Roger Slack is having a hard time coming to grips with the situation he and his staff at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, are facing in the lead-up to June 4-6’s Dirt Late Model Stream Invitational. 

“For us,” Eldora’s promoter and general manager mused, “it is just weird to be preparing for an event where you’re telling people not to come.”

Indeed, this weekend’s Stream Invitational is a production that the legendary Eldora Speedway, and dirt-track racing itself, has never before seen. A select group of 48 Dirt Late Model drivers, competing for over $200,000 in total purses in two $10,000-to-win preliminary programs and a 67-lap Saturday finale boasting a $50,000 top prize, with the grandstands locked due to coronavirus pandemic concerns and fans only able to watch a live video stream on FloRacing? It’s truly an unprecedented scenario, one that Slack acknowledged wouldn’t have even had a chance of becoming a reality a few short years ago when live online streaming of races as a revenue source was still in its infancy.

Watch the Eldora Dirt Late Model Stream Invitational June 4-6 on FloRacing

There have already been many Dirt Late Model races run as spectator-free streams over the past month as the sport has emerged from its spring shutdown for the coronavirus crisis, but none have matched the magnitude of what Slack and Co. are undertaking. While the Stream Invitational certainly doesn’t match the level of the event it is replacing on Eldora’s schedule — the $126,000-to-win Dream, which has had its 26th running pushed to June 2021 — it is by far the richest race contested to date in 2020 and could conceivably be the most lucrative show the division has all season depending on the progression of the Covid-19 health emergency. 

Eldora’s stature in the industry virtually demanded something big, something grand, to help Dirt Late Model racing transit this strange moment in history. Slack and his boss, Eldora owner and former NASCAR star Tony Stewart, understood that responsibility, and it’s why they powered forward to create a Dream alternative that is worthy of the Big E’s exalted status — even if fans can’t pack the high-banked, half-mile oval’s thousands of seats as they usually do for the track’s crown jewel events.

It wasn’t an easy process, of course, to bring this weekend to life. With the state of Ohio not reopening as quickly as some in other parts of the country where racetracks have already hosted events with fans allowed in the stands, devising a way for Eldora to present what officials have dubbed a “Responsible Restart” of racing was long and tedious. Corresponding with various state and local government and health authorities was a seemingly endless pursuit, filled with starts-and-stops that had Slack breathing a sigh of relief once final approvals were received and the Stream Invitational shifted from conjecture to reality with its public announcement last Thursday.

“These are tough times, especially for people who are entrepreneurs and can’t operate their businesses,” Slack said. “Things are changing every day. You prepare for all these different scenarios, and then the next day all of that changes.

“Last Thursday, it was like, ‘Finally!’ It just hit me that I am working on something that is actually going to happen. For the first time in three months I had some semblance of control of my life.”

Making plans

The coronavirus crisis didn’t take Slack, 45, completely by surprise. He had more than an inkling that it could have a serious impact on the motorsports world before it was declared a pandemic in early March and the country summarily went into various degrees of lockdown.

“I have friends in China (Shanghai), and they told me about this deal real early on,” Slack said, referring to the country where Covid-19 first took off. “The American media was way behind it (at the time). They warned me, ‘This is gonna be big.’

“I remember, we had a team meeting (of Eldora officials) either before I went to Daytona (for February’s Speedweeks) or after I came back, and I talked about it. I swear, everybody at the table thought that I was absolutely insane.”

Shortly thereafter, as Eldora’s scheduled season opener in April was still a month away, Slack received more ominous reports.

“Even before the shutdown (in mid-March), I was talking to a really respected member of the medical community and I asked their opinion,” Slack said. “They told me, ‘I don’t think that you’re gonna see events like yours this year.’ And so I asked them that question again when it kind of felt like they were trying to free things up again, in April or whatever it was, and they said the same thing, that they just do not see it. They said, ‘You’ve got to understand just how vicious this is.’ ”

While Slack lives near Eldora in largely rural western Ohio, he was not so far removed from the early coronavirus outbreak to be dismissive of its significance. For starters, his fiancee, Lauren Stewart — whom he proposed to March 19 — was in the final months of nursing school and as part of her training worked the Covid floor of a hospital emergency room. (Stewart will begin her career as a nurse Aug. 31 at Premier Health’s Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio.) In addition, Eldora staffers and safety team members were on the front lines of the pandemic, and the virus came close to Slack and the Eldora family as well.

