Walkinshaw Andretti United, Tickford Racing, Blanchard Racing Team, Erebus Motorsport, Team 18 and Kelly Grove Racing were all considering a last-minute relocation to NSW today ahead of the seven-day lockdown in Victoria due to a COVID-19 outbreak.
However a recent change to the NSW border rules, which includes an isolation order for anyone from Victoria, has further complicated the scenario for the affected teams.
Motorsport.com understands there is currently an agreement between the teams to stay in Melbourne until at least tomorrow, given the 4pm cut-off for the NSW border is unachievable.
That doesn’t mean they won’t still leave the state in the coming days, with a two-week relocation almost certainly necessary of the Darwin Triple Crown is to go ahead as planned on June 18-20.
Self-isolating in NSW may still be seen as the preferred way to clear the two-week hurdle for entry into the NT, rather than going straight to the Territory where personnel would be put into supervised quarantine.
However staying put has bought teams time to properly assess the options. They now have the best part of a week to make a decision, although there is a risk the NSW border restrictions could tighten if the situation in Victoria worsens.
NSW did put a hard border in place with Victoria during the 2020 outbreak that saw Melbourne inundated with hundreds of cases per day for much of July and August.