"Donington Park has hundreds of acres of space where you could practice social distancing and fans to be apart from the bubble inside of the paddock.I'm a fan of sport so it is really tough when you draw a line and say an event can have this but another can only have that."
World Superbike Championship: Crowd restrictions for Donington 'comical' - Jonathan Rea
Six-time World Superbike champion Jonathan Rea says he is “dumbfounded” that July’s race at Donington Park will be limited to 4,000 spectators.
The race circuit hosted the Download music festival at the weekend, which saw a crowd of 10,000 attend as a government pilot test event.
Silverstone will be allowed to have a capacity 140,000 crowd for Formula 1’s British Grand Prix on 18 July.
“I really don’t understand who makes this up, it’s comical,” said Rea.
“If you are dubbed a test event you can create your own rules, but we are where we are. You have to realise we are still not out of the woods in these Covid-19 times.”
The British round of the World Superbike Championship takes place at Donington Park from 2-4 July, just two weeks after the Download Festival at the Leicestershire venue, and motorsport fans have been voicing their frustration that spectator numbers are limited to 4,000 for the race weekend.
Northern Irishman Rea said that event organisers “have to be sensible” but he struggled to understand the disparity in numbers between various events, at similar venues around similar dates in July.
Adults attending the British Grand Prix will have to be fully vaccinated or be in possession of a negative test for Covid. The rules for children have not yet been revealed.
“Motorsport needs fans and we need to get back to some sort of normality. I feed off the atmosphere at tracks and I can’t wait to get that feeling back,” said Rea, who leads the 2021 championship before his home round.
“You can’t do that inside a stadium yet we are seeing packed grounds now. It is really strange. I’m happy for the fans who are allowed back and can go and cheer on their team, but it is frustrating for those who are missing out.”
Original article 24.06.21 on the BBC Sport website
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