So, as we all find ourselves in an unwanted and frustrating situation I would like to take this opportunity to reach out to you all and share some of our current thinking.
As you may have seen recently, we have postponed additional AFT race weekends and we are now planning to commence our 2020 season in Lexington, KY, at the Red Mile. That, in itself, is remarkable as it’ll be the first mile-debuting season in over 30 years, an opener that will be both eagerly anticipated and an exciting venue for us to kick things off.
We have had inquiries from many of you regarding the calendar and I would like to address that here. As things stand, we go to Kentucky to race on May 30th. If that transpires, we will play a game of ‘catch up’ in order to complete an 18 round series. In order to achieve that, we will have to schedule a number of ‘double header’ rounds and we may reluctantly have to remove some race venues altogether, depending on circumstances. At this time we are not looking to remove any specific event, nor do we expect to have to reschedule any events subsequent if the season starts on May 30th at Red Mile. We will continue to monitor this evolving situation and as we learn more about what this crisis means in the communities in which we race, we look forward to sharing a revised schedule at the appropriate time.
At this time we are not actively planning to run any races without spectators, although we are working on contingency plans should that become a viable option. American Flat Track is a social, as well as a sporting, event and we want to deliver a championship racing atmosphere for our fans and competitors. The Daytona TT was briefly deemed a non-spectator event, but analysis of the remaining risk to workers and competitors was deemed to be significant enough for us to postpone.
We know that all of your businesses, like ours, are suffering tremendously. I assure you that as soon as we are able to do so, we will rapidly mobilize to get the show back on the road. We have incredibly passionate fans and they will be hungry for our sport as soon as we can deliver it. In the meantime, our Communications team are putting out a lot of content on the internet, both archive and new content, much of it produced by competitors. We have even been treated to a shaggy-looking Jared Mees, wandering round his house looking for toilet tissue! If any teams or riders have interesting content that they would like us to repost or publish on their behalf, they should contact us and, if we can, we’ll boost your visibility and awareness even without actual racing occurring.
We will continue to monitor the situation and coordinate with the appropriate authorities with a view to getting back to work as soon as it is considered safe for all the stakeholders and participants of American Flat Track. I would like to thank you for your determination and perseverance during this unprecedented time and I will continue to communicate as we gain more clarity on this evolving front.
Yours faithfully,
Michael.
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