Knoxville Raceway Cancels Remainder of 2020 Racing Season

[vande07]

Back on Topic.

As a local (I live in Knoxville), I can tell you that there are people sick in town, some related to working at the track, others not.

IMO, the outbreak at the track falls squarely on the World of Outlaws. They RENTED the track so they could hold the One and Only event, and then oversold tickets (was supposed to be limited to 3500 on frontstretch (that seats around 13000 or so and 2500 backstretch (that seats 7000), the math for the backstretch made zero sense to get to that #.

When people arrived, if they had kids under 12, they got a FREE Ticket for their kids in the same grandstand as them (this is where the big issue happened, 3500 total should have been 3500, not 3500 and another 400-1000 kids). Same thing on the backstretch. This made social distancing very difficult, even though they blocked off all odd #'d rows and announced endlessly about leaving 3 seats between you and the group next to you.

Secondly, a driver (if you have Twitter, you know which one), admitted he was sick upon arrival, yet the Outlaws did no testing (not even temperature checks) so he raced sick which he shouldn't have been allowed to do, and it broke the protocols that the Outlaws supposedly were following. The other teams that that driver travels with also ended up having positives in their camps.

Fans had to police other fans to keep 3 seats between your group and the group next to you. Since the Outlaws sold all tickets and did everything as GA, fans were showing up at 8:00 PM after time trials and wanted to sit in row 30 and squeezed in in seats that shouldn't have been used because they didn't want to go early like those sitting in those seats did.

Unfortunately, the racetrack took all the blame in the local television media and here we are 2 weeks later and the Outlaws are still not acknowledging their part in it.

This put the Fairboard and track in a tight spot IMO, and there is no answer that makes everyone happy.
Do you continue to race and have the same thing in Mid-September with the Late Models?
Do you cancel and make people mad?
Do you not cancel and have more restrictions put on your business by the state or require fans to wear masks (and take their ire on social media) and then make them more mad when you have security telling people to put their mask on or they will have to leave the property?

IMO, it SUCKS as a race fan that they canceled. As a resident, they likely did the right thing given the current positivity rate in our County (14.9% as of 8/24/20) which consists of Knoxville, Pella, Pleasantville, Melcher-Dallas and Bussey (roughly 20,000 people).

From the rumors I heard during the One and Only event, Dingus got a warning from the state on Thursday about enforcing social distancing inside the bar/fences / On Friday they got fined and warned that if they couldn't enforce it that the state would be pulling their license for a period of one year, effectively putting them out of business.

This puts AJ in a tight spot as well as the State says he can have 100% capacity, but it's up to him to enforce social distancing (not sure how you do that with drunk people).

As far as one of the earlier posts saying the City Council was meeting about it, not true. The City has ZERO jurisdiction on the Fairgrounds even though it is inside the city limits. The Marion County Board of Supervisors has some control, but not much as they have leased the property to the Marion County Fair Association.

[TUTY]

A couple things. No way should any fan be allowed in the pits, stupid. Secondly The Minnesota Vikings are not getting a rapid test. They test by 7:30 am and they get there results back by 6am the next morning. They did have a company do the rapid test on Sunday after the positive test to get the false/positive result.

[fryefan]

Back on Topic.

As a local (I live in Knoxville), I can tell you that there are people sick in town, some related to working at the track, others not.

IMO, the outbreak at the track falls squarely on the World of Outlaws. They RENTED the track so they could hold the One and Only event, and then oversold tickets (was supposed to be limited to 3500 on frontstretch (that seats around 13000 or so and 2500 backstretch (that seats 7000), the math for the backstretch made zero sense to get to that #.

When people arrived, if they had kids under 12, they got a FREE Ticket for their kids in the same grandstand as them (this is where the big issue happened, 3500 total should have been 3500, not 3500 and another 400-1000 kids). Same thing on the backstretch. This made social distancing very difficult, even though they blocked off all odd #'d rows and announced endlessly about leaving 3 seats between you and the group next to you.

Secondly, a driver (if you have Twitter, you know which one), admitted he was sick upon arrival, yet the Outlaws did no testing (not even temperature checks) so he raced sick which he shouldn't have been allowed to do, and it broke the protocols that the Outlaws supposedly were following. The other teams that that driver travels with also ended up having positives in their camps.

Fans had to police other fans to keep 3 seats between your group and the group next to you. Since the Outlaws sold all tickets and did everything as GA, fans were showing up at 8:00 PM after time trials and wanted to sit in row 30 and squeezed in in seats that shouldn't have been used because they didn't want to go early like those sitting in those seats did.

