Cookstown 100 road race pushed back to September
- Published
The Cookstown 100 was the only Irish road race to run in 2020
The Cookstown 100 road races have been postponed until 10-11 September due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
The event was initially scheduled to run on the last weekend in April.
Road racing has been heavily hit by the pandemic with the majority of events in 2020 and 2021 either cancelled or postponed.
Cookstown was the only road race to run in Ireland in 2020 and a limited number of spectators were allowed to attend September's meeting.
The 2021 Isle of Man TT was cancelled in November, although the Southern 100 is still scheduled to go ahead in July, however there are doubts surrounding the May date of the North West 200.
The Tandragee 100 was called off earlier in January while all races in the Republic of Ireland, bar the Skerries meeting, have also been pulled due to the pandemic.
"We as organisers of the event are extremely disappointed, but we must put the health and safety of our residents, officials, competitors and spectators first," said a statement from the Cookstown & District Motorcycle Club.
"Whilst it is welcomed that the current vaccine process has begun, the time frame of which the vaccine will be distributed to everyone in the community, means the timing of our event in April brings too much uncertainty to competitors, spectators and, of course, to the club ourselves.
"While this may come as a disappointment to many, we must act in a responsible way and allow time for the vaccine to help protect the community and also allow time for the NHS to become less overwhelmed.
"We hope that by giving extra time in 2021 before running our event, we are in a much better position in our community by September and we will bring another great few days racing, just as we did in 2020.