Optimism on the rise
RACER conducted a third audience survey from May 22 through 24 to gauge whether their sentiment on motorsports amid the COVID-19 pandemic had shifted over the two weeks in between. By this point, all 50 states had begun easing lock-down orders to varying degrees and NASCAR had successfully run three Cup races without an attending audience. Both of these are likely to have influenced the slight shift in sentiment across several questions toward a more optimistic outlook.
Total respondents for the third survey amounted to 2,082 (+443), which was made of up of the same eight questions as the survey concluded on May 10.
Question one about overall outlook on motorsports held mostly steady with 59% of the audience now saying they are as optimistic as ever, a gain of five points. Likewise question five about the feeling toward events occurring without a live audience held mostly steady with 71% agreeing that no audience is better than no racing (+0).
Enthusiasm for Eracing is clearly waning with respondents offering the clearest shift from an initial high of 55% down to 44% presently.
The other significant shift in sentiment occurs on the question of when it would be okay for major series to go racing again. Sixty-four percent now say it’s okay with social distancing, an increase of 37 points from a month ago.
While a simple majority still believe that racing is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic normal this year, those who thought it was likely to slipped by 12 points with many of those shifting over to the less certain “somewhat likely” camp, making this the only question in the survey where confidence showed something of a decline.
The number of those who say they will attend an event in the future has continued to rise steadily now to 61%.
Finally, when it comes to overall sentiment, those who are increasingly optimistic and those who are neutral has virtually leveled off at 40 percent, while those who are increasingly pessimistic has fallen to 20 percent.