The final round of the Ryco 24.7 New Zealand V8 Ute series at Hampton Downs has been cancelled due to Covid-19 travel restrictions.
The event had been scheduled for next weekend, with Speed Works Events organisers initially confirming a green light for the event’s operation under New Zealand’s Covid-19 Alert Level 2 restrictions with the aid of Sport New Zealand and MotorSport New Zealand.
However, the government’s late revision of Alert Level 2 to minimise the size of groups of people traveling together from Auckland put paid to those plans.
“Unfortunately, with a number of competitors and officials coming from the Auckland region for this meeting, we felt it was impractical to go ahead and potentially compromise the detailed safety plan we had put in place for the meeting,” said Speed Works Events’ Geoff Short.
The news follows the cancellation of the final round of the Best Bars Toyota 86 Championship, which was set to be held at the same meeting. GTR NZ and Speed Works’ own Rush Hour mini-enduro event were also set to run at the event.
Promoters are now in talks with organisers of the Golden Homes North Island Endurance Series to possibly shift the V8 ute and 86 series events (the latter on a non-points basis) to share billing with the endurance championship’s opening round on September 18–19.
Should the ute series not complete its fourth and final round, Paul Manuell will be crowned champion. He currently leads Glen Collinson by 34 points, with Andrew Porter, Peter Ward, and Simon Ussher rounding out the top five in the standings.