July 15, 2020 at 11:14 a.m.
Hodag BMX won't race in 2020
Hodag BMX won't race in 2020
The club's board of directors voted last week to officially forgo the remainder of the 2020 season and turn to preparing for the 2021 season.
Track operator Rob Deede announced the decision last Wednesday on the club's Facebook page, along with an 11-plus minute video explaining the club's rationale.
Deede said several factors went into the decision, including where the state currently sits in regard to the trend of COVID-19 cases on the rise, the financial impacts of the pandemic in regard to sponsors and the need to give the club's racing families a definitive answer during an uncertain time.
As of Tuesday evening, Oneida County had 42 cases of COVID-19, 16 of which were active, according to the Oneida County Health Department.
"Frankly, the volunteers have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make this work and, arguably, too much time trying to square peg, round hole a situation," he said in the video. "With all of these factors in mind, and again, being extremely appreciative of the volunteers, being extremely appreciative of the families, we have made the decision as the Hodag BMX board to forgo the 2020 season for racing events - that would include single points, state qualifier, multi-point events, et cetera - unless something drastically changes - and instead refocus our efforts to the 2021 season and being able to improve the track as opposed to damage control related to the COVID-19 pandemic."
When contacted by the River News, Deede clarified that "unless something drastically changes," is in regard to the overall situation regarding the pandemic, and the limitations on gatherings that are currently recommended by health professionals.
While the club will not hold any races this season, the track, located inside the City of Rhinelander's West Side Park, will continue to remain open for community use and the club will continue to hold weekly small-group practice sessions and time trials.
2020 marks the first time in the track's 21-year history that there will be no race season.
The track itself opened for recreational use May 15 and the club begin offering modified gate practices May 29. At that time, Deede said the club was hopeful to be able to race at some point during the season and was working to put in place systems that would cut down on points of congregation on race nights - from contactless registration, to mobile ordering from the concession stand, to allowing riders to view moto sheets digitally on their mobile devices as opposed to gathering near a series of clipboards to find their gates for heat and main races.
The club's racing season typically begins around the first of May, or when the track is ready following the winter thaw, and runs through the end of September. The biggest weekend of the season was scheduled for July 24-27. The club's USABMX Race for Life double points race July 25 and its Wisconsin State Championship qualifier double points race July 26 would have bookended regular single point races July 24 and 27. The weekend typically brings in hundreds of riders from around the state and the Midwest.
The club has been working with the City of Rhinelander Parks Department and the Oneida County Health Department during this time. Deede said the club's goal was to be able to race in a manner in which all of its families would have felt welcome, accepted and safe during the pandemic. As the landscape surrounding the pandemic made that goal less and less likely, Deede said the board decided to cut its losses now instead of prolonging the uncertainty.
"It's not fair to keep stringing the families along," he said. "It's almost more detrimental to say, 'OK, we might race or we might not race. We might. We might not. We might start racing and then get shut down again.'"
Deede thanked the club's board, volunteers, members, racers, sponsors and supporters while vowing the club would come back stronger in 2021.
"We'll get back to what we were and where we were," he said. "Our focus is to make 2021 the best season yet. We have a lot of cool things in store and in mind that we're going to work on that have really been put on pause related to try to plan around something that really is not feasible to make work. We're going to get back to doing that, which is making the track awesome."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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