Bob Dylan's classic song title really captures the state of the world around us. In this time of the pandemic with all the changes in our daily lives I thought it would be helpful if I wrote to you about Monoposto's activities. Judging from the cessation of professional racing and changing plans for it to restart it looks like 2020 may be the year that didn't happen.
As a generalization, race car drivers are optimists. None of us enters a racecourse expecting bad things to happen. We all believe that our lap times will improve and that our position in the race will improve as we compete more effectively than those around us. Unfortunately, this optimism does not translate into changing the facts of the pandemic. We are left to follow the decisions of others.
So far this year three Monoposto events have been cancelled. The weekend for one has passed (HSR's The Mitty) and two have not (HMSA/HSR events at Barber Motorsports Park and Mont Tremblant). It's likely that more events will be affected in the months ahead.
We have considered this and made the decision that rather than continue to chase changes in the racing calendar with our championship schedule we will simply accept what the racing gods give us. The only exception to this is a decision to add the WeatherTech International Challenge at Road America to the Indy Lights championship schedule. You will see the event cancellations and the Indy Lights change on our website (link here). As the season progresses future cancellations or event date changes will be reflected on Monoposto.com but because everything is so fluid, we will not be adding more events to compensate for cancellations. The structure for our championships will be modified for 2020 so that they will be based on a racers best six race results (typically 3 events) so that the pressure to get out there and compete is eased.
The next events on our schedule are SVRA Indianapolis and the VARAC Vintage Grand Prix, both on the same weekend about six weeks from now. Let's hope that travel restrictions (including the US/Canada border closing) ease and the events proceed on schedule.
The 2019 Championship trophies have been produced. In a normal year these would be presented to the champions at events as the year progresses and we will try to do that as well this year. Because of the social distancing standards, we will not have Monoposto parties at events and will try to make presentations of the trophies in a responsible way. Should the schedule or participation make it impossible to hand out trophies they will be shipped to recipients.
I hope those of us who are staying at home get to work on our cars so they are even more ready when racing resumes. Stay Well!
Travis Engen,
President, Monoposto Racing