ANOTHER VIEWPOINT: Wise move to throttle down at IMS

<p>The strange year 2020 has forced dramatic change on nearly every aspect of life and our human traditions. That includes the Indianapolis 500.</p><p>Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials announced Tuesday this year’s 500-mile race will be run without fans in its massive grandstands. They made the right call.</p><p>To say such a twist is shocking would be an understatement. The Indy 500 earned its nickname — “the greatest spectacle in racing” — because of its immense global interest and annual fan turnouts. Nearly 300,000 people flow into the 963-acre facility every Memorial Day weekend.</p><p>Gathering a Woodstock-size audience during a pandemic grew increasingly problematic, though. The coronavirus gradually curtailed normal Indy 500 activities.</p><p>The initial outbreak of the virus in March caused IMS to postpone the race from its original date of May 24 until Aug. 23. On June 26, the Speedway — under new owner Roger Penske — announced it would limit fan capacity to 50% of its usual size. By July, officials opted to cut off ticket sales to reduce the crowd to 25% of capacity, the Indianapolis Star reported. Penske’s staff released an extensive plan to equip fans with hand sanitizer and masks, check fans’ temperatures and encourage social distancing in the seating.</p><p>Of course, such an event would still involve nearly 70,000 people, and Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb had just paused the state’s reopening, keeping limits on most public gatherings to 250 or fewer.</p><p>Then, COVID-19 cases climbed higher in the state and, especially within Marion County, home of the 2.5-mile oval track. Coronavirus positivity rates there had tripled since the Speedway’s announcement in June of its plan to run the race before a reduced-size live audience.</p><p>“As dedicated as we were to running the race this year with 25% attendance at our large indoor facility, even with the meaningful and careful precautions implemented by the city and state, the COVID-19 trends in Marion County and Indiana have worsened,” Speedway officials said in a statement Tuesday.</p><p>The decision to run without fans in the stands was made “with great regret,” the statement said.</p><p>It also could save lives and prevent illness.</p><p>Traditions are a cornerstone of the Indy 500, yet those rituals nonetheless get broken or evolve. Cars once motored over a course paved with 3.2 million bricks, hence the track’s nickname “The Brickyard.” By 1961, pavement had replaced all but a yard-wide strip of the bricks left at the start-finish line. “Gomer Pyle” actor Jim Nabors sang ”(Back Home Again in) Indiana” 36 times between 1972 and 2014, but other singers took turns, too, from Phil Harris in 1981 to the Walt Disney World Singers in 1985. Likewise, the traditional 33-car field has varied at times. Unusual circumstances prompted IMS to start 35 cars in both 1979 and 1997.</p><p>Now, Indy will run its first 500 without a live audience. Such a stark operation is hardly what Penske had in mind when the racing legend bought the Speedway and its IndyCar circuit from the Hulman family last November.</p><p>Still, the fact that the race will occur at all shows Penske’s determination. The potential spread of the highly infectious coronavirus forced the cancellation of the NCAA basketball tournaments and the 2020 Summer Olympics. And, barely two weeks into a no-fans, shortened season, Major League Baseball is struggling to continue after COVID-19 outbreaks within several teams.</p><p>Let us hope this month’s strange 104th running of the Indy 500 comes off with no outbreaks among the 1,500 racers, crews and essential workers on duty for the racing activities. Fans at home can safely watch the national television broadcast of the race live on NBC at 1 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 23, or listen to the radio broadcast on the IMS network.</p><p>Maybe next year, the roar of the crowd will again be heard along with the buzz of the engines at Indy.</p><p><em>Send comments to <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>.</em></p>