Minnesota speedway pauses season after complaint over COVID-19 policy
A Minnesota racetrack has announced the pause of its 2020 season after a complaint was made about its COVID-19 policy.
Chateau Speedway, which hosts stock car racing at its 1/3-mile oval in Lansing, Minnesota, announced Wednesday that it's "had to hit the pause," with Friday's scheduled event canceled.
"A complaint was filed with the state about our COVID-19 policy," the speedway said, albeit with no further details about what the nature of the complaint was.
"The track will be taking this next week to update that policy and look at other options and measures that can be taken. Therefore there will be no racing this Friday Night August 21st."
The racetrack was forced to delay the start of its 2020 season due to Gov. Tim Walz's Stay-at-Home Order after the outbreak of COVID-19, but was able to restart, albeit with restrictions on capacity and with social distancing guidelines in place, in early July.
While the cancellation of racing is just for this Friday for now, track owner Mark Wytaske said it might continue another week.
"I would really like to say we can be open on the 28th but that is not guaranteed," he added.
He then went on to say that updates on social media and its website "will be limited during the duration of the state involvement with our facility except to post events."
"This will be on a week by week basis," the speedway added. "Word of mouth by fans and drivers will be relied upon during this time to help pass the word on the future dates each week."
