At this point, we’ve grown accustomed to motorsports events being . And while the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy isn’t exactly the first event that comes to mind when you think about safe conditions, the organizers have at least bowed to the deadly reality of the novel coronavirus.

Calling off the 2021 event marks the second year in a row that the race will not be held. The 2020 TT was red-flagged in March, when the first wave of COVID-19 hit.

Manx Enterprise Minister Laurence Skelly said, via Autosport:

Be patient with us here, we are going to have a TT that will come back bigger and better than ever.

Consideration was also given to simply delaying the TT, given that a vaccine is likely to be available early next year:

We evaluated all possible options including moving the TT to a date later in the year,” he said.

But there are complexities and risks, including scaling up of certain infrastructure and critical delivery elements of the TT, as well as existing resident and visitor travel in late August, which would cause further disruption to thousands of people.

There is good news on the horizon, as a vaccine has been and will be rolled out. With luck, we will eventually return to something like normal and can once again pack stands and enjoy racing in all its glory.