Racing is back after months of cancellations at the Illabo Speedway, with a last-minute pivot to a locals-only club day event hailed a success.
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Last week the Illabo Motorsport Park was forced to cancel its Vintage Speedway meeting on August 1 over concerns about bringing the predominantly Sydney-based drivers to the area amid continued coronavirus cases in the city.
At short notice, the event was changed to a Kart and Club Fun Day, with karts taking centre stage and speedway sedans and car parades entertaining a crowd of about 130 attendees.
Riverina-based drivers and spectators were allowed to attend.
Gasworks Motorsport Club Kerry Phelan said the club went above and beyond to make sure the event was safe with two members volunteering as COVID officials, and the attendees were more than happy to follow social distancing rules.
"What it demonstrates was when you have an event locally and people understand what's required, they all fall into line and the upside of it was they had a fantastic day," Mr Phelan said.
"The feedback we got on Monday was, can we have the next club day?"
"They didn't have to be in a race car, they just wanted to be here and part of the fun."
Mr Phelan said the event was a great chance for the club's expanding member base to get together safely, and showed what was possible after months of cancellations of community events.
"We can do it, do it properly and do it by the current rules and also provide an outlet for those people that haven't been able to do any of this since January," he said.
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