NEWS FILE PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN - A pair of racers take off down the strip during the Friday Night Street Legal program at the Medicine Hat Drag Racing Association's 2017 season opener.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
Drivers can finally start their engines at the local strip this weekend.
After having its season opener called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Medicine Hat Drag Racing Association is set to finally kick off its summer campaign at the strip this weekend – and up to 100 fans can come out to watch the action.
“We kind of went from nothing to everything really fast,” said MHDRA president Dave Toth. “It’s been a long winter, late spring, and of course the coronavirus. I think everybody is itching to get out and have a little bit of fun.”
Toth says the MHDRA appeared to have the green light for its original season opener on May 29, but Alberta Health Services stepped in at the last minute with a new order that led to the closure of race tracks across the province. As a result, Toth says MHDRA teamed up with many of those tracks to hammer out a return to racing.
“We basically formed a race track coalition,” he said. “We put relaunch procedures together and policies and procedures for our race tracks.”
Protocols are in place to ensure social distancing measures and sanitization guidelines are met. There will be lines on the ground at bathrooms and concessions, while pits are limited to drivers, immediate crew and close family only.
“It’s a big change for all of us. It’s not just a free-for-all like it used to be,” said Toth. “We’ve got policies in place for the racers in the pits, no social gatherings at night time, everybody’s got to kind of stay in their own little group in their pit. Every second staging lane we’re going to use, so we’re going to keep the cars apart.”
As for spectators, Toth says the gates will be locked once the venue is at its 100-spectator capacity. Parking areas will be marked and spaced far enough apart to ensure social distancing, and no overnight camping will be permitted in the spectator area. Group gatherings in the spectator area will also not be permitted.
“We’ll have 100 wristbands there and when the 100 wristbands are gone we’ll close the gate, then if five leave, we’ll pull another five wristbands out and let another five in,” said Toth.
Gates open tonight at 5 p.m., followed by Friday Night Street Legal racing at 7 p.m. The gates open back up at 8 a.m. Saturday, with time trials at noon and 4 p.m. racing with points up for grabs. The action continues Sunday with gates at 8 a.m. followed by time trials at 10 a.m. and racing at 1 p.m.
“I just ask everybody who’s coming out to go to our website (mhdra.com) and read all the policies and procedures we have in place,” said Toth. “We want to follow the rules, we don’t want to get shut down. We just ask for everybody’s patience to work with us to get us through this first weekend and work out all the bugs.”
