COVID-19 is having an impact on the willingness to attend events of just over a third of race fans, Speedcafe.com’s 2020 Motorsport Survey has revealed.

Respondents were asked, ‘Has COVID-19 impacted your decision making process to attend/travel to motorsport events in the future?’, with 36.8% of 6940 people selecting one of the ‘Yes’ options.

The proportion of those who affirmed that ‘I won’t travel to events for the foreseeable future’ was 12.3% while 23.4% said they will be ‘very cautious booking travel/tickets in the future’.

Those groups combined were nevertheless almost outnumbered by those who selected ‘Not really – I will be a bit more cautious in the future but will still plan as usual to attend events’, at 36.3%.

An emphatic ‘No’ was recorded from 26.9% of respondents; 8.1% cited plans which organisers had in place, while 18.8% agreed that ‘we need to learn to live with the pandemic’.

Events have been run with heavily restricted crowds since July, after no spectators at all were allowed to Supercars’ return at Sydney Motorsport Park in June.

The last time large crowds were seen was the opening day of the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in March, before it was abandoned the next day as the pandemic took hold in Australia.

TOMORROW in the Speedcafe.com 2020 Motorsport Survey, presented by Kincrome: What fans drive