Several thousand race fans flocked to a North Carolina speedway on Saturday and watched a race. However, while fans were in abundance, there were very few masks or gloves to be seen.
According to reports, only about one in ten fans wore either gloves or masks, as 4,000 racing fans sat in the stands at the Ace Speedway.
“They’ve been locked up,” Gene Yarboro, 64, told the Charlotte Observer. “They want to go somewhere, and this is the only place, really, legal to come around.”
According to the Observer:
All week, that had been a point of contention — the legality of this gathering. When North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced that the state would enter Phase Two of its gradual reopening amid the pandemic, the news came with limits. Cooper’s executive order, for one, prohibited mass gatherings, and those had been defined as any gathering of more than 10 people indoors, or more than 25 outdoors.
Within about 10 feet on either side of Yarboro, there were more than 25 people. He didn’t mind. Nobody here minded, and whatever concerns anyone had were outweighed by the desire to be a part of the mutual experience. Only a few people wore any kind of coverings over their face and Bare, the man checking the bags at the gate, was among them.
‘It’s been years since we had this many people,’ he said.
NASCAR returned to the racetrack on May 17th, but did so without fans.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn
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