“Tonya Neville, who runs the credentials for us and has for years, she’s a respiratory therapist at IU-West (Hospital in Avon, Ind.) and she called me one day,” Slack said. “Respiratory therapist, that’s the person who vents people, and she said she had left work and they had six people on ventilators, and she came back and they had 32 in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). She said it is unbelievable to see people come walking in, they don’t feel good, and two hours later they’re dying.

“We use two ambulance companies (at Eldora), and one had four trucks and eight teams — so they could work 24 hours — sent by FEMA to (hard-hit) New York City, and another had three trucks and six teams sent to New Jersey. They went in March and they didn’t come back until the end of May. And they didn’t even have all the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) that they needed … we got them stuff out of the infield care center (at the track).

“We know people that have had it here locally,” he added. “We know people that have passed away from it. We’re dealing with a serious deal here. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t know anybody, who doesn’t know somebody, that hasn’t been affected.”

It soon became clear that racing with fans on hand — especially the massive crowds of 15,000 to 25,000 people that jam into Eldora’s covered grandstand on the homestretch and bleacher and hillside seating in the corners for the facility’s major events — would not be possible in Ohio for the foreseeable future. That fact initially led Slack and his co-workers to simply move the track’s biggest races to September and October in hopes of an improved coronavirus landscape permitting racing as usual, but that plan would still be a gamble so Slack decided, “Let’s just do this” — specifically, a spectator-free event to replace the Dream. Letting the track sit idle until the fall didn’t seem to be a sensible move.

“We have been following the state guidelines (during the coronavirus shutdown),” Slack said of the Eldora staff that includes eight full-timers. “Our team has worked from home. We were allowed to do what we had to do for essential operations, but we canceled all capital expenditures, construction and expansion planned for this year, things are faded, there’s banners that are tattered. We just cut the campgrounds (grass to bail and sell) for hay … I mean, every revenue stream that we have is cut off.”

Stewart was behind the reopening plan — as long as the proper steps were taken to make it happen.

“I’ll tell you who has just been absolutely top notch, is Tony and Brett (Frood, who oversees Stewart’s True Speed Enterprises),” Slack said. “They are like, ‘We are going to do the right thing.’ ”

That meant going through an event approval process with the government authorities that dragged on for weeks and included many revisions before the ultimate go-ahead was given. Slack spearheaded the effort, spending countless hours on the phone and in email correspondence with state and local officials, lawyers and colleagues in the motorsports industry.

“Motorsports wasn’t represented at all in any of these advisory groups that the state had put together, so we have really been working hard at that,” Slack said. “I don’t think anybody could ever anticipate how it could affect our business. It’s something …

“When you’re talking eight versions of a 40-page proposal for protocols, I mean, that’s what we put together. Kudos to World Racing Racing Group and NASCAR and USAC and Indianapolis (Motor Speedway), everybody that was collaborating and worked together to come up with this stuff.

“The networking of promoters (that has resulted from the coronavirus crisis), I’ve never seen it stronger. On Saturday, I talked to dirt-track promoters. I talked to Marcus Smith (Speedway Motorsports Inc. president and general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway, Slack’s former employer). I talked to Ben Kennedy at NASCAR. I talked to Ben May at Pocono. I managed to get my hands on a (reopening) document from an NFL team. I talked to a dragway operator. And I talked to Rex LeJeune (promoter of Ohio’s Attica Raceway Park) for over an hour. And, at the end of the day, none of us had it figured out, but all of the networking has really helped.

“It is big, big, big, the scope of this,” he added. “I’ve never experienced something like this.”

Slack marveled at how much work went into drawing up the protocols necessary “just to open up the pit area, just to open up the infield with no concessions.” They settled on restricting the event to 48 teams — 44 invited drivers determined a using a dataset from the past three years that included strength of performance, results, Eldora attendance, ambassadorship and active past winners of the World 100 and the Dream, plus four more drivers voted in by fans — all parked in the track’s infield.

