INDIANAPOLIS — According to several media outlets from our neighbors up north, Toronto’s mayor, John Tory, made an announcement on Friday that he is canceling all major events in the city through August 31.

“It is with deep regret that we are forced to extend the cancellation of large festivals to continue to stop the spread of COVID-19 and save lives,” said the mayor on Friday. “Special events and festivals are critical to the livability, vitality and economic success of Toronto, and that is why we are launching the Cultural Festivals Recovery Program to ensure that when we defeat COVID-19, these festivals can return safely and contribute to Toronto’s economic recovery.”

According to most lists, they have canceled all permits for large events that would run through August 31. According to several news sources in Toronto, that list includes Salsa on St. Clair, Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, Toronto Triathon, a jazz festival and the Honda Indy Toronto.

No one was supposed to hold an event with more than 250 people at least through the end of July and none of over 25k through the end of August. The NTT IndyCar Series race would obviously fall between those figures, meaning it would be difficult to run in front of fans, if at all.

So, on Friday afternoon, the track issued a statement that the race in July was off.

Part of that is, you have to have the track constructed before hand and with extreme social distancing measures being taken, how can you get enough people in place here soon to start the build. That’s why it’s unfortunately not at all surprising to see this race get canned for July. Racing in Toronto two months from now looked bleak anyways.

The series started going to the Exhibition Place circuit in 1986. They remained there every year through 2007. In 2008, the race took a break due to the reunification of Champ Car and IndyCar. The series was back in 2009 and has been coming ever since — until now.

It was going to be hard to get all of the teams and drivers across the US-Canada border in July anyways, so all the logistical nightmares are evaded for this season.

While the race is off, it’s not canceled as track officials have confirmed that they are working with INDYCAR to find a date later in the season. There’s a gap in October if they are to make it work between Indy (Oct. 3) and St. Pete (Oct. 25).