April is nearly past and still no autocross. 🙁 Thankfully, maybe, maybe, there is encouraging news on the horizon.
As most are aware by now, Governor DeWine announced details of Ohio’s Responsible Restart Ohio plan on Apr 27th. Unfortunately (and not surprisingly) it didn’t directly state how it impacts autocross, imagine that! SCCA has also released COVID-19 guidance regarding conduct of autocross events. As such, we are working with Traders World, the City of Monroe, our region leaders, and SCCA to figure out if the May 16 and 17 events can or should happen. Even if we can, the May 16 event will be a Test & Tune format and will NOT be a Novice 101 type event as planned due to no non-family member passengers to comply with social distancing guidelines. Sorry. Details will follow as they become available, but know we are exploring all options to see what is reasonable.
Quick Ohio COVID-19 announcement summary (far more details available at link below):
- May 1 – Medically necessary health care procedures/visits can resume.
- May 4 – Manufacturing, distribution, construction, and general office environments may reopen if they meet mandatory safety requirements
- May 12 – Consumer, retail, and services may reopen if they meet mandatory safety requirements.
- CLOSED – Establishments with increased risk of COVID-19 exposure such as the following are still closed: schools, daycares, dine-in restaurants, hair/beauty, senior centers, entertainment, recreation, and gyms.
- MANDATORY SAFETY REQMTS: Face coverings, good hand cleaning, social distancing, cleaning throughout the day, and limited capacity to meet social distancing.
- PUBLIC GATHERINGS: The guidance limiting to 10 people is still on the website, but seemingly will become null and void if the mandatory safety requirements are met.
- LINK: https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/resources/news-releases-news-you-can-use/governor-dewine-announces-details-ohios-responsible-restartohio-plan
SCCA Autocross Event COVID-19 Guidelines: https://www.scca.com/pages/solo-1588021531-21
Back to Cincy SCCA autocross: As stated earlier, we are working with Traders World, the city, and others to see what we can/should do regarding our May June events for now. Autocross is unique in that we have certain inherent aspects which help us comply with the guidelines. These inherent benefits are: we are outside; by eliminating non-family passengers in cars are over 6 ft. apart in grid or paddock or on course; drivers meetings can be done over the FM transmitter; results can be via live timing; workers on course can be spread out, and we clearly aren’t a spectator heavy sporting event like football or professional auto racing. That said, we still face some issues with how to make it work. Some of the detailed issues we still face are how to handle waivers safely and perform timing/scoring and registration while maintaining the social distancing, as well as quite honestly obtaining the cleaning supplies and gloves needed. Even solving those, the practical issues we face are the bigger ones of the potential for poor public perception given the visibility of events at Traders World (which could lead to loss of site) and the chance of an entrant’s family, friend, or coworker contracting COVID-19 as a result of being at the event.
So I don’t have an answer right now regarding the May 16 and 17 events. We will announce the status of these events by May 9th, but please know we are diligently working it so we can return as soon as responsibly practical. We will also be reworking our event schedule to hopefully include or postponed/cancelled events.
On the plus side, SCCA revised their National level events schedule with a Great Lakes Div. area event starting in June so we are getting close… https://www.scca.com/articles/2013630-tire-rack-national-solo-schedule-april-reset
Late breaking news:
After further discussions with Traders World and the City of Monroe this afternoon we have to cancel our May 16 and 17 autocross events. Sorry. Now targeting the Jun 7 weekend.
Please note it isn’t clear if Traders World will be open by that weekend or not, please check with them if you’re intending to shop there. Will provide further updates as they become available.
Kent Weaver
