Jay Lamm: How We Think Lemons Starts Racing Again

Hi Again, Lemons Racers!

Like I said last time: If “your health and safety are always our top priority,” we wouldn’t be running a race series. On the other hand, we really try hard not to kill you, and when push comes to shove we will err on the “Thou shalt not kill” side. Sorry, it’s kind of a “thing.”

So: Can Lemons keep doing both of those things during Covid? After a whole lot of discussion and thought, we think that we can. It’ll take attention and patience and unselfish behavior from everyone, plus unfiltered honesty about conditions that change day by day. But at some point, it really comes down to five questions. When each one’s a yes (in our opinion, not yours–sorry!) it’s race time.

1) Can we hold the event without flouting a government reg or restriction?

2) Can we institute systems and protocols so that if someone has Covid-19, any spread should remain in their team?

3) Are these new systems and protocols doable at that track?

4) Can our staff work and travel with acceptable levels of safety?

5) Can enough racers participate to make it worth all of that hassle?

A couple more things to wrap up. With Item 1, we’re a group of good people: We respect law and order, and we respect those whose super-hard job is enforcing it. We aren’t gonna play stupid games and try to ignore the officials.

Item 2: What happens inside your own team is beyond Lemons’ ability or mandate to manage. We expect you to be safe with your teammates, and we expect you to take that responsibility seriously—both for your sake and everyone that you go home to.

And on Item 5, we want to be totally clear: For the duration of Covid-19, we don’t have the resources or risk tolerance to hold events nobody’s ready for yet. If a race doesn’t find enough racers, no hard feelings–we won’t do it.

That’s today’s update. We’re still hammering out those new systems and protocols with input from medical folks, Real Racer™ groups, insurers, track reps, and others. I expect these will be ready to share sometime week, and I’ll do that as soon they are.

Thanks for making it this far. Stay safe, don’t screw around, and I’ll update you all again soon.

Best regards,
Jay Lamm, Chief Perp