HICKORY, N.C. — The March 9 racing program at Hickory Motor Speedway appeared — at least at first — like any other Saturday night during the 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 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 had become nearly impossible due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

This scheduled race at Hickory came during the initial weekend of country-wide bans against gatherings of large gatherings. At the time, 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 it was a recommendation and not a mandate, Hickory Motor Speedway general manager Kevin Piercy moved forward with the program at the third-mile asphalt oval.

Piercy made sure to have 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.

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.”

By 4:15 p.m., everything was going as planned and it appeared everyone, including the competitors, were happy to be at the race track and enjoying a sense of normalcy.

“I think we just have to continue on with our lives. We can’t just give up and let something like this stop us from living,” said Mark Johnson, who was on hand to compete in the limited late model division. “They’ve not let us gather, like the drivers’ meeting, they just did that over the PA. They’ve got extra hand washing soap in the bathrooms. They’re trying to take measures to try and help us be cleaner and hygienic against the coronavirus.”

Moments before qualifying began, the PA announcer stated for those in attendance that Governor Cooper had officially banned gatherings of more than 100 people in the state, but the ban was believed to start March 11, so racing would continue.

Following qualifying, there was an hour break before racing was slated to begin at 7 p.m.

Unfortunately, before racing could begin, it was learned the ban on large gatherings was effective immediately. As a result, racing at Hickory was canceled.

For Piercy, canceling the race was a gut-wrenching decision, but it was a decision he had to make.

“Of course, we wanted to get the event in. The situation was recommended up to this point and we had taken several procedures so that we could provide a safe environment with hand sanitizers and things like that,” Piercy said. “We have a huge facility and we believed people could spread out and not have to be in very close contact. We were making the situation very acceptable to the problem, COVID-19. Of course, we didn’t want it to spread in any way.”

Piercy said he and his staff attempted to get clarity on the revised rule regarding the banning of large gatherings, but it wasn’t until the full executive order came out that he realized he would be forced to cancel the night of racing.

“We dug further and we called the sheriff’s department, trying to get some clarity on the ban,” Piercy said. “Well, about 40 minutes before the race started, the actual writing of the executive order came out, which was clear in the interpretation that it was immediately effective.

“I’m disappointed with the government officials that didn’t give us any contact information to achieve some kind of clarity so that venues like Hickory Motor Speedway and others out there knew exactly what to do when this took place.”

While the cancellation was devastating for Piercy as the man in charge at Hickory, he said he was more upset that his competitors and the fans spent their time and money coming to the track only for the event to be canceled.

“It’s very unfortunate for all the great fans that support Hickory Motor Speedway and the competitors and our workers,” said Piercy. “All of them absolutely love this facility. We hoped we could get this one in because we believe the future is going to be more closings. We wanted to try to get this one in and then move forward with what would happen next.”