COMMENTARY: Pennsylvania Tracks Put Profit Over Personal Safety

It’s been an interesting week for race fans in the state of Pennsylvania.

The Keystone State is a hotbed of motorsports activity. Pocono Raceway in Long Pond has been part of the NASCAR landscape since 1971, playing a leading role in NASCAR’s northeast success from the beginning. But the life blood of Pennsy’s motorsports scene is dirt short tracks, with nearly 80 -- count `em – 80 clay ovals spread across the state. From nationally known venues like Williams Grove, Penn Can and Selinsgrove to comparatively anonymous venues like Numidia Raceway and Muddy Run, Pennsylvanians love and support their racing with a fervor than most states can only dream of.

This week, though, their love for racing went quite a bit too far.

At a time when our country – and much of the rest of the world – is face-to-face with the most dangerous viral epidemic in the past 100 years, dirt tracks in the state of Pennsylvania stood in stark defiance of Governor Tom Wolf’s strongly worded recommendation that they close their doors temporarily, allowing their patrons to exercise some much-needed personal distancing and protect themselves and their loved ones from the COVID-19 virus.

At least three tracks; Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, Port Royal Speedway in Port Royal and Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg held race events last weekend, inviting fans to huddle close in their grandstands, against the advice of the governor, the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization.

Lincoln Speedway: Still racing.

Car counts at Port Royal and Lincoln were reportedly down, with 24 Sprint Cars turning out at Lincoln – compared to an average of 30 in recent weeks – and 33 Sprinters competing at Port Royal, compared to 45 the week prior. One can only hope that common sense and a desire for self-preservation played a role in those downturns. Unfortunately, the folks who inhabit the grandstands quite literally threw caution to the wind last weekend, turning out in strong numbers at both tracks.

Sprint Car driver Anthony Macri likely spoke for many when he told the York Dispatch newspaper, “It doesn’t really scare me much, or obviously anybody else that’s here. It’s unfortunate what’s going on, but it’s just great to at least have something (to do). Everything else is shut down, so it’s nice to get out of the house and do something.”

Alan Krimes, the winner of the 410 Sprint Car feature at Lincoln, attempted to lighten the mood in Victory Lane, saying to the track announcer, “I think we’re too close. Aren’t we supposed to be six feet apart?”

Funny, but not funny, all at the same time.

PA Governor Tom Wolf

On Monday, Governor Wolf ordered a two-week, statewide closure of all non-essential businesses – including liquor stores, bars and restaurants for all but take-out customers – in an attempt to stem the spread of Coronavirus. He said he made that decision “because medical experts believe it is the only way we can prevent our hospitals from being overwhelmed.”

Inexplicably, however, he did not extend the ban to race tracks, specifically allowing track operators to decide for themselves whether to do the right thing, or put profit ahead of public safety. Sadly, most of them made the wrong choice.

“I’m not going to force them to cancel,” said Gov. Wolf to television station ABC27. “This is something that all of us, 12.8 million Pennsylvanians, are in together.” He urged Pennsylvanians “not to expose (each other) to any symptoms that we might have. To not expose ourselves or our family members. We owe that to them.”

He urged track operators to “think not… in terms of what the law is, (but) in terms of what we owe our fellow citizens. This has to be self-enforced,” he repeated. “This is not your government mandating anything. This is your fellow public servants telling you the right way to handle this public health crisis.”

So while Pennsylvania will have public health guidelines in place for the next two weeks – a very short period based on the CDC’s recommendation that people congregate in groups no larger than 10 for the next eight weeks – the guidelines will not be enforced.

On the same day that the President of the United States urged all Americans to stay home and give the medical community a much-needed leg-up on the COVID-19 pandemic, the Governor of Pennsylvania effectively invited folks to load up the car and head for the race track.

It was colossally weak and ill-advised stance that some of his fellow Pennsylvanians may sadly not live to regret.

Port Royal came to its senses.

Lincoln Speedway put out a written statement last Thursday, saying that “Racing this weekend and for the foreseeable future will go on as scheduled as we monitor the guidelines and recommendations set forth by officials at the local, county, state and federal levels. Should we need to make changes to our schedule, we will do so with the best interest of our fans, competitors and staff in mind.”

It was curious wording, to say the least, since in order to continue racing, track management had to ignore the very guidelines and regulations they professed to be monitoring.

Since then, they have agreed to postponed race events for two weeks; a positive step that was too long in coming.

Port Royal also came to its collective senses, pulling an abrupt about-face and announcing that it will postpone racing activities for the next two weeks, with a stated goal of returning to racing on April 4. Eventually, all three tracks bowed to public pressure and pulled the plug, giving new meaning to the term "too little, too late."

It should not have been this difficult to do the right thing.

As of Monday, the state of Pennsylvania had 76 cases of Coronavirus, with 13 of them diagnosed in a single day. There have not yet been any fatalities in the Keystone State, a statistic that will hopefully continue.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases offered a more bleak assessment, saying, “When you’re dealing with an emerging infectious diseases outbreak, you are always behind where you think you are.”

He warned that the COVID-19 spread is going to continue, adding that there are many people who are currently infected, but unaware of it.

The solution is shockingly simple. Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze, wash your hands frequently with soap and water, and work from home if you can. Practice social distancing whenever possible and put your social life on hold for the next few weeks.

And if the people who run your local short track elect to put profit over personal safety by opening their gates this weekend, for God’s sake, don’t go.