HICKORY, N.C. — Saturday night’s racing program at Hickory Motor Speedway appeared — at least at first — like any other Saturday night during racing season.

Fans were filing into the grandstands, the pits were filled with cars and competitors and crew members were working to prepare for the first event of the evening — a 40-lap main event for the headlining late model stock car division.

“We came to follow Justin Carroll,” said Lucas Mathias, a fan who traveled to Hickory Motor Speedway from his home in Burlington, N.C. “My family lives in Lenoir. We figured we’d do the family thing and then come and enjoy some racing.”

For fans like Mathias, the ability to watch racing of any sort has become nearly impossible in recent days due to the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic across the world. The outbreak is so serious that President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on Friday afternoon.

Sanctioning bodies and series such as NASCAR, the NTT IndyCar Series, NHRA, the World of Outlaws, Monster Energy AMA Supercross, Formula One, MotoGP and more have all been forced to either cancel or postpone events as the result of the outbreak.

In many instances, the postponements or cancellations have been the result of bans put into place to prevent people from gathering in large groups, giving organizations no choice but to cancel or postpone events.

That wasn’t the case at Hickory Motor Speedway on Saturday evening, at least not initially. Earlier in the week, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper had recommended that people avoid gathering in groups of 100 or more in order to slow the spread of the virus.

However, since this was a recommendation and not a ban, Hickory Motor Speedway General Manager Kevin Piercy moved forward with Saturday’s program at the third-mile asphalt oval.

Piercy made sure to make soap and hand sanitizers available at restrooms and concession stands for fans and competitors. He also held his driver and crew chief meeting over the PA system rather than gathering everyone into a group and he eliminated the planned autograph session to further reduce contact between fans in the stands and the competitors.

Justin Carroll, who was on hand to compete in the late model stock car class, said he was happy to be at a race track, but he was also worried about what the immediate future held.

“I’m really glad, really happy to be able to race,” said Carroll, who also owns Carroll Speedshop. “Definitely think it’s a serious thing that’s going on globally. It sucks, it’s really unfortunate. For me, being that racing is my business aside from me racing, it’s kind of scary because if these race tracks start temporarily shutting down, then I’m losing business. It’s not good. It’s not just me, there are hundreds, thousands of people that are going through the same thing.”

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