March 9, 2020
As the novel coronavirus continues to impact motorsports enthusiasts across all sanctioning bodies, the SCCA continues to work to support members, region leaders and event participants. Below, you’ll find an update on where we are today, as well as our intended path forward in a few areas.
The impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) on everyday life continues to change rapidly. To streamline communications going forward, we’ll be providing updates on a weekly basis every Tuesday via email and scca.com until normality returns. In addition, program-specific communications will be provided by Program leaders as appropriate and any urgent information will be posted on scca.com.
In addition, we’ve added an area to the right of this article (or at the bottom on mobile) that will contain all program-specific announcements necessary due to coronavirus. Check there for event postponement and cancellation news, as well as region support and other important updates from program leaders.
For events suspended per the previous 03/13 update, we are working diligently with venues, tracks, and regions where appropriate, to try to reschedule impacted events. Respective SCCA program leaders will be providing updates as appropriate, but we will hold on these announcements until we’re confident that rescheduled dates will not be further impacted.
Concurrently, we are proactively reaching out to venues, tracks, and regions where appropriate to understand if there are guidelines, policies, bans now in place that may affect upcoming events across April. As you know by watching your local news, this situation is evolving and changing daily. Like many other organizations, we’re doing our best to keep up—and plan ahead for when we can resume normal activity.
We have received inquiries about how the suspension, cancelation of some events, or the inability for some to attend events due of the COVID-19 outbreak will affect Runoffs and ProSolo finale qualification for 2020. While we are aware of the hardship that coronavirus is causing here, it is premature to speculate about the path forward at this time, as we do not know the full extent of the schedule impact for either program. Once we have a better idea of how many events have been affected, SCCA will address any potential qualification revisions and communicate it to those impacted.
As we all work through this together, we are hearing quite a few ideas coming from Region Leaders and National Event staff with regard to optimizing the safety of events in light of COVID-19. Based on this, the Region Development team has put together a summary of event “best practices” that were deployed across the past couple of weeks at National and Region events to help protect members, volunteers and participants and reduce the coronavirus exposure risk. If you have any successful practices that you have deployed at any Regional events—regardless of program type—we would welcome your input. Please feel free to share these directly with Rick Myers.
Because the situation and policies vary by location, we continue to encourage everyone to stay informed and follow the recommendations of your local health authorities.
Like you, we’re working rapidly and remaining agile to adjust to current realities, while making the best decisions we can with the information we have at hand. It is our sincerest hope that this pandemic will slow in growth so that we can return to having #funwithcars with the collective SCCA family. This said, we are here—first and foremost—to provide a safe environment for enthusiasts to enjoy their motorsports passion, and we’re taking short-term action consistent with this mission.
We will continue closely monitoring the situation and guidance from the CDC, WHO, and other government authorities, and we may need to adjust plans further in the future. We appreciate your continued support as we work together through this challenge as One Team, and we look forward to seeing you on course or on track again soon.
Be safe,
MEC
Michael E. Cobb
President/CEO
Sports Car Club of America
Based on the latest updates regarding COVID-19, the current environment regarding public events and President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency today, the SCCA is suspending the following events across the remainder of March:
SCCA Track Night in America
SCCA Solo National Events:
SCCA Starting Line Schools:
SCCA Time Trials National Tour
Respective program leaders will be following up with all participants registered for these events to work through the appropriate process in support of providing any credits and/or refunds.
As you know, things are moving quickly with this coronavirus outbreak. In the coming days, SCCA Leadership will continue closely monitoring the CDC and official national recommendations to help determine any ongoing impacts to our event schedule based on further updates and/or restrictions imposed.
Concurrently, Region Leaders are working diligently to follow local governance with regard to any updates/restrictions on gatherings and take appropriate action as needed for Regional events.
We appreciate your continued support as we work together through this challenge as One Team, and we look forward to seeing you on course or on track again soon.
Be safe,
Michael E. Cobb
President/CEO
Sports Car Club of America
Sports Car Club of America® leadership continues to monitor developments around COVID-19, also known as coronavirus. While many spectator-based events around the U.S. have been postponed, SCCA’s participant-based activities are different. As such, SCCA’s leadership will not reschedule or cancel any events at this time.
SCCA leadership also recognizes that COVID-19 concerns are not the same across all of the Club’s 115 regions. Therefore, SCCA leadership advises that those conducting SCCA events in the coming days and weeks closely follow policies set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the direction or mandates of state, county and municipality officials. The most common local mandate that could affect SCCA events is a limitation on gathering size, although many of these may be specific to indoor activities.
While all members are welcome at Club events, SCCA leadership asks that anyone who does not feel well or shows signs of fever please abstain from attending events. Additionally, SCCA leadership advises Club members to analyze each individual situation and make their own decisions on whether or not to participate in any given SCCA activity.
For those who are operating events, SCCA leadership advises that a proactive approach be taken, and additional measures be deployed to minimize the spread of any viruses. Those measures include but are not limited to:
The safety of participants, staff and spectators at SCCA events is always a high priority. SCCA leadership will continue to monitor the CDC and other official national recommendations and may adjust plans accordingly based on further updates and/or restrictions imposed. Check back to SCCA.com for future updates.
