Rescheduling the race has implications for the World Endurance Championship.
COVID-19 has racked up another casualty in auto racing, and this time it affected one of the most iconic events in the sport–the 24 Hours of Lemans.
Pierre Fillon (photo, Lemans.org)
In making the announcement, Pierre Fillon, president of Automobile Club de l’Ouest, said, “Postponing the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2020, originally scheduled for 13-14th June, is the appropriate solution in the face of the exceptional health circumstances that we are all going through today. It goes without saying that we will make every effort to ensure the safety and quality of our events.”
“Today it is a question of stopping the spread of this virus,” Fillon continued. “We are more than ever working as one team together with our competitors, partners, fans, media, medical services, organization teams, and marshals.”
Rescheduling the race–with such a high-profile race as this–has implications for the rest of the racing schedule. At issue is the World Endurance Championship, which got underway last season in September with the first race in Silverstone, England. The 2020/21 will have brand new hypercars, which makes Lemans the last one from the old LMP entries. The racing schedule, and matters associated with it, will be resolved in due course.
But make no mistake about it: rescheduling Lemans is an extraordinary action. The race, which was inaugured in 1923, took a 10-year hiatus during the war years before re-appearing in 1949. Most of the time, the competition has been held in or around the second week of June. That won’t happen this year.
