Race now canceled: Planned event at Lancaster Motor Speedway ignited coronavirus debate
The Lancaster Motor Speedway race set for Saturday has been canceled.
The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office released this statement on Facebook Friday morning: “There have been a lot of conversations this week concerning the race tomorrow night at Lancaster Motor Speedway. After those conversations, the officials at Lancaster Motor Speedway have made the decision to cancel tomorrow night’s race out of concern for their fans and the general public.”
The Lancaster Motor Speedway Facebook responded to that post with a statement of its own: “Lancaster Motor Speedway promoter Shannon Munn got a phone call this morning, and after talking to a few advisories, the decision was made to cancel. Yeah, there was gonna be a huge crowd on hand, but in all honesty it is probably the right decision to cancel this race...
“It was a risk to even have this race, but the phone call this morning, gives us no other choice but to cancel. I will keep everyone posted on when the next race will be. Everyone stay safe, spend time with your families and we will see everyone at the next race.”
The Herald has confirmed the event’s cancellation with the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office and the speedway itself.
“We got together this morning and made the decision to cancel it,” Munn told The Herald. “Maybe it’s not the right time for it. Maybe not. Maybe we can get together in a couple weeks and get to racing again.”
Munn said the race hasn’t been rescheduled, but he is hopeful that it could come back the first week of April.
“Maybe if things get better in a few weeks, we can all go back to our normal lives,” Munn said.
Spokesman for the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office, Doug Barfield, told The Herald Friday morning that the speedway told the sheriff’s office that it was going to “stand down” about having the race on Saturday.
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As of Thursday evening, Lancaster Motor Speedway had planned to hold the race.
And the decision sparked debate about how the public — and law enforcement — should behave during the coronavirus pandemic.
S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster had issued an executive order that prohibited events with gatherings of 50 or more people.
Munn told The Herald in a phone interview Thursday that a lot of people don’t believe the coronavirus is as threatening as others make it out to be, and he said some people think it is “media-driven.”
“A lot of people want the race,” Munn said. “A lot of people want to get out, want to do something in everyday life.”
It’s unclear which “local officials” gave the speedway the “go-ahead” to race as scheduled. When Munn was asked directly, he declined to say who the local officials were.
But even if holding the race would not have broken laws, some local and state officials made it clear they didn’t think it was a good idea.
Rep. Mandy Powers Norrell, D-Lancaster, said she had received numerous calls and texts and emails about the speedway possibly opening Saturday, and she said she has concerns about public health if that happens.
She also said she reached out to the governor’s office about the issue of the track opening to make sure state officials know of the possibility.
“There is an executive order in place about gatherings in public places,” Powers-Norrell said. “And although this is private property, the virus does not know the difference.”
Legal concerns
Lancaster Motor Speedway is in Lancaster County — which, as of Thursday evening, has three confirmed cases of coronavirus and is one of 15 counties in South Carolina with confirmed cases.
South Carolina has at least 81 total cases as of Thursday evening, per DHEC’s most recent announcement.
McMaster declared a state of emergency on March 13 in response to the growing threat of coronavirus. The declaration has triggered 16-7-10 of the South Carolina code of laws — which effectively allows local law enforcement to halt any gathering of more than three people.
Robert Kittle, spokesman for the S.C. Attorney General’s Office, said in a written statement to The Herald that local law enforcement has discretion in how to handle gatherings.
“We are not saying that local law enforcement has to arrest people who are gathering in groups of three or more,” Kittle said in a statement. “Law enforcement has discretion in how they want to handle it, and the first step for them would not be to start arresting people, it would be to order them to disperse. That’s spelled out in the law.”
On March 17, the governor released further executive orders pursuant with Tuesday’s state of emergency declaration, including one that prohibited organized events of 50 or more people at any publicly-owned facility.
The race track, though, is privately-owned.
Barfield acknowledged that the governor’s state of emergency declaration allows local law enforcement to halt any gathering of more than three people.
But he also emphasized that the executive order does not extend to privately-owned places.
“There’s no doubt that that statute exists (during a state of an emergency), but does that mean that we’re going to break up every group of three or more people in Lancaster County while the state of emergency is in effect? We don’t know that we’re going to be doing that,” Barfield said.
“Our churches are going to hold services on private property. There are, again, wedding receptions that are likely going to occur on private property. We haven’t reached a decision about how we’re going to respond to those things at this point.”
Other reactions to racing decision
The decision to follow through with the race brought out two lines of thinking as it pertains to the coronavirus:
(1) One group of thought contends that the decision should be left up to the individual: If you feel safe, come; if you don’t stay home.
(2) The other group of thought contends that everyone has a duty to self-quarantine, whether you feel at risk or not.
On Lancaster Motor Speedway Caskey/Munn’s initial Facebook post, the two opinions were clear in the comments.
“Kudos to you for giving people the freedom of choice!” one comment reads.
“After this race the whole county will be on a mandatory lockdown due to the fact that Lancaster County can’t follow suggestions outlined by the CDC for a very contagious virus! It’s not you that’s worried, it’s the people that can’t afford to catch the virus!” another comment reads.
Darren Player, Lancaster County Emergency Management Director, said he had been told about the possibility of racing, and he said any gathering such as the race would be irresponsible.
“We have been trying to stop community spread after we had cases of the virus,” Player said. “Groups and events have canceled. People seem to be taking it seriously. Any person or group that asks me, I am advising them to cancel.”
Player said that law enforcement has jurisdiction over the track.
Steve Willis, Lancaster County administrator, said residents asked his office Thursday if county officials had the authority to stop the track from racing with a state of emergency and ban on large gatherings in place.
Willis said a South Carolina association of counties had asked about this type of situation last week and had been told counties did not have the authority to close down private venues. However, that was before the state of emergency was declared and the governor’s office took other steps, Willis said.
Later Thursday, Willis said he talked to officials in the governor’s office and was told that Lancaster County officials could seek an official Attorney General’s office opinion on the subject.
This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 7:49 AM.
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