Club Arnage

Hi all!  here we go again.  It looks to me as though we will be vaccinating more than a few million a month.  the pharmacy companies are saying there is no hold ups on supply.  I'm feeling positive about this year.  I heard that people are suggesting that when we come out of this we will all want to get back close and personal.  Do we anticipate that there will be Le Mans ticket supply prob!ems?

I hate to say it but I'm still not convinced we will be allowed to go to LM this year, or if we are that it will be a full crowd.
Whilst we may be vaccinating at a fast rate, the rest of Europe isn't.

As in all things, time will tell.

Boris is saying 2 million a week, so that's 30 weeks (20 weeks if you ignore the under 20s) plus 12 weeks for the second jab, and 2 weeks for it to work.  He's promised it will pick up speed

So June isn't looking good, although most of us will have been done by then.

Then there's France.  They've made a slow start, and may only be half way through the jabs by June.  And will they want to see proof of vaccination, otherwise we could all go over there spreading/catching it and cause complete chaos.

This one's going to run and run

Sadly and slightly surprisingly France is still lagging the Uk. We have vaccinated more people in the last three days than they have in total. I thought they were good at this sort of thing.

What puzzled me, is their reaction to the curfew.  When it was 8pm, the restaurants complained there was only time for one sitting for dinner.  Now its 6pm there are no riots - are they not eating, or will they extend lunch by a couple of hours to 6pm.

They have avoided full lockdown, but at this rate it won't be long - Wednesday I hear

France only counts people who have had both shots of vaccines not just 1.

Do you know why? What is the statistical and/or scientific reasoning? What are they telling the public?

Modified to add that a reliable source advises me that the French figures are in fact including single jabs and yes, the situation really is that bad! I am really surprised this is happening in an election year, surely M. Macaroon is going to get a proper kicking in the polls?

I genuinely feel we wont be leaving the UK this year at all with everything that is going on.

If were all to get back to any form of leisure related international travel the vaccine effort has to be an international one too. The UK being the earliest approver of vaccines was a politically motivated act and even more evidenced by the 12 week gap between the two doses of the Pfizer one to boost the numbers to look better. As has been shown recently one dose can give quite a low protection rate.

Anyway forget about LM21 fingers crossed for 22 !!

So the motorbike 24 hours is now announced as running behind closed doors.....and the 24 hr tickets are showing as "to be informed" on their website.  Well, the ACO have informed us that they won't be deciding on ticketing until April.

I'd hazard a guess that their choice might simply be about whether to run behind closed doors or not rather than to postpone.  Last year everywhere was shut down and they didn't have a calendar or plans to speak of, so were able to come up with the virtual running of it in June and to postpone the actual running behind closed doors to September. 

This year though who knows, it could change either way quickly either there or here or both, so we're just taking it as it comes and working out a Plan B for something in UK this summer should going to France fail again.   

I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that it will be 'behind closed doors' in June.  Possibly the Classic may get pushed back.

The UK may be doing well with vaccinations, but Europe needs to be confident of their strategy as well, otherwise we'll see more cross infection come the Summer.

I don't see a race in Jun with spectators as likely regardless of how the UK vaccination programme is going as that simply won't be a factor.  If the race goes ahead in Jun then I think it'll be behind closed doors.  The option to postpone to later in the year in order to increase the probability of being able to have a race with spectators is 'adopting hope as a strategy'. As Mark says all we can do is take it as it comes; respond to facts, not speculation.  If it is pushed back then I hope not to 18-19 Sep as have just booked tickets for Goodwood Revival (with a guarantee of transfer to following year or full refund if Government advice prevents it).

Whilst I fully doubt we'll be allowed to go in June, I could see the race being delayed again if the ACO feel there is a chance that a crowd of some sort would be allowed to go at a later date. If that's not the case then I, also, expect a behind closed doors event in June.

I doubt the classic will happen this year unless enough restrictions are removed, i.e. we can go in June.

I guess the other option is to move the 24 to the Classic dates if they feel that they could allow a crowd for a summer event, mind you it is only a few weeks after the 24.

Too many variables involved at the moment though!

I think the April date for ticket sales (or not) is based on the May cutoff for refunds for credits held over from last year.

Its all a bit 'up in the air' for everything & every one (unless your of student age of course ........).

I'm waiting to hear if my rolled over, rolled over again Spa WEC trip has any chance of happening, & am contemplating a Goodwood revival ticket purchase with its refund option if scrubbed ,to give myself something to look forward to,(having recently moved to Chichester!!)
 
I do hope the Sunday breakfast club reopens soon  ;D

I think we have to accept that there is no Haynes Manual for Covid.  Its all educated guesses and in some cases, uneducated guesses.  It always seems that we'll have a better idea of the future in a month or two, but we never did, until now, perhaps.