Missouri News

Professional Sports Resume In The Kansas City Area At the Racetrack

KCUR | By Greg Echlin

Published May 24, 2020 at 10:15 PM CDT

Competitors in the POWRi midget racers fly around the track in the last laps of their feature race Saturday at Valley Speedway in Grain Valley, Missouri. Fans crowded the grandstands as well as overflowed to the perimeter areas where dirt and grit from the track often pelted spectators.

Live sporting events are underway again in Kansas City after being shut down since mid-March as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Two tracks—KC Raceway in Independence, Missouri, and Valley Speedway in Grain Valley, Missouri—held races over the weekend with open-wheel competition. Lakeside in Kansas City, Kansas, plans to start back up on May 29.

There’s one big difference between what the local tracks are doing compared to NASCAR in North and South Carolina the last two weeks. In Missouri, spectators are allowed to attend the local races.

Valley Speedway owner Dennis Shrout said he checked with the Jackson County Health Department before he opened the gates for open-wheel dirt racing on Saturday night.

“They didn’t tell me I couldn’t race, but they said use my best judgement,” Shrout said. “That was my best judgement, I guess.”

Brenda Jones sold tickets to a stream of race fans eager to see live racing action at Valley Speedway. Jones and other ticket takers wore gloves and masks while handling money and dealing with customers. The majority of fans, however, were not wearing masks.

Seating capacity at Valley Speedway is 4,000 with the seats split between the north and south grandstands. The majority of the fans were seated on the south grandstands. Shrout capped the attendance at 500.

That suited Katie Snyder of Liberty, Missouri, just fine. She was among the majority of fans attending the races without a face mask though signs were posted all over the track advising fans to take precautions against the spread of the virus.

Racing has been a part of her family for generations, but she says she could take or leave the sport. Regardless she didn’t want to deny her eight-year old son, Lucas, to see the sport he loves.

Lucas Snyder, 8, plays with his collection of toy racing cars prior to action getting underway at Valley Speedway in Grain Valley on Saturday. Snyder’s mother, Katie, said her son is a huge fan of the sport and couldn’t deny him an opportunity to see the sport live.

It’s a great feeling to feel normal again,” said Snyder. “He’s been waiting for Valley to open for so long. We had to be here for the first night for sure.”

Sprint car driver Casey Baker of Lone Jack, Missouri, sees both sides of whether to race or not because of the ongoing pandemic. Baker, now 30 and a converted race car driver since the age of 16 after previously competing in rodeo (barrel racing and calf roping), is a cardiology nurse practitioner at Lee’s Summit Medical Center.

When asked if she felt safe with the recommended precautions taken at Valley Speedway, Baker said, “There’s a lot of unknowns. I think we have to continue to keep living our life and be as safe and cautious as we can.”

The only thing spoiling Baker’s night was an engine problem in her sprint car.

Lone Jack racer Casey Baker watches mechanic Lloyd Dickey as he examines a broken high-pressure oil hose in Baker’s sprint car. Baker blew the hose in her first outing on the track but returned to race in later events.

When the night ended for the 2020 opening race at Valley Speedway, Shrout said he was pleased with how the fans handled the recommended precautions.

“I think everyone did a pretty good job of spreading out and not getting on top of each other,” said Shrout.

Time will tell if anyone attending the race eventually tests positive for COVID-19. But for the moment, Shrout considers the return of a live sporting event with spectators a victory.