B-N.C – What was supposed to be the Welland County Motorcycle Club’s “big year” has been postponed for at least a year.
Plans for an eight-race season at Welland County Speedway, the quarter-mile track the non-profit organization owns and operates on the outskirts of Welland, were cancelled. COVID-19 health and safety concerns — especially, the need to maintain social distancing to contain the spread of the potentially deadly virus — were cited in the “heartbreaking” decision.
‘We’re not even in the first stage of allowing people to do things. Even at the third stage, there still has to be the social distancing,” club president Joe Montovani said. “It’s pretty hard to do that when you’re trying to put on a sporting event like we do.”
With the Ontario government restricting public gatherings to no more than five people, the club wasn’t even able to get together to make the decision. Instead, Montovani discussed what the club should do going forward in phone calls to all 10 board members.
“This virus is just killing people left and right. We wouldn’t want one person to get sick or die because of some decision we’ve made.”
Joe Montovani
Welland County Motorcycle Club president
“We couldn’t have a face-to-face meeting, so what I did was I phoned all the guys. Everyone was in agreement that we just couldn’t do it.”
Given the lack of a vaccine that is universally accessible and 100 per cent effective and the absence of widespread testing, the club decided to err on the side of caution.
“This virus is just killing people left and right. We wouldn’t want one person to get sick or die because of some decision we’ve made,” Montovani said. “It was a real tough decision on our part, but that was where we were coming from.
“More people have to be tested. We could have people walking around who have the virus and they don’t show any signs.”
While NASCAR is planning to run races without spectators, which is already the case with horse racing at some tracks in North America, racing at the grassroots level isn’t able to generate any revenue from TV and betting.
“As a small club, we just can’t do that. It’s just not viable for us,” Montovani said. “We depend on our fans to pay for the lights and the riders fees, stuff like that.
“NASCAR’s got billions of dollars. We’re a not-for-profit club.”
Capacity at the track, which is located on Netherby Road, east of Highway 140, in Welland, is 1,500 people.
“The way it is, there is no way we could sell out,” Montovani said. “With social distancing, you would be lucky if you can get a couple of hundred or 300 people out.”
Attendance would need to be much higher than that to keep the lights on and maintain the facility, let alone provide payouts to the racers.
“No, we couldn’t. It just wouldn’t be financially viable for us to do it at all.”
Montovani estimated the club would need to draw about 500 fans to break even.
“You know what’s killing us? It’s the social distancing. You can’t have a crowd or anything like that,” he said. “If you can’t have fans, there’s no sense in putting on a race.
“When we run a race, if we don’t get the fans, nothing is paid for.”
Over the years, the track has attracted ATV, flat-track and speedway races from as far away as Quebec, as well as from the United States, primarily New York state and Ohio. That also factored in the decision to cancel the season.
“Now the borders are closed. That was another thing, they can’t get across,” Montovani said.
Originally called the Skyhawk Motorcycle Club when it was founded by a small group of motorcycling enthusiasts, the club now has about 130 members. The track has hosted race programs every summer since it was built in 1970.
“There’s never, ever been a season without racing,” he said. “It’s a real shame. All the club members are pretty sad about it.”
Work at the track will be ongoing despite the cancellation of the season.
“We’re going to continue prepping the track and doing all of our maintenance and everything at the club, but the way it looks now there just won’t be racing.
“That’s just the way it is. It’s just a weird situation.”
The racing season had been set to start with practice May 23 followed by the Clare’s Night of Thunder opener the following Saturday. Action had been scheduled to wrap up with the Fall Classic on Sept. 12.
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Source: The Standard