MotoAmerica plans to open season with a race with no fans

MotoGP hopes to resume racing in July in Spain and World Superbike plans to follow in August. In the United States, with Monster Energy Supercross suspended, the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship hoping to start in July and American Flat Track still determining plans to start its season, the ambitious plan by MotoAmerica would make it the first major domestic racing series to resume. It means the races will take place just days after Wisconsin's "safer at home" order expires on May 26.

In its opening weekend later this month at Road America, MotoAmerica plans to hold races in all five of its regular classes — Superbike, Supersport, Liqui Moly Junior Cup, Stock 1000 and Twins Cup — with only teams, officials, limited staff and some media in attendance. Then, as a reward to the track, MotoAmerica plans a second race at Road America on June 26 through 28, with fans present. An antique motorcycle event, called Vintage MotoFest, originally scheduled to coincide with the race weekend in May, has been moved to the June date, along with the two other support races. Those are the first races in the Mini Cup by Motul, a three-race series for young riders on Ohvale GP-0 race bikes, and the Heritage Cup race for pre-1986 Superbikes.

Although no fans will be able to see the opening round in person, the Superbike races will be televised live on Fox Sports. Also, as always, all races, qualifying and practice sessions will be streamed live on MotoAmericaLive+. Season passes cost $74.99 and individual event weekends cost $9.99.

"This is not something we ever imagined," MotoAmerica President Wayne Rainey said about racing without fans, "but then again we never thought we'd be faced with something like COVID-19. We will continue to work towards making the event special for everyone tuning into the broadcast."

After the first two rounds at Road America, MotoAmerica plans to continue the series and still have a full 10 rounds, as originally planned before the COVID-19 pandemic turned all plans upside down. The second Road America round will replace the race weekend planned for VIRginia International Raceway, which was canceled.

In addition to the cancellation at VIR, other rounds have previously been rescheduled. The Road Atlanta round was moved to the end of July and the round at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was changed to October after the Speedway rescheduled the Indy 500 for August. What would have been the opening round at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, in conjunction with the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas MotoGP race, is now scheduled to take place with the rescheduled grand prix in November. Of course all of that presumes there won't be more changes or surprises — which would be out of character for 2020, so far.

Here's the MotoAmerica schedule for the rest of the year as it currently stands.

Revised 2020 MotoAmerica race schedule
Dates	Round
May 29-31	MotoAmerica Superbikes at Road America (televised, no fans at the track)
June 26-28	MotoAmerica Superbikes at Road America (with Vintage MotoFest)
July 10-12	GEICO MotoAmerica Superbike Speedfest at Monterey (WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca)
July 31-August 2	MotoAmerica Superbikes at Atlanta (Road Atlanta)
August 7-9	MotoAmerica Superbikes at Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh International Race Complex)
August 28-30	Komatsu MotoAmerica Superbikes at The Ridge (The Ridge Motorsports Park)
September 11-13	MotoAmerica Superbikes at New Jersey (New Jersey Motorsports Park)
September 18-20	MotoAmerica Superbikes at Alabama (Barber Motorsports Park)
October 9-11	MotoAmerica Superbikes at the Brickyard (Indianapolis Motor Speedway)
November 13-15	MotoAmerica Superbikes at Texas (Circuit of the Americas in conjunction with MotoGP)

Will fans come back when racing comes back?

While much of the country is moving toward resuming many activities, two big questions remain: First, how will resumption of activities affect the course of the pandemic? And, although people will be able to return to things like shopping or attending sports events, will they feel comfortable doing so, or will they just stay home anyway?

MotoAmerica recently sent a questionnaire to its fans and 2,800 responded. Unsurprisingly, those fans overwhelmingly said they wanted to see racing resume. But that's a predictable response.

For a more scientific poll, let's look at one done by the FiveThirtyEight blog (which specializes in sports, politics, polling and statistics) in cooperation with the Ipsos market research firm. That poll found only 24 percent of respondents would feel comfortable going to a sporting event now.

Of course nearly everyone answering the questions of that poll was thinking of being crammed into the stands of a football or baseball stadium or basketball arena, not wandering the open grounds of a race track like Road America or Road Atlanta. So the results of that poll may not be easily applicable to race fans.

Still, it's worth noting that respondents in the FiveThirtyEight poll were asked what it would take to make them feel more comfortable about going. Some 18 percent said they'd feel more comfortable if all fans kept six feet apart, something that's easier to do at a race track than a baseball stadium. And 21 percent said they'd feel more comfortable if everyone were wearing a mask. But only one response really moved the needle: 51 percent said they'd feel a lot more comfortable going to a sporting event if a COVID-19 vaccine were available.

Since that's not happening this season, 2020 is going to be an experiment in several stages: What's it like to have a race with no fans? And will fans show up if you open the gates?