Yahoo News Coventry Motofest marks return of competitive motorsport to a UK city centre
Competitive motorsport returns to a UK city centre for the first time in almost 30 years when Motofest Coventry stages time trials as part of its festival of motoring on June 2 and 3.
The sprint races, drawn from the British Automobile Racing Club’s (BARC) various championship series, will take place on a circuit formed by part of Coventry’s inner ring road.
It will be the first time competitive motorsport has been hosted on a UK city centre circuit since the Birmingham Superprix event featuring single-seater and touring car racers in 1990.
The event is a free, two-day festival dedicated to the city’s motoring heritage. There will be a range of automotive activities taking place from pop-up and demonstration events to static displays and fringe events at what it claims is now the largest free urban motorsport festival in the UK.
Motofest Coventry has been working closely with the MSA and Coventry City Council to host a competition event since April 2017 when the MSA, and its sister governing body for two-wheel UK motorsport, the Auto-Cycle Union (ACU), were made the authorising bodies for closed-road motorsport events.
James Noble, Motofest Coventry festival director, said: “We have made no secret of our desire to host competitive motorsport on the Coventry Ring Road and we are now in a position to make this a reality.
“Being the first to host competitive motorsport since the legislation changes is another superb achievement for the city. We look forward to putting on a great show filled with the thrills and excitement you would expect of the UK’s largest free urban motorsport festival.”
Since 2010 the MSA has called for a change in the law to allow local authorities to suspend the Road Traffic Act for authorised motorsport events, without requiring individual Acts of Parliament.
Primary legislation providing the framework for closed-road motorsport was passed in the 2015 Deregulation Act and since then the MSA has worked closely with the Department for Transport (DfT) on the secondary legislation required to make this framework available to event organisers.
Full details at the Motofest Coventry website.
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