Editor’s Note: With the outbreak of COVID-19 forcing racing around the globe to a sudden stop, SPEED SPORT is reaching out to members of the racing community to find out how the outbreak is impacting them, both as racers and in their daily lives. This story is part of that ongoing series.
CONCORD, N.C. — The National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum is a haven for sprint car fans across the globe.
Located outside of turn two at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway on the Marion County Fairgrounds, the facility annually draws thousands of race fans from across the world to check out various exhibits and to enjoy special events.
However, with the outbreak of COVID-19 sweeping across the country, the doors to the facility are closed to the public following the decision by Knoxville city officials to close all the city offices.
“Our business is basically the business of sprint car racing across the country,” said National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum Executive Director Bob Baker. “So when race tracks across the country are unable to race and things stop in other parts of the country, it affects us.”
However, the work inside the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum hasn’t stopped. The small but dedicated staff remains busy by preparing new exhibits and fulfilling orders from customers who have visited the organization’s merchandise website, sprintcarstuff.com.
“A lot of our business is done on the internet with sprincarstuff.com. That’s our website where people can order all of the things we have in our museum store online, whether it’s books or videos or anything else,” Baker said. “It could be jewelry, hats, apparel, anything. So we’re really working on that, working on sprintcarstuff.com right now.
“We’re always busy working on the season and the exhibits for inside the museum,” Baker continued. “Bill Wright, our museum coordinator, is working on our Salute to Champion Greg Hodnett for this summer. We’ve located all the race cars. We’ve got eight of Greg Hodnett’s race cars. He has located those race cars and Bill’s in the process of getting them either brought to Knoxville or us picking the cars up. For eight cars, that’s quite a bit of work. And then there’s a lot of work assembling the memorabilia for the Salute to Champion Greg Hodnett. Gloves, the helmets, you know, just the pieces and parts that go along with the exhibit.”
When his staff isn’t busy working on exhibits or fulfilling online orders, Baker said they’ve got plenty of work to do in relation to the Bryan Clauson Suite Tower, which opened during the 2018 season.
“We’ve got 32 suites and each of those suites has 20 suite holders and there are 30 nights of racing (at Knoxville),” Baker explained. “So we’ve got all those suite passes and parking passes, which came in about a week ago and they’ve all been pretty much sorted out. We’ve counted each individual ticket, which is a process.
“We’re in the process now of mailing all those three passes out to all the suite holders so they’ll have them for the season,” Baker continued. “You can imagine that the suite holders are in the same boat we’re in. We’re trying to figure out when is this going to end and when are the races going to start. Knoxville Raceway’s opening night is scheduled for Saturday, April 18th and we just really don’t know what’s going to happen. We’re hoping that there’ll be an announcement from the race track the first week of April and they’ll probably give us some inclination of what’s going to happen
“So right now we’re just like everybody else in the country,” Baker added. “We’re kind of in a wait and see what happens (situation), to see when people are going to be allowed together and to put on car races and go attend the car races.”
Despite the fact that the racing world — and the world in general — has practically shut down as the fight against the spread of COVID-19 continues, Baker said it’s gratifying to know that people are still taking the time to call the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum and place orders online.
“We’re still getting orders for die-cast cars and shirts and hoodies and hats and a lot of books and DVDs and questions about the Knoxville Nationals and if there is seating still available on the second floor,” Baker said. “A lot of people call the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and museum for information regarding those events around the Knoxville Nationals besides just the race tickets themselves. So we try to help people as much as we can, tell them about what’s going on in the area. Where is a good place to camp or where hotels in neighboring cities are, and just try to help people have a good time when they’re here.”
Despite the unknowns surrounding the future, Baker said those he has spoken to around Knoxville remain upbeat and confident that racing and America will get through the COVID-19 outbreak.
“The sentiment that’s been going around Knoxville is that we’re all tough Americans,” Baker said. “We’re all going to live through this and we’re going to have racing once we get back to normal after this is all over. We just gotta get through this and move on. We’re ready for race season to start whenever the CDC gives us the green flag to start filling the grandstands.”