It was a quiet night at the races.
That’s according to the Park Jefferson International Speedway owner in North Sioux City, who held the race without attendees.
Very few people were there. No fans in the grandstand. Only safety personnel, track officials and 62 cars.
Adam Adamson is the owner of the Park Jefferson racetrack. He says the races held Saturday night were interesting.
“My announcer told me he’d never announced to so few people since he was back announcing little league baseball games when he was about 13 years old.”
But the fans were in attendance in a different way.
Adamson says thousands were tuned in online. The park initially planned on allowing 700 attendees into the speedway, saying that would allow for ample space between fans at the venue that can hold 4,000.
Governor Kristi Noem asked people not to attend. South Dakota is one of a handful of states without a stay at home order.
Adamson says the race brought respite to race fans living in a COVID-19 ravaged world… if only for a moment.
“For a few hours they had a chance to feel like things were normal again in our world,” Adamson says. “The fact that we live in such crazy times right now—it was nice for us to be involved in giving fans a chance to be part of a normal situation where they would sit down on a Saturday night, be it in person or online, and tune in and watch some really great racecar drivers put on a show for the fans.”
Adamson says he thought they represented the state of South Dakota well and the COVID-19 requests governor has issued.
He says the decision not to allow attendees was the right call.
