RACING IS LIFE
PHOTO ESSAY
An end to waiting
In the 1971 film Le Mans, Steve McQueen famously said: “Racing is life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.” As COVID-19 spread around the globe and became a bona fide pandemic, racing in every form came to a halt. Races were canceled one at a time, then entire months were cut from series’ schedules. But the world can only wait so long. Competition is born of the human desire to strive for excellence, and we get so much joy from watching this talent get expressed. This is one of the reasons advertisers, sponsors, and manufacturers invest millions in all kinds of two-wheeled competition, and why fans, waiting for that escape from selfquarantine, isolation, and social distancing, were desperate to see racing resume.
When it finally did—mostly without fans, and with only those personnel essential to run race operations and teams— we felt a small piece of shared human experience return. Masks and face shields are the latest mandatory safety equipment on the track and in the paddock. As uncomfortable and inconvenient as they may be, not racing is more painful. So, the wait is over. Following are scenes from racing during the pandemic, a strange, almost otherworldly landscape unlike we have seen in modern times.
Justin Dawes