Unfortunately, the racetrack took all the blame in the local television media and here we are 2 weeks later and the Outlaws are still not acknowledging their part in it.

This put the Fairboard and track in a tight spot IMO, and there is no answer that makes everyone happy.
Do you continue to race and have the same thing in Mid-September with the Late Models?
Do you cancel and make people mad?
Do you not cancel and have more restrictions put on your business by the state or require fans to wear masks (and take their ire on social media) and then make them more mad when you have security telling people to put their mask on or they will have to leave the property?

IMO, it SUCKS as a race fan that they canceled. As a resident, they likely did the right thing given the current positivity rate in our County (14.9% as of 8/24/20) which consists of Knoxville, Pella, Pleasantville, Melcher-Dallas and Bussey (roughly 20,000 people).

From the rumors I heard during the One and Only event, Dingus got a warning from the state on Thursday about enforcing social distancing inside the bar/fences / On Friday they got fined and warned that if they couldn't enforce it that the state would be pulling their license for a period of one year, effectively putting them out of business.

This puts AJ in a tight spot as well as the State says he can have 100% capacity, but it's up to him to enforce social distancing (not sure how you do that with drunk people).

As far as one of the earlier posts saying the City Council was meeting about it, not true. The City has ZERO jurisdiction on the Fairgrounds even though it is inside the city limits. The Marion County Board of Supervisors has some control, but not much as they have leased the property to the Marion County Fair Association.

Thanks for the update. While we all hate to see it cancelled, they did do the right thing for their community.

[stock car driver]

Knoxville fair board is oldies and the workers there are all oldies, as they die they have a hard time manning the place to even run shows. I was surprised they were having any races all year period.

[vande07]

Knoxville fair board is oldies and the workers there are all oldies, as they die they have a hard time manning the place to even run shows. I was surprised they were having any races all year period.

what do you consider old?

I don't know everyone's age, but I can think of 3 or 4 fairboard members that are under 50 that I know personally, and I can't name more than 6 of the 24 members, so I'm sure there are others as well. Are there some retired folks? yep, but having a diverse age group isn't a bad thing, it helps bring balance to discussions IMO.

Concession workers probably average under 20 even with Nick, Kirstie and a couple other 40's age people that run them.

Safety Crew - I have no idea on average age, luckily I've never needed their services.

Beer Stands is probably 40's to early 50's and there a couple 20 somethings sprinkled in as well.

For most, this is a seasonal gig in addition to their FULL TIME jobs, they do it because they like it, not because their getting rich doing it.

Outside of Gary (Office Manager/Accountant), Kim (ticket manager), John McCoy (Race Director/Promotor) and Kendra Jacobs (Marketing Manager), everyone else is a part time/seasonal employee.

In the Fairboard members case, they are all VOLUNTEERS that get paid $0.

[kazual]

Thanks vande07 for the information.

[RiffRaf67]

Great post Vande07, really hope the best for ALL the citizens of Knoxville, non-race fans alike. The entire town are such wonderful hosts that I hope any hardship is temporary and short-lived.

[fryefan]

what do you consider old?

I don't know everyone's age, but I can think of 3 or 4 fairboard members that are under 50 that I know personally, and I can't name more than 6 of the 24 members, so I'm sure there are others as well. Are there some retired folks? yep, but having a diverse age group isn't a bad thing, it helps bring balance to discussions IMO.

Concession workers probably average under 20 even with Nick, Kirstie and a couple other 40's age people that run them.

Safety Crew - I have no idea on average age, luckily I've never needed their services.

Beer Stands is probably 40's to early 50's and there a couple 20 somethings sprinkled in as well.

For most, this is a seasonal gig in addition to their FULL TIME jobs, they do it because they like it, not because their getting rich doing it.

Outside of Gary (Office Manager/Accountant), Kim (ticket manager), John McCoy (Race Director/Promotor) and Kendra Jacobs (Marketing Manager), everyone else is a part time/seasonal employee.

In the Fairboard members case, they are all VOLUNTEERS that get paid $0.

There you go again Vande, providing facts instead of making outlandish wild claims. Keep up the good work!!!

[LM1M]

Unfortunately that the WoO contributed to the breakout, no way that sick driver/staff should have been allowed to be on site if tested positive. That being said cancelling races 2 weeks plus down the road where Knoxville has more control on tickets, seating, etc. still seems like overreaction.

[Highside Hustler25]

Thanks for the load of information Vande. While I'm bummed,their is always next year. Better safe than sorry.