Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway was able to host a weekly program beginning the first weekend in June — as well as the World of Outlaws’ return to racing during a participant-only event on May 8 — but multiple plans submitted to host the Knoxville Nationals this summer were denied by state officials.
“We had a lot of back and forth,” Knoxville Raceway race director and promoter John McCoy said. “We have a good relationship with the head of emergency management. He’s the go-to guy to collect information. We requested a meeting with the board of health. I knew going in they didn’t want us to have the Nationals, but we made a proposal for the governor.
“At that meeting in July, the governor turned us down. We had requested half or three-quarters (capacity) with no mandated social distancing. The state didn’t go for that one. Well we’re screwed because we can’t pay a million-dollar purse on 30 percent fans. We went to the county with the 30 percent. Everybody got worried we were going to have all these people show up anyway. That just didn’t happen. The town was a third full. That’s what we hoped would happen.”
Although the Knoxville Nationals wasn’t held, Knoxville Raceway was able to present The One and Only and the Capitani Classic during the weekend the Knoxville Nationals was scheduled. The number of drivers and crew members as well as fans allowed to attend was capped.
Unfortunately, multiple people were diagnosed with COVID-19 in the aftermath of the event and Knoxville Raceway officials elected to shut down for the remainder of the season.
“If I go back to the no-fan race we had sanitizer,” McCoy said. “I swear we used more sanitizer for that event with no fans than we did for the rest of the year. Everyone was freaky clean for that. By the end of the USAC show (in July), those old bottles had been sitting there all summer. You’re coming off of May with the big peak when supposedly everyone was going to catch it. Then you go into June. We turned around with a two-day World of Outlaws show (in the middle of June) with 5,000 people in the frontstretch and never had a case that came back to us. We thought in August we ought to be clean and green.
“We tried to enforce six-foot separations. We recommended they leave three seats between. If you measure that’s about six feet. If you skipped every other row, it was five-and-a-half feet and then plus where you sit it was six feet.
“We bought about 300 signs and put around the facility. We opened up the backstretch to give more room. When we had The One and Only we had a plan for 4,500 people on the frontstretch. That still left 8,500 empty seats. We had 2,300 on the backstretch, which left 5,000 empty seats,” McCoy continued. “When you take out a row that cuts your facility to half immediately. We used cough screens, temp checks. We tried to do the infield every night. I don’t know what else we could have done. On Friday night of The One and Only, the state inspection department was there and gave us two thumbs up. We were a victim of some locals getting it, not just from Knoxville Raceway.
“I don’t know the exact number. I can tell you we had 10 people at the track, employees. I know there was a suite that got it and we know how it got in that suite,” McCoy said. “There were a couple of other people in the Hall of Fame that got it. I had a couple of race teams that called me and said they got it. Most of it came in enclosed areas, the press box where the DIRTVision guys were and our people, the announcers, and a couple of suites. I don’t know of any tracing that came back to the pits or anything like that.
“We had great cooperation with the county and the city. They didn’t close us down. They came to us and said, ‘These are the numbers and this is how it will reflect on you.’ The health department met with us. Schools are starting. Your deal will be over, but do you want to be blamed for schools closing? We probably could have come back and finished the season, but the board voted on it.”
Knoxville Raceway hosted 18 nights of racing with limited capacity. Eldora Speedway showcased eight nights of racing — six late model shows and two sprint car races — by doing a participant-only, pay-per-view stream-led program.
“Tony (Stewart) has just been adamant that we don’t go rogue and definitely work with the governor and work with the Ohio Department of Health the best that we can,” Slack said “This is a pandemic after all; circumstances that none of us have ever been through. We’re a facility that sells tickets to every single state and 11 different countries. We are exactly the kind of event that the state does not want right now. We don’t need to be contributing to the spread.”
What a challenging year it has been for short-track promotors, perfectly showcased at two of the most prestigious tracks that produce arguably the two biggest winged sprint car shows each year.