While the coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19 outbreak continue to interrupt many aspects of many lives around the world, the resumption of motorsports activity is starting to happen at racetracks across America.
Road racer and dirt tracker Rob “Robby-Bobby” Mclendon hosted a full slate of dirt track races May 1-2 at his Pensacola Dirt Track in Pensacola, Florida.
SoCal Track Days took advantage of the easing of social distancing restrictions in Riverside County, California, and was able to host regularly scheduled track days — albeit with extra precautions to safeguard the health of staff and attendees — on May 2-3 at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway.
Participants spaced their pit set-ups widely across the paddock, wore face coverings when not in their pit areas or on their motorcycles, and SoCal Track Days and Chuckwalla Valley Raceway co-owner Micky Grana even opened up individual bathrooms in garages to provide an alternative to using the community restrooms, which were closed.
On May 9, Let’s Ride Track Days held a regularly scheduled event at Buttonwillow Raceway Park in Kern County, California, albeit with new steps to protect the health of all involved. There will be multiple registration lines and tech inspection lines instead of single lines, there will be separate riders’ meetings for each skill level group to minimize the size of the meetings, and face coverings will be required when not riding or in your own pit space.
“We know a lot of people are still having to wait,” said Sarah Domingo, co-owner of Let’s Ride Track Days, “but thankfully Buttonwillow worked with the county to help make this happen.”
After having to postpone or cancel several events through April and early May, WERA Motorcycle Roadracing (WERA) is holding its scheduled Sportsman Series race event May 16-17 at Roebling Road Raceway, near Savannah, Georgia.
WERA is implementing extra measures to reduce health risks, including asking participants to limit the number of people they brought with them, to wear face coverings, to give themselves extra space when setting up in the pits, and to order ahead for timed pickups from the track’s concession stand so no one will have to stand in line.
In addition, WERA is providing hand sanitizer at registration and tech inspection, regularly disinfecting items touched and used at registration, and providing printouts of all the special procedures and precautions to observe during the event.
But a WERA West race scheduled May 31, at Auto Club Speedway, in San Bernardino County, California, has been cancelled due to local restrictions on mass gatherings.
ASRA/CCS had planned to hold its annual Memorial Day Weekend race event May 23-25 at Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia – its first event since the Daytona 200 was postponed March 13, but local government officials did not approve the event based on its expected attendance of possibly 400 racers and support personnel.
When it is allowed to start holding events, ASRA/CCS plans to provide staff with face masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, and disinfectants; to supply one pen to each rider to use at registration, and to sterilize returned pens after each use; to limit the number of people who can be inside a registration building at one time to no more than 10 racers; to ask racers to maintain a minimum of six feet of spacing at all times in the paddock, the registration building, and at tech inspection; to instruct racers to place their motorcycles on stands and step away during technical inspections; and more. ASRA/CCS is also considering taking the temperature of racers before they enter the registration buildings and is looking into using a new touchless registration procedure.
“We want to get back to racing and the tracks want to get back to racing,” ASRA/CCS President Kevin Elliott told Roadracingworld.com. “They’re really willing to work with us and present these event plans [to the local officials] because they have a better relationship with their local authorities than we do.
“We think the steps we’re taking are at least reasonable for us to get out there and get started. Our racers are smart. They’re going to work with us and do this right.”
Thanks to the relaxing of local restrictions, Chuckwalla Valley Motorcycle Association (CVMA) has rescheduled its postponed 2019-2020 Winter Series finale from April to May 30-31 at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway.
And lastly, the MotoAmerica AMA/FIM North American Road Racing Series will hold its scheduled event May 29-31 at Road America, in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, albeit without spectators.
If you are an organizer and have a scheduled race, school, or track day event that has been postponed or cancelled, contact us as soon as possible at [email protected] so we can update your calendar listing on our website and in Roadracing World magazine.
As always, Roadracing World advises that before traveling to an event you should contact the organizer to confirm the event is still going to happen.
