North West 200 Event Director Mervyn Whyte says plans for the international road race are continuing as normal amidst growing concerns over the impact of the coronavirus pandemic

Major sporting events around the world have been hit by the global outbreak of the illness and motorcycling has also been severely disrupted, with the Spanish round of the World Superbike Championship – originally due to take place between March 27-29 – now postponed until October.

This comes after the second round of the series in Qatar, scheduled for this weekend, was cancelled, while the MotoGP World Championship has also been left in disarray after the cancellation of the Qatar race and the postponement of the Thai, American and Argentinean rounds until later in the year.

On Wednesday, the number of positive coronavirus cases in Northern Ireland stood at 16 – including a Linfield football player, resulting in the postponement of Saturday’s Irish League game with Larne.

But for now, the North West 200 race meeting is going ahead as planned from May 12-16.

Race chief Whyte told the News Letter:

“I received quite a lengthy email from the Chief Medical Officer for Northern Ireland, Dr Michael McBride, and his advice for now is that the risk from mass outdoor gatherings is quite low.

“So at this particular time we are planning ahead as usual for the North West 200, but we are continuing to monitor the situation on an ongoing basis and we’re taking advice and guidance.

“At the end of the day if we move from the containment stage to the delay stage and we’re told there are to be no mass gatherings, then obviously we have to heed that medical advice like everyone else.

“One of the biggest issues from my point of view is pressing ahead with course layout because we provide around 5,000 grandstand seats for the event, which costs £70,000. I have asked for a timeline in relation to how long we could wait until the build for those started, because it would be a huge financial hit for us if we completed the build only to be told 10 days later that the North West 200 could not go ahead,” he added.

“We had looked at contingency plans around holding the event later in the year if we were to get to that point, but it doesn’t look possible due to clashes with British Superbike rounds and the unavailability of free weekends.”

Earlier this month, the Isle of Man Government also said plans for the TT Races (May 31 to June 12) were progressing as normal, although a cross-government working group has been established to ‘regularly review the changing situation.’

Kyle White