Kildare Lockdown Claims Three Mondello Events

The lockdown of counties Kildare, Offaly and Laois, announced and implimented last weekend, has had an immediate affect on the Mondello Park calendar.

Having just got up and running again and implimented all the necessary COVID systems such as online registration, limited numbers, no spectators and temperature checks on arrival, the management were planning a revised calendar for all disciplines and of course for their on site driving experiences. The sudden lockdown meant however, that last Sunday’s Rallycross event was immediately axed. This was a shame as there had been so much work done behind the scenes on the once struggling discipline, numbers were strong and On The Limit Sports were due to stream the event too. Also axed, unfortunately, was the opening round of the Suirway Group Rallysprint Championship, which had also attracted a strong entry, including a healthy number of R5 machines and even a few WRC cars too. Sunday October 18th now is likely to become the opening round of this championship now, with organisers possibly adding an extra date to replace the original opener.

In theory, it initially seemed as if the race meeting on the 22/23 might go ahead, as the two week lockdown was thought to have started on the Friday. It would have been a gamble though as the lockdown could easily be extended and the announcement would doubtless not have come before the eve of the event. The decision was made for Mondello though, when the government announced the lockdown is to end on the Saturday, and not the Friday. This meeting though, has been re-scheduled to September the 27th. This will be a single day race meeting with open testing, like the way it used to be before two day double header meetings became the norm.

We are living in difficult times and it isn’t easy for any business to plan and especially a sports venue like Mondello Park. Should all go ahead though, and hopefully it does, we can look forward to a shortened, but packed, calendar for the remainder of 2020. As for the question everyone is asking- yes there is a plan to run the 6 Hour Fiesta Endurance race, and the proposed date is November 1st. In the meantime, stay safe, wear a mask and wash your hands!