Crew member tests positive for COVID-19 after last week’s Ace Speedway race, report says

A crew member for one of the racing teams that participated in last week’s event at Ace Speedway has tested positive for COVID-19, according to Short Track Scene’s Matt Weaver.

Weaver, the website’s founder, said CARS Tour series operator Jack McNelly gave competitors the news Saturday afternoon before this week’s series event at Hickory Motor Speedway in Newton.

According to Weaver, McNelly said the CARS Tour was notified of the positive coronavirus test in the days after the June 6 event in Alamance County. McNelly did not give the name of the person who tested positive, but Weaver said CARS series officials told him it was one of the racing team’s crew members.

There is no race this weekend at Ace Speedway after an Alamance County judge ruled Thursday that it had to temporarily close. That ruling came after Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, sued Ace Speedway and its owner-operators Robert and Jason Turner on Wednesday, seeking a temporary restraining order to restrict racing at the track.

The department wants the speedway to abide by Gov. Roy Cooper’s reopening plan, now in Phase Two, which limits gatherings to 10 people indoors and 25 outdoors.

On each of the past three Saturdays (May 23rd and 30th and June 6th) Ace Speedway had racing, with the stands nearly full of spectators, few of them wearing masks. A reporter at last week’s event estimated there were at least 2,000 fans in attendance.

This story was originally published June 13, 2020 at 6:20 PM.