Kevin Savoree is co-promoter of the race along with Kim Green. There remains a lot that is fluid, but he explained how things will change over the weekend.
“It’s going to be somewhat condensed, and all the series worked really hard to make that happen,” Savoree said. “We appreciate all their work that they did. We also obviously had a lot of discussion about how to protect the safety of our fans, that led to where we are now. Next turning to the drivers, the competitors. We’re going to institute something where no cars will be allowed on property, so everyone’s going to park down at the Trop (Tropicana Field) and shuttle themselves in in conjunction with IndyCar and Dr. Geoffrey Billows, developed a questionnaire that all those competitors will have to answer. That gives us a way to have health screenings for them to ensure their health and safety as well.
“Obviously all of us are taking it very, very seriously right now. For Kim and I, we’re heartbroken for the city. It’s what we’ve been dealt. We’ll fight on and get through it. We’ll be ready next year and great partners we have. We look forward to the future. Right now just focused on this weekend. We’ll be posting something on website today to come back to our fans next week about work to take care of yet. Just ask for patience the next few days so our team can focus on executing this event.”
For now, the race is on, but officials will continue to monitor the COVID-19 threat in the area.
“I don’t want to speculate on what could happen, but obviously in the last 24 hours, there’s already been a change,” Mayor Kriseman said. “Our hope is that what we have announced today is what will happen the rest of the week.
“We will continue to monitor things and adjust it if we have to.”
The Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is the latest motorsports event to be impacted by the coronavirus outbreak that is sweeping the globe.
NASCAR announced Thursday that events at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend and Homestead-Miami Speedway next weekend would go on as scheduled, but fans will not be allowed at either event.
IMSA has also postponed next weekend’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring until Nov. 11-14.
MotoGP officials have already announced the cancellation or postponement of four races in Qatar, Thailand, the United States and Argentina. Formula E officials have also announced the postponement of events in Rome and Indonesia.
World Superbike has also announced the postponements of multiple events, with races in Spain and France already rescheduled for later in the year and an event in Qatar cancelled. Officials from Monster Energy AMA Supercross confirmed Wednesday that the Seattle, Wash., round of the series that was scheduled for March 28, has also been postponed.
The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series is also postponing events. The series event that was scheduled for Spain’s Circuit Ricardo Tormo on April 25-26 has been postponed until Oct. 31-Nov. 1.
In the short-track world, World of Outlaws officials are monitoring the situation, but plan to continue with scheduled races. The USAC West Coast Sprint Car Series event scheduled for this weekend at Keller Auto Speedway has also been nixed.