“That’s how many haulers we can fit with basically 13-foot pit stalls and 10 feet distancing in between,” Slack said. “We’re not using the upper pit (outside turn three), because then it turns into a ‘mass gathering’ because you have the grandstand. And then the other part of that, then you would have people going back-and-forth through the (backstretch) tunnel and using the handrails. All of a sudden, there’s all these things. I mean, as kids, we’re sliding down banisters and railings, and now, you can’t touch it, and we’re having to go through and sanitize everything … and throughout the event, not just ahead of time and clean stuff after.”

Just over 400 people will be on the Eldora grounds for this weekend’s events, including track and series officials — a smaller number than usual, Slack said, so there will be some staffers in reserve just “in case somebody gets sick” — team members (driver plus four people per entrant), the FloRacing broadcast crew and other essential personnel. Everyone permitted to attend will be preapproved before the weekend as the track seeks to race with the bare minimum of people on hand in order to keep the risk of virus transmission to a minimum.

“People want to get an extra pass, or, ‘Hey, I need this,’ or, ‘I usually bring somebody,’” Slack said. “It’s like, ‘No.’ We’re not being asses. It is what it is. There are federal, state and local laws regulating this, and that’s why as a competitor-based event, no spectators, it’s taken this long to get approval to do it.

“People have just got to understand where there has to be patience with everything.”

A different event

When the Stream Invitational is underway this weekend, the racing will look largely like it always does as Eldora, sans cheering fans in the stands. On Thursday and Friday there will be hot laps, qualifying, four races (with an inversion to be determined), two B-mains and 30-lap features, and Saturday’s program includes four 15-lap heats, two B-mains and the 67-lap finale that commemorates the 67th consecutive year of racing at the track founded by the late Earl Baltes.

Everything else about each race day, however, won’t be quite the same.

As soon as every attendee arrives at the track, the at least temporarily new normal will be evident. Hauler staging will begin at 6 p.m. at Wednesday with teams directed to park single-file and distance from each other in Lots 1 and 2; all are required to be in line by noon on Thursday, when medical professionals will begin medical prescreening of race officials and staff with health questions and temperature checks (no one who reads over 100.4 degrees will be credentialed and allowed to enter). The screenings will continue with manufacturer support vendors, participants (all five-person teams traveling together are considered “family units”), the broadcast production team and finally the balance of the event staff, ambulance crews and track services teams. The process will be repeated each day — at the designated entrance area for those who leave the track each evening and at each team’s hauler for those who remain in the infield overnight.

The wearing of masks throughout the weekend will be mandatory for all attendees on site; it was “part of the proposal” for the race, Slack said. There will be hand sanitizer stations throughout the infield and everyone will be encouraged to wash their hands as often as possible. The infield care center “will probably be the most secure place on property,” Slack noted, adding that it’s “not just gonna be a drop-in clinic” so no one will enter it unless they are injured. Teams will be asked to largely stay in their designated pit stalls and refrain from gathering close together in groups. The feature winners will report to the Eldora stage as is customary, but the driver and team members will be asked to wear their masks and social-distance 6 feet in their photos. Everyone leaving the infield after each night’s program will be required to do so within one hour of the final checkered flag. 

“Everyone needs to know that we are all fighting to return as responsibly and safely, and as quickly, as we all can, but it’s a tough deal,” Slack said. “Listen, nothing is gonna be perfect. Nobody’s ever had an event in a pandemic in this county before, so there’s always gonna be ways that you can tweak things.

“Hopefully this is the last ever (Stream Invitational), as we’ve been saying. Hopefully we get everybody healthy enough and those that are high-risk are protected and we get to a point where we can all go out to the racetrack.

“I joked to somebody the other day, ‘You know, we already all went no smoking (in the stands). That’s no big deal. But we still do have no alcohol sections. Maybe one of these days we’ll be able to have a no masks section.’ ”

Slack has no doubt that the usual electric atmosphere swirling around Eldora’s major events thanks to the usual masses of people on hand will be missing. He does, however, see the race having a social-media feel presence unlike any dirt race in history.

