In keeping with so many other forms of motorsports, SCORE today announced the postponement of this weekend’s SCORE San Felipe 250 due to the international COVID-19 health emergency. A new date of May 9 has been announced for the popular race, which takes places each year on the shores of Baja’s Sea of Cortez in the small town of San Felipe.

The news comes as a surprise to many, as just last week SI’s Roger Norman told RACER that the event would take place as scheduled. Many racers are already in the San Felipe area pre-running the planned race course, and SCORE had taken additional measures to ensure participants could compete without holding the mandatory Driver’s Meeting or Technical Inspection, both of which draw huge crowds.

According to a statement released by SCORE International, Mexico’s Federal Government issued a national decree of safe distancing to be in effect from March 23 through April 19, and mandated the rescheduling or canceling of all non-essential events of 5,000 people or more in the entire country of Mexico.

Additionally, SCORE has announced a date change for the 52nd SCORE Baja 500 race week from June 3-7 to June 16-21.

“In order to provide teams with as much time as possible to prepare between races, we have also rescheduled this year’s SCORE Baja 500,” stated Jose A. Grijalva, SCORE President/Race Director. “We sincerely appreciate the patience, support and understanding from all of our racers and sponsors as well as the coordination with Mexican Federal, State and Municipal authorities. (Given) the circumstances that have impacted day-to-day activities around the World, SCORE International has determined that these changes are the best options for everyone involved.”

No official word yet as to the Mexican government’s travel restrictions altering plans for next month’s Yokohama NORRA Mexican 1000, but if these dates are correct, NORRA would also have to reschedule its premiere event by just a week at this point.