Roland Dane has explained that the declaration of three local government areas as hotspots in Queensland has a wide impact on Supercars.
That has raised serious questions over the prospect of Supercars heading to the Top End for the BetEasy Darwin Triple Crown next weekend, and the Corestaff Darwin SuperSprint seven days later.
Situated within the suburb of Banyo to the north of the Brisbane CBD, the Triple Eight Race Engineering factory is located within one of the defined areas.
While it is the only team with a facility within the hotspot, the actual impact is far more broad according to team boss Roland Dane.
“It’s not as simple as Triple Eight factory being within the zone,” Dane told Speedcafe.com.
“On the surface of it, it’s anyone who’s been in those zones over the last 14 days.
“So the southern border of the Logan City area, for instance, is defined by a creek that runs at the back, literally a couple of hundred metres from the north of Ross Stone’s workshop in Yatala, or about 500 metres from DJR.
“So there are lots of people who are involved in the sport who live in the defined area who may have been in the defined area going about their business over the last 14 days.
“There were people karting in the last couple of days out at Ipswich; there were people doing media stuff in Brisbane, nothing to do with us, in the last couple of days; there have been teams up with us collecting parts and seeing other people.
“It covers far more than just us.”
Looking to mitigate the risk posed by the announcement, key staff from Red Bull were last night relocated out of the defined areas.
However, there are no guarantees that the response will have any bearing on whether they can attend Hidden Valley next weekend.
“The only thing we’ve done is to make sure that all the race team, the people that are in question are people that are travelling to Darwin, are outside those areas,” Dane said.
“As soon as those areas were defined yesterday evening we ensured that everyone was out within a couple of hours.
“Whether that makes any difference in the end is not anything I can tell you, but we’ve certainly done what we can to try and mitigate and now it’s up to others to try and sort it out.”
Individuals wishing to enter the Territory must quarantine for 14 days if they’ve been within a hotspot area within the previous 14 days.
That means anyone looking to cross the border on Tuesday, for instance, cannot have been within one of those areas after July 23.
Much of the Supercars fraternity is unable to leave Queensland prior to Tuesday as they complete the 14 days of quarantine required after attending the Sydney Motorsport Park event on July 18-19.
“All we can do is try and absorb the punches as a sport and make a case for being allowed to go to the Northern Territory,” Dane reasoned.
“We’re just leaving it to Supercars to try and see what they can do,” he added.
“It’s not anything that I can influence, control, or play any part in. They know what they’re doing.
“They’ll do what they can and if it’s possible to go there then I’m sure they’ll arrange it. If it’s not then, well, we’ll have to do something else.”
Supercars last night confirmed to Speedcafe.com that discussions were underway with key health and government authorities, while NT Major Events added that it “was working with Supercars and the Department of Health to understand the implications of the latest hot spot declarations”.
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