AFT pulled out the stops to create a full 18-round 2020 season, despite losing four months of it, but Covid-19 is giving them another runaround. The rescheduled Lima Half-Mile, which was going to be the second race weekend, has been postponed due to the virus. There is still hope the race will be rescheduled a second time.
Lima is one of the races on the schedule that is promoted by a third party promoter, in this case Jared and Nichole Mees. We don't know the details of this, or any, deal promoters have with AFT, but the gist is the promoter covers all the costs to put on the event and pays AFT to bring their show to town (this would be a straight fee, plus, in some cases, other elements like prize fund). The promoter is gambling their investment against their gate and sponsorship income. If crowd numbers are limited by social distancing then it's immediately harder for a promoter to make a profit. Every race used to be run this way, but AFT now promote some of their own races.
I wouldn't be surprised if this years fees, paid by promoters to AFT, are lower because of this, because it's in AFT benefit to deliver and full series of events to their TV partners.
On the day Lima was postponed news reached us that Florida broke records for one-day Covid infections, 100,000 in single day, across the state. And which state is the AFT season timetabled to start? Yep, Florida at Volusia, Barberville two weeks today.
Who'd be a race promoter? GI
"Who would be a race promoter?" Who indeed?
Covid has certainly dropped a nut in the crankcase. It's decision time! Tear it down, fix it right and start over, or push forward and hope everything works out in the end? In the nineteen-teens, before anyone outside his home region knew his name, the man behind the Harley Hog nickname, Ray Weishaar, crashed in the early laps of the Kansas State Championship. Ray was okay. His bike was fine mechanically, but there was one piece of equipment that had been damaged. He and the machine were both able to do their job, they'd just have to work harder at it. Ray hadn't come to sit on the sidelines and wa…