Omicron causes a flurry of canceled events across the country

With the news that Omicron has breached the border and is now rife across New Zealand, there has been a flurry of events across the country cancelled, and many more put into doubt.

Firstly, there are a stink load of angry motorcycle racers, with not only the Suzuki International series over Christmas/new years cancelled, but now NZSBK also.
In a statement, race director Andy Skelton said:

“As you will all be aware there is huge uncertainty around the New Red Traffic Light COVID Protocol.
Motofest (Hampton Downs) informed MNZ on Monday that they cannot risk running the Motofest meeting and sustain heavy financial loss. The irony is neither can MNZ.
Over the past few years, the COVID situation has decimated the NZSBK Series and placed some huge financial burden around the model. With Motofest withdrawing from the series and unless there are a minimum of 4 rounds plus sponsorship and a paying gate, the series cannot exist.
The NZSBK Director and the team were trying to pull a fourth round into play with the help and supportive nature of the team in the far south, but with the news around Motofest the financial risk is too high, compounded with the Covid dynamic.
So, with this news we have taken the decision to cancel the series for 2022
As we alluded to earlier, the financial risk is too great given the impact of Covid on sponsorship, plus the series needs spectators, however we are talking to clubs to see if we can pull individual meetings together that represent some form of racing that supports the clubs and potentially builds a sounder foundation for the future with more club involvement.
We have some options, and we will work through the possibilities.
Grant Ramage - NZSBK Director
Andy Skelton - Road Race Commissioner”

Secondly, Shiny Side Up, the event put on by ACC and NZTA, has today made the announcement that the talk series will be postponed until 2023, one glimmer of light is that the online event on April 10th will still go ahead at this stage.


Rotorua Motorcycle Clubs entire MotoX championship for 2022 has been cancelled.

The Dirt Guide 8 hour event has also fallen victim to the dreaded 'rona...

And the BOP motorcycle club has cancelled its 50th Anniversary Summercross event.

Some good news, is that the MotoGuzzi Tiki Tour to celebrate 100 years of Motor Gizzi is still happening at this stage on the first weekend in March, with a new location of Raglan. As is the GS Rallye NZ backed by BMW Motorrad NZ, based out of Riverhead in Auckland. Though these events will be restricted in numbers to fit within the government's guidelines, they are shaping up to be some of the only events left on the calendar.

More info on these two events can be found on facebook.

If you know of an event that has been cancelled due to the latest COVID outbreak, please do get in touch with us and we will share the details.

You can email Ray Heron directly [email protected]