EVENTS with crowds look set to return to Knockhill Racing Circuit from next month as track bosses prepare to begin their sporting season.

With COVID-19 restrictions easing, Scotland’s national motorsport centre is looking forward to welcoming at least 250 fans to the venue for the Scottish Championship Car Racing (SMRC) on June 6 in the first of its sporting events in 2021.

This Sunday also marks a significant date in the calendar with a ‘hot hatch track day’, that is open to road and track drivers who have pre-booked, while 90 riders, over two days, attended Superbike track sessions with motorcycle legends Niall Mackenzie and John McGuiness last week.

The levels of interest has buoyed Knockhill’s events director, Stuart Gray, who is also hopeful that they will be able to welcome an increased number of fans for their two flagship events of the year, the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, on July 9-11, and Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship, to be held on August 14-15.

Speaking to Press Sport about the year ahead, he explained: “The really encouraging thing is we’ve got other track evenings that are already at capacity in May so the hunger, the enthusiasm and the interest is there.

“People are keen to get back on track which is great news for us.

“In terms of the driving experiences, the track days and go-karting, it’s looking very promising in terms of the level of interest and the enthusiasm. Dates are filling up, which is great news.

“The unknown is spectators at events, although the (Scottish) Government have given the initial guidelines of us being allowed 250 spectators back from the June the 6th event onwards.

“If COVID figures continue to improve, then the indicative date is June 7 for 500, and end of June for 1,000.

“Our discussions with Fife Council and Scottish Government are around the Superbikes and Touring Cars because capacities can be increased depending on the event and the venue.

“We are in discussions with them to see if the Superbikes crowd, and the Touring Car crowd, can be considered with increased numbers over and above the thousand. For all other events in the year, the 1,000 is OK, it’s satisfactory, but we do need to see if we could get some leeway because they’re huge for us, for Dunfermline, for Fife, for Scotland, from an economic as well as a sporting point of view.”