Professional Drivers fall victim to COVID-19
Professional Drivers fall victim to COVID-19
The Union of International Chauffeurs and Routiers (UICR) announced that the 2020 Professional Driver World Championship (PDWC) has been cancelled. In the interest of professional drivers, the decision was taken to reschedule the PDWC to August 2021. A significant amount of preparation work has already been undertaken by the twenty-three participating countries. The European Professional Drivers Association (EPDA) who are the organising body for the Island of Ireland and the UK welcomed the decision, EPDA President Walter Pisarnik said that “under the circumstances, it is the right decision”. The regional qualifiers were planned for May/June and the Irish National finals were happening on the 4th of July at Full of the Pipe in Punchestown Racecourse.
Teams have to prepare and train prior to the regional finals. Unfortunately, many companies are currently closed and would put drivers wishing to compete for a place on the Irish or UK team at a distinct disadvantage. Now that the PDWC will take place in Zagreb, Croatia in August 2021, it gives all something to look forward to at this time.
The ECO Professional Driver World Championships (EPDWC) which is held alongside the PDWC is also cancelled. Barry Lyons who is the Director of EPDWC said “ Professional drivers will understand the decision that the Executive Board of the UICR had to take. The organising committee for Zagreb was doing a fantastic job of organising the event. We had changed the structure of the ECO driving event making it more challenging and we believe fairer for competing countries. Look, it’s great to have something to look forward to after lockdown and you can be sure that the ECO driving event in 2021 will be special.”
The companies and individuals who applied to participate have been contacted and informed of the news from the UICR. Declan Mc Ginn and Brendan Conlon who both manage the qualifiers and national final and select the professional drivers for Team Ireland said that” It’s important that people put things into perspective. For the moment we have to put everything on hold while we focus on ridding our communities of the COVID-19 scourge. Our committee is really looking forward to pulling together the very best professional drivers in Ireland to compete for Team Ireland in Croatia in 2021. We were very impressed with the applications from individuals and companies to compete and we look forward to meeting everyone in January 2021.”
If you are interested in competing in 2021 here is a second chance for you to do so. For more information email. TeamIRL@epda.ie or form the UK TeamUK@epda.ie