12 Apr FROM THE CLUB PRESIDENT – THE CRISIS OF COVID-19 AND FUTURE PLANS
To all WPMC Members: The Crisis of COVID-19 and Future Plans
The crisis of COVID-19 presents a situation of great uncertainty, both to our personal health and to our country’s economic well-being. The crisis is likely to profoundly affect the way of life to which we have become accustomed and will demand prescient and firm leadership and tough choices to ensure both the Club’s stability and future prosperity.
While the Western Province Motor Club has thus unavoidably had to put its planned events on hold, at least until June, we are using the time constructively to prepare the strategy for the long-term renewal of the lease agreement. This strategy will be circulated on these pages in due course.
The management of the Club is working assiduously in devising and implementing ongoing cost-cutting measures to accommodate the considerable upset in our calendar and anticipated revenue streams. I congratulate them for their hard work during this stressful time, and ask for your support of their endeavours.
It is important, too, that we keep focused on a more positive future. In this regard, we are planning a Motorsport Festival around the 4/5 December 2020 date including an international endurance race and historic events. A number of international stars have, COVID conditional, accepted our invitation to compete, including Jan Lammers, Emanuele Pirro, and Ginetta’s Lawrence Tomlinson, all of whom are overall or class winners at Le Mans, as well as the Killarney legend Brian Redman and current Ginetta Le Mans and WEC star Michael Simpson. The event is be run in conjunction with WESGRO, the Western Cape’s Investment and Trade agency, among others. The Premier of the Western Cape Alan Winde has, too, kindly accepted our invitation to be our guest of honour and the starter of the main event.
I hope that you will agree that this is a great platform for the WPMC to showcase Killarney and the capabilities of its management and membership.
More details will follow on the Festival as soon as these become available.
This letter comes with my personal best wishes for Pesach and Easter, traditionally a time of renewal and hope, and for the upcoming Ramadan. The Club wishes you are your families well during this most difficult and abstruse time. We encourage all members to stay indoors and safe during the lockdown, where we can all play our part in slowing the transmission of this deadly virus, so as to resume our normal lives as soon as possible.
Yours in the sport
Dr Greg Mills
President: WPMC