STATEMENT – AUSTRALIAN KART CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND ONE

Border closures force 2021 AKC opener to be postponed

Round One of the 2021 SP Tools Australian Kart Championship presented by Castrol EDGE has been postponed.

The decision to postpone the start of the Championship has been made due to the current border restrictions across the country that have been applied since mid-December. These include both Greater Sydney and Greater Brisbane regions, the latter being declared a Commonwealth hotspot on Friday January 8.

“The fact that all State and Territory Governments have immediately decided to shut their state borders with Brisbane or Queensland, combined with the ongoing restrictions covering Greater Sydney residents entering Queensland, makes it impossible to run the first round on the originally scheduled date,” said Karting Australia Chief Executive Officer Kelvin O’Reilly.

“The past 10 months have shown us that most State and Territory Governments are quick to close their borders but are very slow to remove the restrictions that they impose after the ‘threat’ from the virus has passed. Considering all of the currently known and understood circumstances, we have made the difficult decision not to proceed with the opening round on the originally scheduled date.

“I would like to thank the Ipswich Kart Club for their hard work preparing for this event, and we look forward to racing there later in the year.

“The safety and wellbeing of our karting family and the community at large is the singular most important thing, and we will never deviate from that. With the challenges forced upon our sport by the COVID-19 Pandemic continuing into 2021 we remind all the karting community of the ongoing necessity to remain vigilant and agile surrounding all karting events. Unfortunately, flexible calendars and changeable events will be with us for quite some time.”

A revised schedule for the 2021 SP Tools Australian Kart Championship presented by Castrol EDGE will be advised in due course.

All entrants will be contacted in the coming days about options for refunds of their entry fees.