The People's Convoy plans to leave Hagerstown Speedway to protest bills in California

The People’s Convoy encamped at Hagerstown Speedway for most of March is leaving to return to California, at least temporarily, organizer Mike Landis announced Sunday night.

The group has used the speedway as a staging area for nearly daily trips by a parade of big rigs, cars and campers to the Washington, D.C., area to protest mandates meant to control COVID-19 and seek a repeal of the pandemic state of emergency.

During a livestream of its nightly rally Sunday, Landis read off a list of strict COVID-control measures that he said were pending in California.

“These 10 bills that I just read are up for a vote next week in California,” he said. “To me, they are the reason that we are here.

“I think stopping those is more important at this point in time than getting the emergency declaration repealed because that’s already in place and we need to stop stuff like these bills from getting in place,” Landis said, “Otherwise, the rest of us that don’t live in California are going to end up subject to the same situation.”

Landis did not announce a timetable for the group’s departure from the speedway, but invited willing participants to convoy at 6 a.m. Monday to a rally in Harrisburg, Pa., and said “then we’re going to start packing up and heading west.”

He hinted that the group might return.

“We’re not done here,” Landis said. “We’ll go to California and raise awareness along the way and hopefully get more people like we did on our way here.

“And then, once we stop this, we’ll come back to finish this job.”

The crowd cheered Landis’ announcement and no one spoke up when he asked if there were any objections.

Earlier:People's Convoy faces April 7 deadline to vacate Hagerstown Speedway, seeks new area base

More:Ted Cruz joins the People's Convoy on Thursday

The Northeast Convoy began rolling into the speedway on March 3, joined by The People's Convoy that arrived from California the next day. The group occupied the main parking area at the front and west side of the speedway at the main entrance until last week.

Hagerstown Speedway General Manager Lisa Plessinger said Wednesday that having the group in the main part of the facility hadn't been a problem while the speedway was still closed for the season, but the convoy had to move everything to a roughly equal-sized space at the other side of the speedway that wasn't needed just yet to make room for Saturday's season-opening race.

The convoy was required to vacate the facility entirely by April 7, Plessinger said, so the speedway staff would have time to prepare for when the entire 56-acre facility is needed for the Lucas Oil Late Models race scheduled for April 9.

In a separate interview Wednesday, Landis had said the group had been looking for an alternate base of operations with easy access to the D.C. area, but that nothing had been decided at that time.