New Zealand's biennial Silver Fern Rally has officially been cancelled for 2020 as COVID-19 restrictions continue.
The rally had already been reduced from a week-long marathon to a two-day Silver Frond because international entries were unlikely to be able to get to New Zealand.
In a statement from the organising Ultimate Rally Group, managing director Peter Martin said:
"After the recent period of Level 3 COVID-19 travel restrictions in Auckland being downgraded to Level 2, along with the rest of the country, we are still uncertain as to what level COVID-19 restrictions the country will be in by November, so we have made the decision not to proceed with the proposed 2020 URG Silver Frond event.
"This has been a very hard decision to make but in the long term interest of our business model, we are left with no other option.
"To run events of this magnitude we need to be in Level 1 or lower to cater for the numbers of people involved as these are well in excess of 100 people.
"For this event to be viable we need a minimum of 45 entries. Each team would be a minimum of three people (45 x 3 = 135) and the number of officials and marshals is well in excess of 100 people, so clearly we need to be in Level 1 or lower to run an event," he said.
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