How a much-changed Macau GP kept the party going

By:

Marcus Simmons

Nov 24, 2020, 3:57 PM

OPINION: The 67th edition of the Macau Grand Prix might have been a largely muted affair to the outside world without its international influx and star line-ups, another victim to the COVID-19 pandemic, but organisers deserve huge credit for keeping the party going

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I'm not normally one to a wear a hat - unless it's a woolly one to keep out the cold - but this week I'm raising metaphorical headgear to the Macau Grand Prix Organizing Committee for keeping its event, of which last weekend's running was the 67th edition, alive through the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.

The Macanese government immediately introduced very strict measures to control the spread of the virus, with the result that its population has been COVID-free for months and was very little affected even in the early period. But the knock-on effect of that was quarantine measures that meant any visitor had to spend 14 days in a hotel room before even being allowed out into the rest of the hotel, let alone the streets.

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Marcus Simmons

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Marcus Simmons is the Deputy Editor of Autosport magazine. As a child he was a regular on the chalk banks of Thruxton – hence his unhealthy obsession with 1970s Formula 2 and F3 – before he became an MSA timekeeper at the age of 17. At 19, his reporting debut for Motoring News arguably overshadowed Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal as the sporting moment of June 1986, and he joined the staff in 1990 after graduating from his degree course in Plymouth. A parallel Formula First career – which was as incident-packed as his childhood exploits in show-jumping and hunter trials – finished when he wrote off his car and put himself in hospital in 1991.

Marcus moved to Autosport in the summer of 1996. Since then he has had two stints as a freelancer and a brief spell as editor of Motor Sport magazine, during which the revered green cover was revived, before he rejoined Autosport in 2008. He lives in Teddington with his wife (who, gratifyingly, grew up within earshot of Castle Combe), daughter, stepson, dog, cat and guitars, and additionally has an adult daughter and stepson.