24 Hours of Lemons Returns This July

Glad to hear things are opening back up a bit.  Hope it's not too soon.  That said, looking forward to the fall CMP race!  Seems to be up in the air whether or not they'll make it the full 24hr to as a spring redux or the normal 2-day event.  I can't say it matters much to me at this point though.  Fingers crossed that the decline of cases will continue and we can all get our giggles guilt-free.

Matt B (Forum Supporter) said:

Glad to hear things are opening back up a bit.  Hope it's not too soon.  That said, looking forward to the fall CMP race!  Seems to be up in the air whether or not they'll make it the full 24hr to as a spring redux or the normal 2-day event.  I can't say it matters much to me at this point though.  Fingers crossed that the decline of cases will continue and we can all get our giggles guilt-free.

Seems like the teams need to start planning on exposure to each other- so that it's not a "surprise" when they finally do.  And it *seems* that it could be pretty possible that teams can just keep to themselves WRT exposure.  Tracks are big enough spaces to have a total team meeting with distancing.

In reply to alfadriver (Forum Supporter) :

Good point.  Really if all team members can forsake high-risk activities for a couple of weeks before the event then the risk is lowered considerably.  That said, logistically you need to buckle each other in the car during driver changes, inevitably you touch the same stuff, marshal safety checks at pit-out, etc.  Not to mention not everyone takes this stuff seriously.  I just don't see consistent social distancing happening, at least within a team.  The hot sun helps apparently, so there's that.

Also, just to be clear I'm not suggesting waiting until everything is-as-it-was to start racing again.  At some point we all have to decide when the risk is worth it based on our own situation.  I'm personally a lot more worried about passing it to a family member than getting sick myself.  Right now I'm planning on re-joining the party in September, but we'll see what things look like then.

The Lemons staff have definitely been thinking about precautions, this is from an email from Jay at the beginning of May:

Jay Lamm said:

As promised last week, here's what we currently think an event during Covid would look like to racers and crew. There will still be fine-tuning--this is only an overview.

• Face covers required
• Social distancing aggressively enforced (by both track and Lemons staff)
• Symptomatic and/or high-risk entrants must stay home
• Streamlined gate, tech, and check-in processes (fewer steps, fewer separate stops, and mandatory social distancing lines)
• No HQ desk–all functions move to front gate or tech area
• Transponders distributed and re-collected at tech
• Come to Gear Tech fully suited–your gear gets checked while you’re in it
• Timed stop-and-go penalties only
• No hot pit fueling
• Drivers meetings and awards ceremony held online
• Socialize within your team only; no inter-team meals or parties
• Paddock spaces to be separated as directed onsite
• Increased cleaning, shielding, occupancy limits, etc per CDC guidelines

Obviously, nothing revolutionary, but also not trivial. Whenever we're able to restart, the experience will be different. If you're just not down with that, we get it--just mothball your car 'til it's over.

So it's definitely not going to be some kind of free-for-all. Honestly, a lot of what makes Lemons fun is sure to be missing for a while.