First and foremost, I hope everyone is safe as you read this, are practicing social distancing, and are becoming hermits to the best of your ability.
As most everyone is hopefully aware by now, we cancelled/postponed our Apr 4 SCCA Starting Line & Apr 5 Fun events back on March 22nd in response to COVID-19. Turned out it was just hours before the Governor announced shelter-in-home actions and reduced the public gathering size to 10 people. This decision was not taken lightly and a great deal of effort went into it to prevent a hasty decision. Over the month leading up to this we worked very closely with Traders World, the City of Monroe, our Cincy Region leadership, SCCA National Office, and many other SCCA region solo chairs to explore various options and alternatives. Whereas up to that point it was deemed possible to run a reduced entry type event within the state mandated limit of 100 and then 50 people, SCCA guidelines, and recommendations by the CDC; it was deemed more prudent and responsible to cancel/postpone. We felt this was the best option to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and/or potentially expose you, your families, coworkers, and friends to undue risk. As it turns out, Traders World also decided to close on a week-to-week basis over the past two weekends (and possibly more) so clearly if they aren’t open we cannot run events there any way. We are continuing to work closely with all concerned to return as soon as responsibly possible. Appreciate everyone’s understanding during these trying times.
Apr 25 Test & Tune and Apr 26 Points Event 1 – As of right now, these events are still on the schedule, but with the President extending the national recommendations through April and the Governor closing K-12 schools through May 1st, I am anticipating the Governor extending the 10 person public gathering limit soon and therefore likely cancelling/postponing these events too. Please stay tuned to our website and facebook pages for announcements.
May 2 and May 3 Evolution Performance Driving School events – These are also still on as of today. I have been in contact with the school and are monitoring the situation. Hopefully these will be able to be conducted but I cannot say for certain at this point. Please stay tuned on this too.
Other sites. We are always interested in exploring potential sites, so if you are aware of one or have contacts with one please get in touch with us. With closures and all it may be pretty much impossible to approach a new site at this point, but maybe we can have a lot of the discussions/details worked out during this down time so when things open back up we could be good to go.
SCCA has cancelled/postponed all their National level autocross events through April. The announcement was posted to the facebook page, but struggling to find it.
On a happier note, we had a trailer clean out/repair party and timing/scoring training a few weeks ago which went very well. Thank you to Jo and Myke Dziengel for offering their shop space so we didn’t freeze and Tact for providing the training. The equipment upgrades and most of the event supplies (minus antiseptic sprays/wipes and gloves) are basically in place now too as I just received the event trophies this past weekend. More to do but will be ready for whenever we can resume.
Hope you enjoyed the nice weather we had recently, maybe got the car out for some scenic or possibly spirited drives. It’s nice we never had to shovel snow over the winter (or at least we didn’t here), but I’m already spoiled with the warmer sunny weather and done with wet and cold! Tact suggested maybe we organize a rolling SCCA style Cars and Coffee around the 275 loop or a donut run, or something. We can each stay in our own cars for social distancing, but have a bunch of us meet up and cruise complete with racing numbers on the cars. No, that won’t draw attention… In the meantime, I need to buy some stuff so I can connect my wheels and pedals to something and can go iRacing!
Miss seeing everyone for now,
Kent Weaver
Cincy SCCA Solo Chair
