Reason For Optimism Part Two: Better Late Than Never

The motorsports calendar has been flipped over the last few days and a lot of events we were looking forward to seeing have been pushed back. Some events have been outright cancelled but the good news is many series have made contingency plans or are working on some for other events.

The big one was the 12 Hours of Sebring. Originally scheduled for this weekend, Sebring has been moved back to November 14th. The race has become famous for its mid-March date, right at the start of spring, months before the 24 Hours of Le Mans and only weeks after the 24 Hours of Daytona. This year will be different with the race now slated to be the finale of the IMSA season, one month after the originally intended finale, Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.

If the race had been cancelled entirely, it would not have been unprecedented. There was no Sebring in 1974 due to the energy crisis. In fact, the first race that is apart of the Sebring canon was on December 31, 1950, a six-hour race. There was no race in 1951 as the race moved to its March date in 1952.

There was room at the end of the year for a rescheduled event and with IMSA already having Sebring booked for that weekend for the Michelin Encore, a four-hour race featuring LMP3, GT3, GT4 cars and TCR cars, it made more sense to scrap that weekend and place the 12-hour weekend there instead. Of course, this November date will not see the FIA World Endurance Championship come for the 1000 Miles of Sebring. It is a loss but at least the 12 Hours of Sebring will not have a blank page in its history book for the year 2020. At least it shouldn't have a blank page unless something pops up between now and then.

One other event hoping to get in later rather than never is Long Beach.

This is trickier as it is a street race and it will require public streets to be closed a second time around. The track was already in the process of being constructed prior to the announced abandonment of hosting said event in the middle of April. That means everything has to be torn down only for it to be built up again. If it takes about three months to build the course and a late-September date is the goal we are talking about construction starting back up again at the end of June, only about two months after everything was put away.

Looking at that schedule I find it hard to believe we will be going to Long Beach this year but there is a determination from Jim Michaelian and his group to make sure the city has a race in 2020. Long Beach has been running for 45 consecutive years. Losing a year would hurt but I am sure it would not be a death blow for the race. I am sure the city will support it returning in 2021.

However, if Long Beach is slotted into late-September there is a possibility this year's race could fall nearly 45 years to the day of the first race. The final Sunday in September is the 27th and the inaugural race at Long Beach was September 28, 1975. As dangerous as nostalgia can be there would be something fitting in seeing a one-off emergency rescheduling of Long Beach fall so close to the anniversary of the first race. Not to mention such a rescheduling would mean Long Beach would likely become the IndyCar season finale, a first for Long Beach and the first time IndyCar has ended the season on a street course since 2003 when Surfers Paradise was the final round of the CART season after the Fontana finale was cancelled due to wildfires.

This Long Beach rescheduling is far from being a reality but it would be a possibility and should it occur it would be better than not having the race at all.

We are already facing a lot of lost events for 2020. IndyCar has lost St. Petersburg and it will likely lose Barber and Austin as well. Formula One has lost Australia and China and it could lose more, including Bahrain, Vietnam, the Netherlands, Spain and Monaco. MotoGP has lost Qatar and it is running out of rain dates for any other events that are delayed from here on out.

The FIA World Endurance Championship has postponed the penultimate round at Spa-Francorchamps, originally scheduled for April 25th but the series is hoping to have a replacement date later down the road. The 24 Hours of Le Mans' fate will be known come April but even Le Mans has been delayed. The 1968 race was delayed until September due to protests throughout the country that spring. The 1936 race was cancelled due to a workers' strike and the race was not held from 1940-48 due to World War II and reconstruction.

We have no clue what the next few weeks or months have in store. We know there are going to be some changes from our usual lives and there could be more changes to come. It seems likely there will be more delays and cancellations. The key thing is not to get too hung up on whether or not an event happens at the scheduled date. Of course, if everything from May 10th onward goes on as schedule that is fantastic news but if Le Mans has to be delayed or if the Indianapolis 500 has to be pushed back it is better these races happen later in 2020 than never happen at all.

Indianapolis is the one race with the least history of delays. It was not held in six years due to world wars but only once was the race moved from Memorial Day weekend and that was in 1986 when rain pushed the race back a week. Despite that the race was still run in May.

This year could be different. Hopefully the 104th Indianapolis 500 takes place on Memorial Day weekend but if it doesn't it will take place at a later date. Remember this is the Indianapolis 500. It is the cash cow for the IndyCar Series. Roger Penske almost needs this race to happen and if it means the race being pushed to the final weekend in June or perhaps July 4th, which would mean some negotiating with the NASCAR schedule but that can be done or pushed to Labor Day weekend in September, which would mean moving the Portland IndyCar race, it will be done.

A lot of things already look different this year and we are not done yet. It is best to prepare for a few delays and not fret too much about it.

(Update: The 24 Hours of Le Mans has been postponed until September 19-20).