Finish line is a blur
Local racetracks still looking for a way to drive through complicated but safe procedures
No sport has found more ways to remain relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic than auto racing. Early on, fans flocked to watch televised simulator races across a variety of national series. Now they’re enjoying real NASCAR races as most other sports leagues remain idle.
Local tracks, however, are hurting. Those in Western Pennsylvania have been closed since Gov. Tom Wolf’s stay-at-home order took effect in March, and reopening is a complicated endeavor as facilities juggle safety with generating business.
Unlike NASCAR, which has lucrative television contracts to prop up events without fans, tracks such as Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Keystone Raceway Park in New Alexandria and Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway in Imperial rely primarily on paying customers to establish purses, cover costs and make a profit. But it appears those fans won’t be returning anytime soon, even as most of Western Pennsylvania enters the green phase of reopening.
A spokeswoman for the Wolf administration told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that speedways are currently considered pro sports facilities, meaning they are permitted to stage practices and games — or in this case, races — in the yellow and green stages of reopening, provided they have a safety plan approved by the state. They cannot, however, have any fans in the stands.
That designation has created multiple headaches for the tracks.
For Matt Miley, whose family owns PPMS, approval of their safety plans is chief among them. He said he’s had one submitted for weeks with no reply from the state department of health or community and
economic development.
If and when PPMS receives approval, it could at least stage practice sessions and some races with lower payouts by charging fees to competitors. Those could help cover some of the costs that are piling up.
But right now Miley said he can’t even get to that stage. And even when he does, he feels the designation as a pro sports facility puts his business at a disadvantage compared to other entertainment facilities such as casinos and movie theaters, which are permitted to open with limited capacities in the green stage.
“All of our racers have jobs,” Miley said. “This isn’t what they rely on. Despite that, because they get paid a purse, which could never possibly cover their expenses, even if they win every week … it’s a hobby for all of us, but we’re lumped in with professional sports.
“Meanwhile, our mortgage is coming in. Our taxes are coming in. Our electric bill’s still coming in. Our phone bill’s still coming in. It’s kind of ludicrous that we see all these openings going on around us that are much less safe than the operation and the COVID-19 plan we could operate under, so we’re extremely frustrated with the process.”
Other tracks across the state have ignored that process for weeks now. Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown reopened with fans over Memorial Day weekend in direct defiance of a state order while its host county (Adams) remains in the yellow phase. Thus far, there have been no consequences, as the Adams County district attorney has said the speedway won’t face any criminal enforcement.
Locally, Keystone Raceway said on its Facebook page that it reopened this past weekend with approval for fans in a limited capacity. It did not say where the approval for fans came from.
Attempts to reach the raceway’s management Monday were unsuccessful.
PPMS and Lernerville have intentionally been more cautious. Their family ownership groups comprise mostly older people, some of whom have underlying health conditions. They have no appetite to take any unnecessary health risks. And for that reason, their safety plans are pretty robust.
“We’re operating in compliance, not defiance,” said Doug Tomson, whose family owns Lernerville.
Restrictions on potential competitors at PPMS include pitting and parking cars a minimum of 10 feet apart, signed social distancing agreements, staggered arrival times for teams and a protective facemask requirement. In the stands, attendance at the 10,000-seat facility also could be capped so fans can maintain a safe distance from one another.
Tomson said Lernerville is still working on its plan but hopes to have it submitted and approved soon with the goal of holding its own “test and tune” next Friday.
Still, playing by those rules has not yet borne fruit. And most operations simply can’t resume until it has. Both the Mileys and the Tomsons have looked into broadcasting races through some kind of payper-view model that could mimic ticket revenue, but that doesn’t get them too far.
“Frankly, the concession stand is a lot of where you print the money,” said Jim Zufall, the longtime announcing voice of PPMS.
And so, John Tomson, Doug’s brother, said he’s hoping they can get approval for something near half capacity to make races viable.
In the meantime, there are, fortunately, a few silver linings. John Tomson said he and his brothers have been able to catch up on a number of maintenance projects during the shutdown. The bleachers have received some repairs, different areas of the racetrack have received fresh paint jobs and the track’s irrigation system has been upgraded.
Neither speedway has yet been forced to cancel any major events either.
Lernerville’s World of Outlaws Firecracker 100 remains on the books for late June, followed by the Don Martin Silver Cup in July. Those races could potentially be salvaged without fans, as national series like World of Outlaws have wider broadcasting distribution than the speedway itself. PPMS, meanwhile, has quite a ways to go until its crowned jewel, the Pittsburgher 100, in early October.
In the end, though, the fans must start coming through the gates at some point. The model simply doesn’t work otherwise.
“I guess we’d just like to get the message out there to the folks in power that they’re hurting us little people,” Miley said. “Us average folks out here that are trying to make a living and pay for businesses and provide entertainment to others on a small scale. They’re wiping us out. It’s going to get to a certain point where you’re not going to be able to recover.”