SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Peter Murphy and the NARC King of the West Fujitsu Sprint Car Series have announced plans for a race on June 20 at Keller Auto Speedway.
Unfortunately, due to strict COVID-19 restrictions enforced by local health officials, this event will must be held without race fans in the grandstands.
However, the show will be available live via pay-per-view. Details are available here.
Murphy has already staged two successful practice sessions at his three-eighths-mile dirt track in preparation for the restart of the racing season, and at least one more practice session is expected to be added before the June 20 event.
Only race teams and immediate crew and their family members will be allowed in the pit area, and they will be required to sign a special insurance waiver. There is expected to be a limit on the number of people per race team.
All pit entrants and working officials will be required to wear masks and practice proper social distancing protocols.
“This race represents our first step in getting back to normal,” said Murphy. “We would love to have fans in the grandstands, but we have to follow the rules, otherwise we can’t race. We hope that everybody supports us and watches the show on Speed Shift TV.”
The purse will be funded through pay-per-view subscriptions, the generous support of many loyal sponsors, and pit gate proceeds.
The Hanford event represents the season opener for the traveling series, which has been forced to either cancel or postpone seven scheduled events so far this season.
The June 20 race was not on the original 19-race schedule.
“This event has been a long time in the making,” said series general manager Jim Allen. “A lot of things had to line up perfectly to make it happen. We thank Peter Murphy for his tenacity and hard work to make it a reality. Hopefully this will jump start Fairgrounds dirt track racing in California again so fans can attend in person in the very near future.”
One more class of cars will be added to the program.
Murphy is expected to make an announcement this week, along with other details regarding the event and safety guidelines.