The popular Waimate 50 motorsport event has been cancelled for this year, putting a $1 million hole in the region’s economy.
The popular event which takes place on the streets of Waimate over Labour Weekend had its 60th anniversary last year but would not take place in late October this year.
Event organiser Rob Aikman said there was too much risk to hold the event given the situation caused by Covid-19.
"We just can’t operate in the current climate. We have been keeping an eye on it over time and it is just not getting any better," he said.
"We have a lot of people who come from overseas, those who come from the North Island and it was just not viable to go ahead."
Mr Aikman said it was an expensive event to run and should crowds be banned or limited then the event would be facing a big loss. It was simply too much of a risk to do that.
He said it would be hard to come back after this year’s cancellation.
"You lose the momentum and lose that you are in a tenable position. But we have got a lot of supporters out there. All the entrants, the councils, the businesses. We will just wait and see what happens."
Infometrics had been employed to make an economic appraisal of last year’s event and found it contributed $1million to the Waimate economy. That would all be lost and did not include money which came into other areas such as Timaru and Oamaru.
Getting a track compliant and up to strict safety standards, which the organisers wanted to do, did not come cheaply and it cost more than $300,000 to run the event every year.
"You have to build a compliant race track. So it is not easy, not cheap to do."
The event had four car classes and also had motorcycle and drift car demonstrations.
"You’ve got to have all the events to make it worthwhile and get people along. You want to have up to 20 hours of racing to make it worthwhile."
Last year’s event was held over four days to mark the 60 years but it usually had three days of racing.
The event had previously been called off twice before, both times because of safety issues but this was the first time it has been stopped for something away from the track.
New Zealand motor racing greats such as Bruce McLaren, who won the first event in 1959, had raced at Waimate and its street circuit.
Matthew McKew
