Motorsport postpones season opener
Kabelo Boranabi | Friday February 26, 2021 11:12
Gaborone Motor Club (GMC), organisers of BMS National Championship Round 1, has postponed the event due to a low turnout of competitors.
The event dubbed Kopong 200 was scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday). This was to be the first of the eight-round BMS off-road national championship with the sport returning to life after almost a year’s absence.
However, only 12 competitors had registered with eight awaiting confirmation as compared to over 60 in 2019. “Due to extremely low entries and not many competitors completed the licence and insurance application. It has been decided to move Kopong 200 from February 27 to March 6 [2021]. This is to allow everyone to get all the requirements done by February 28,” a statement from GMC reads. Speaking to Mmegi Sport, event secretary Jackie Meyer said they were disappointed by the low turnout.
Meyer, however, said it was a blessing in disguise as the postponement would give riders a chance to sort themselves out, and hopefully increase the entries. She said they had anticipated a low turnout after the coronavirus (COVID-19) disrupted the 2020 season.
“We wanted to give our riders a chance to sort out the licence and insurance subscriptions. We see this as an advantage because it buys the riders a little bit of time to sort out their fees from what has been a hard year.
We normally have 60 to 70 riders for a season opener, but this time we are expecting 30 to 50 riders. It has been a hard period for the riders and the sport, but we are hoping we can have more people turning up for the race,” Meyer said.