in the country during March 2020 leading to the Government imposing a national lockdown on the 23rd March. All motorsport was stopped resulting in the Ron Faulkner Trial, the Isle of Wright 2-day Trial and the Inaugural Heritage Trial having to be cancelled.

Motorsport UK issued Covid-19 guidance to allow motorsport to restart at the end of June but initially this was only for disciplines where there is only one person in the vehicle. In addition, events had to be run “behind closed doors” with no spectators, not easy to achieve on most trials site. These requirements effectively prevented the new Northern Trial and the HSCC Historic Sporting Trial in Hertfordshire being run.

Additional guidance was then issued by Motorsport UK which allowed two people in a vehicle and the sporting trials fraternity developed a sensible “Covid” strategy which enabled a few trials to be organised, mainly to allow various championships to be completed. The requirements included all competitors wearing face coverings whilst driving in an observed section (to protect marshals attending the car in the event of an accident) and when close to other people. Social distancing had to be maintained but a trial could be run albeit without the social atmosphere which is so much part of historic sporting trials. Several of our competitors said they were not interested in taking part in a trial under these Covid restrictions.

By the end of the summer the Coronavirus appeared to be under reasonable control and plans were made to run the remaining historic sporting trials, starting with the Wotton Trial on the 7^th November. However, the infection rate started to rise again, and it was felt inappropriate to bring a large event to the outskirts of a rural Gloucestershire town that had a low infection rate, and a decision was taken to cancel.

To compensate for the loss of the Wotton Trial we brought forward the date of the Monty Peters Historic Sporting Trial to Sunday, 22^nd November and regulations were issued.

Then a second 4-week national lockdown was imposed from the 31^st October.  It meant that we would not have been able to hold the Wotton Trial even if we had wanted to and we now had to move the date of the Monty Peters Trial again.

We were told when the national lockdown ended the country would be split into tiers depending on the infection rate etc. As we had no additional information as to whether the lockdown would be extended or how the tier system would work, we decided to move the Monty Peters Historic Sporting Trial to the 13^th December and issue the regulations. We had received 29 entries when the infection rate in Kent started to rise dramatically and on the 2^nd December the whole of Kent was placed in the then highest level - Tier 3. Travel was discouraged and with the landowner concerned at having an event on his land at this difficult time, yet another event had to be cancelled.

This only left the 750MC Historic Plum Pudding Trial scheduled for the 28^th December at the Head Down near Petersfield in Hampshire, a site located in Tier 2. All went well, regulations were issued, and 32 entries were received - well down on the 55 competitors we had the previous year. Then another variant of Covid was discovered causing the infection rate to rise rapidly resulting in Hampshire and a large part of southern England being placed in the very restrictive Tier 4. Yet again, the trial had to be cancelled.

A sorry tale indeed.  Martyn Halliday December 2020

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