Some good news, the Kern County Dept. of Health representative responded to my email (sent Friday afternoon) late yesterday (Saturday) indicating that the COVID-19 Compliance plan that was resubmitted was finally approved. I still have a conference call with Kern County Parks & its agencies tomorrow at 11:30 a.m.
Race teams, we understand your frustration with this situation, we are frustrated as well but there's more going on than just the race and I'd like to take this opportunity to explain:
SCSC can't sustain a big financial hit, given that we've had no races (other than sanctioning the Burley Regatta) and while our expenses have continued, especially our annual racing insurance policy which we had to enact when SCSC sanctioned the Burley Regatta. coupled with the fact that we haven't had any races, especially Long Beach, which as most of you know plays a crucial part in keeping SCSC financially healthy, we need this race to happen. Sponsorships are down as well due to the fact we haven't had any races so that income that plays a vital role in helping SCSC hasn't been there and for Bakersfield, we hope our current sponsors will continue to support us.
Next, cancelling the Bakersfield race won't solve this financial issue as the club has already made two payments totally just under $10K and owes another two more prior to the end of the year so I/we are asking you to consider the financial ramification that club will be put in should we lose money producing the 2020 National Championships.
We know that the masks and other restrictions aren't ideal, far from it but at the end of the day we will be racing, with our family/friends (i.e.: crew members) and hopefully keep our sport alive. I can assure you that these restrictions continue into 2021, SCSC will plan to race elsewhere as three weeks ago, we had finalized approval and no restrictions other than no spectators.
Thanks for your consideration and understanding and I hope to see you at the races!
I will post the results of my conference call tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Ross Wallach, Race Director/President
SCSC