Next year’s North West 200 could be pushed back until later in the year to improve the prospects of the event taking place amidst the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The international road race was cancelled this year along with the Isle of Man TT as a direct result of the coronavirus outbreak.

Already, doubts are beginning to grow over whether either race will take place as scheduled in 2021, with the North West provisionally pencilled in for May 11-15, while the TT is due to take place from May 29 to June 11.

Outgoing Event Director Mervyn Whyte, who announced he was stepping down from the role on Tuesday, admits his successor will face a ‘major challenge’ next year, when one option being explored is potentially running the race in August or September.

Whyte told the News Letter:

“We have to see how things go now with the coronavirus. The problem with making a decision too early is that you’re in trouble if things improve but the race has been called off.

“When we postponed the race at the end of March this year we were playing for time because it was the early stages of coronavirus here and we didn’t know how things would go.

“We had hoped then that we might still be able to run the race in May, but when things weren’t improving then there was no chance you could run an event on that scale on the North Coast,” he added.

“The coronavirus is going to be the big issue at the moment – deciding where we go once we have the new person in the role.”

The Cookstown 100 , which took place in September after being postponed from April, was the only Irish road race to go ahead this year.