“Lauren and I were out walking the dogs the other day, and we were talking … it’s gonna feel a little eerie with no fans,” Slack said. “But there’s a ton of people who are gonna be watching this (on FloRacing).

“Somebody on the (DirtonDirt.com Fast Talk) roundtable had a really good point about how the social media always calms down during our events because our fans are actually at them and enjoying them. So it’ll be interesting to see how that picks up during the races now, because that’s one thing we know from our NASCAR (Truck) event … it ranks as one of the top 10, 12, events as far as social media engagement all year, and it, by far, just blows away any of our dirt events. It’ll be interesting when we see this big, giant festival of dirt and everybody’s watching at home (and commenting on social media).”

Slack is also proud that Eldora has been able to put on a high-paying show amid the coronavirus crisis for a division that desperately needs one.

“Look at how many of these guys, their lives, depend on purse money,” Slack said. “And it’s not just the racers. It’s, like, crew guys. A lot of them earn a percentage of what the car wins. At least this is a way to make them all some dollars again.”

Looking ahead

Slack would love to declare that this weekend’s Stream Invitational will be followed by a return to normalcy at Eldora, that the track will dive back into its usual schedule and fans will be packing the grandstands again for its big events like the Kings Royal Sprint Car race (set for July 16-18), the Eldora Dirt Derby for the NASCAR Trucks (July 29-30) and, of course, the 50th annual World 100 (Sept. 10-12). But he’s realistic enough to understand the odds of those races running off as planned this season.

“They’re diminishing every day,” Slack said. “You look at unemployment and how long people were off (from work because of stay-at-home orders across the country) … there’s some people who spend their entire vacation here (at Eldora events), and you’ve got to give them time to clean their ships. We’ve got to give people time to make alternate arrangements. There’s a lot … a lot of stuff to consider.

“Our fans bring their glasses and bandanas and masks, and I’m hoping we’re gonna be able to get to a point and have fans here. But it’s definitely going to be different, and it’s definitely going to be different for awhile. Camping’s going to change and that will probably be a nationwide thing. And just the way that you seat people at events … nobody has come up with a definite plan yet.

“Our main grandstand, not including the patio seats up top (three rows), there’s 27 rows of 16 seats (per section). When you social distance them (to separate people in an effort to decrease the chances of spreading the virus), depending on what plan and what guidance you use, that may only be nine rows of three seats.

“When we started talking about this alternative event to run in some sort of fashion, I asked (Jonathan) Davenport about it: ‘How would it feel winning the Dream or the 50th World 100 and there’s 27 people (in a section) in front of you?’” he continued. “We can’t do that to the event and we can’t do that to the fans.”

Slack said people are actually still buying tickets for the Kings Royal and the World 100 even though the track has disclaimers on the website noting the uncertainty of the events. He can’t yet guarantee the speedway will be allowed to operate at full grandstand capacity for those events, though.

“We’re not allowed to have fans right now,” Slack said. “The Department of Health just extended over the weekend the order closing entertainment and stadiums (to spectators) until July 1. The only thing that you’re gonna see in Ohio (in the near future), unless something really changes, is non-spectator events.

“That’s not our business model. Our business model is mass gatherings, and that’s really what it’s been for awhile now. One time Earl (Baltes) had actually talked about turning Eldora into an auto wrecking yard, a junkyard; it was more recent than what people would ever believe. His son-in-law told me that. It wasn’t until the big races started working that Eldora became what it is today. Those big races are what Eldora is about now.

“Fans are gonna have to be patient. None of us are gonna be able to do what we’ve been able to do until there’s a vaccine (for Covid-19) or something else really changes. There’s a reason that this sector of business is going to be the last thing that they allow to open.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to say that there’s anything wrong with what we do,” he added. “I was working on a project (recently) and going through video of the Dream last year, and seeing that and just realizing that there’s not gonna be a crowd (this weekend), and not gonna be crowd reaction … I mean, it brought tears to my eyes.”

But one thought did brighten Slack’s outlook for the Dirt Late Model Stream Invitational.

“I mean, it’s Eldora,” he said. “It’s Late Models at Eldora. It’ll be different (without fans), but it’ll be exciting.”