A planned practice day at the Illabo Speedway has been cancelled on a technicality as conflicting coronavirus restrictions cause confusion. The Illabo Motorsport Park was set to host a closed practice session on June 2020 and had been working with governing body Speedway Australia to obtain the relevant permits and to comply with the current restrictions for speedway events. Despite receiving the all-clear from Speedway Australia to hold an event for drivers with strong social distancing, hygiene, contact tracing and no public access, the organisation was later informed the event could not go ahead due to state government restrictions regarding major recreation facilities such as showgrounds and motor racing tracks. Gasworks Motorsport secretary Kerry Phelan said he was told because the speedway was connected to the local showgrounds, it came under different restrictions to standalone speedway venues. "We've put three weeks of work into organising a regional event ... to then have the public health office say no," he said. He said the two conflicting restrictions affected multiple speedways in small NSW communities most likely to be able to facilitate events with suitably small attendances. READ MORE: Mr Phelan said the cancellation of the event was a major blow to both the motorsport park and the wider Junee shire. He said the drivers, the vast majority of whom travel from as far as Sydney and Canberra to race, were enthusiastic to get out and race as soon as possible following the resumption of regional travel. "When we released the news back in mid May (of the practice meeting) within 12 hours we had 42 entrants," he said. He said those entrant figures bring a larger number of people with partners and family coming down and spending money in the region. "The people we had coming would have generated in excess of $40,000 on the weekend of June 20 for Junee," he said. Mr Phelan said some of the racers who had planned to attend had wanted to come specifically to support the regional economy. "In the city they were hearing the news that the bush needs a hand," he said. "On one hand the government are saying 'go out and stimulate regional Australia', we've been hearing that for a while ... and on the other hand you've got the public health office saying 'no, this area's still closed, we can't have it'." Until there is clarity on when showground restrictions will be lifted, Mr Phelan said the August race meeting was also in jeopardy.
