LINCOLN, Calif. – The last Saturday in March was a test for I-37 Speedway, located eight miles southeast of Pleasanton, Texas.

The quarter-mile dirt track, with the approval of Atascosa County officials, raced two USRA sanctioned divisions with closed grandstands and still made a profit.

It was not as lucrative as an unrestricted Saturday night race would have been, but they were able to defy the odds and cover costs with an empty grandstand. A big part of that success came from Race On Texas, the regional streaming company, when they shared the PPV income with the track.

Very specific procedures were in place as agreed upon with the county, which the track enforced. Two classes were allowed a maximum of 20 cars for each and only one crew member to assist the driver. That means a maximum of 80 people in the pit area with mandatory rules of empty pit spots between haulers, no congregating, no handshakes and pre-entry only. The driver meeting was done via Facebook and payout was done in each pit area to eliminate any group gathering.

Once teams and employees were on site, the gates were locked. Minimal staff was used for the races, with even Race On Texas limited to two people as opposed to their usual four to six for a live production. When it was completed, drivers were very appreciative for the opportunity to race and hoped for another show at I-37.

Just as important, everyone was cooperative in maintaining distance between themselves.

I-37 is in its fourth year of being promoted by Ray Doyon III and Mike Keylich. Doyon has raced dirt tracks since 1994, his father drag raced for a living at one time, and Keylich is involved with drag racing. The track had been closed for four years and needed a lot of work to reopen. New seating in the grandstands as well many more upgrades and sanctioning more classes has worked towards making their first three years successful.

Doyon put the plan together for their March 28 race with family in mind. He said, “My son races, my two nephews race so we’re involved in this racing deal as a family. I started thinking how are we going to get any kind of racing in? I thought what if we did a PPV event, don’t allow any fans, and just see what happens.

“I thought about it for a week and a half and as things were getting more strict. I figured there’s no way we can put on a regular race show so we needed to do something different.  I asked the county for permission with what we thought was a good plan. We gave them exact numbers of how many people we would have, where we would put everybody to keep them apart, and the county signed off on the plan.”

Limiting their numbers to what the plan stated and enforcing social distancing were key items to gaining county approval. With three days between approval and race night, promotional efforts suffered with the time crunch, but the pay-per-view still drew relatively well. Some pre-registered drivers didn’t appear, but the 31 cars on hand put on a good show at a time when seeing any live racing action was a huge bonus.

The co-promoters are talking about doing one more event, but with more promotional time before the date. They have also discussed having three divisions but maintaining the 20 car per class policy, perhaps more of an invitational to draw some of the well known Texas drivers to I-37.  Whatever the track does, however, would require approval from the county again.

“We don’t want to do this too many times, it will get watered down, but we’re definitely interested in doing this one, maybe two, more times,” Doyon said.

Since this was a pay-per-view only race, having a company that would support the effort was important, and Race On Texas came through. Owned by Chris David and Harry Fair, the pair grew up together and started their company in 2016.  David raced a number of years and Fair was his spotter when he raced Pro Trucks on pavement, but David stopped racing when he realized he “wasn’t a very good driver.”

Fair deals with all the difficulties and challenges of setting up a live broadcast and built and handles all the systems/security for the web site.  David described his business partner as, “the smart guy behind the operation that no one knows about.”

David graduated from Sam Houston State University with a degree in radio and television and, combined with his passion for filming and creativity, led to starting Race On Texas.  They started with one track, Cotton Bowl Speedway, and took all the money they were making and added tracks to where now they have 16.

Race On Texas sponsors events and drivers and continue to put all their profits back into racing, such as their support of the I-37 Speedway event March 28.

The partnership between I-37 Speedway and Race On Texas successfully allowed fans to enjoy an evening of racing and might serve as a business model for other tracks to consider this option.