Fans will be allowed for first two rounds of Pro Motocross season - MotorSportsTalk

The first two rounds of the 2020 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship will be held with fans after the season was delayed because of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

In a release Wednesday night, MX Sports Pro Racing announced that the season-opening Circle K Ironman National in Crawfordsville, Indiana, on July 18 and the WW Ranch National in Jacksonville, Florida, on July 25 both would be permitted to have spectators.

According to the release, the two events “will be hosted in compliance with social distancing guidelines that have been established from ongoing communication between local officials.”

Though the series said it has confirmed its next nine tracks on its delayed 2020 schedule, the dates and fan policies have yet to be announced beyond the first two events.

See you in July, Fans 😎 #LetsTakeItOutside
🗓 7/18 @IronmanRaceway // 7/25 @wwranchnational #ProMotocross #RealRacing #ThisIsMoto #Summer pic.twitter.com/8BhqcJLKEw

— Pro Motocross (@ProMotocross) June 10, 2020

“While all of our championship venues have been permitted to reopen for recreational use, there are still varying state-by-state regulations that prevent many of them from allowing spectators at an organized sporting event,” MX Sports Pro Racing competition director Roy Janson said in a release. “As a result, the 2020 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship schedule will be rolled out in phases as additional venues are given the green light to welcome fans.”

Here’s the release from the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship:

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (June 10, 2020) – After considerable communication between race organizers, local government, and local health officials, MX Sports Pro Racing has confirmed that the opening two rounds of the 2020 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship, sanctioned by AMA Pro Racing, will be permitted to allow spectator attendance. The season opening Circle K Ironman National will be held in Crawfordsville, Indiana’s Ironman Raceway on July 18, followed by the WW Ranch National from Jacksonville, Florida’s WW Motocross Park on July 25.

“While all of our championship venues have been permitted to reopen for recreational use, there are still varying state-by-state regulations that prevent many of them from allowing spectators at an organized sporting event,” said Roy Janson, MX Sports Pro Racing Competition Director. “As a result, the 2020 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship schedule will be rolled out in phases as additional venues are given the green light to welcome fans. Each event organizer is in constant contact with their local government and health officials in order to ensure that a fan-attended event adheres to all health and safety measures implemented by the county, and we’re confident that approach will allow us to have a proper championship calendar that allows for the return of spectators, and follows social distancing guidelines.”

In addition to receiving title sponsorship from Circle K, the opening round from Ironman Raceway will also feature live network television coverage on NBC, serving as the first of three events that will be aired on the flagship network in 2020, bringing Pro Motocross into millions of homes across the country.

Both the Ironman National and WW Ranch National, along with each remaining round on the 2020 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship schedule, will be hosted in compliance with social distancing guidelines that have been established from ongoing communication between local officials. A significant component of those guidelines will be eliminating spectator interaction from competitors and their teams, members of the media, as well as all event staff, meaning paddock access will be limited to credentialed personnel only.

Additional details surrounding the implementation of social distancing policies at the 2020 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship will be announced at a later date.

Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

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