China GT Could Be First Racing to Resume

The China GT Championship could be the first racing series in the world to resume in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, having released its updated calendar.

The series released an a provisional schedule on Monday with the opening rounds at Shanghai International Circuit rescheduled to June 26-28.

The city of Wuhan, where the novel coronavirus originated, came out of a 76-day lockdown last week as China appears to be on the road to returning to normality.

China’s National Health Commission says that no new cases have been reported since the lockdown was lifted on April 8, however, a number of restrictions remain in place to prevent a second wave of the outbreak.

The provisional four-event calendar, which is now slated to kick off in late June, sees a two-month break before the next event at the Qinhuangdao Shougang International Circuit on Sept. 5-6, followed by another event in Shanghai on Oct. 23-25.

Zhuhai International Circuit is set to host the final event from Dec. 4-6.

A number of other series, including all three GT World Challenge powered by AWS championships and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, have events scheduled either on or before the weekend of June 26-28.

However, travel and event restrictions within Europe and the U.S. could force these June races to be delayed.