The Pace Lap - Fri. April 28, 2006

Each week I’m going to do a piece titled “The Pace Lap.” It will be a review of past races mixed in with some commentary – essentially an editorial that doesn’t focus on just one subject: tidbits, random thoughts and whatnot.

The Pace Lap – Friday April 28, 2006

Opening night troubles, cutting laps, first wins and…

• No matter how many races you run before, it always seems like opening night of weekly racing has plenty of bumps and hiccups. I-80’s Joey Sparano reported that 33 yellow flags bogged down racing action, and the Hobby Stock A feature saw a lap 2 crash that left only eight cars remaining. Eagle Raceway’s opening night saw a smooth but dusty track and good racing until the Modified A feature when James Kleinheksel’s car became scrap after a crash involving him, the wall, and Matt Richards. The Sprint A feature saw six yellow flags in the first four laps and had five laps shaved off to keep races within the 11PM soft curfew.

On the subject…I’m all for cutting laps if things get out of hand. I don’t care what class you are and what race. There’s a point when running more laps just makes the class look worse and it’s bad for the fans. Some message board postings took issue with the call because they felt if time limits became an issue toward the end of the night, the sprints (the last class to run) would always take the hit. I hope and believe that any class that has an excessive number of stoppages will get its laps cut, as stated in the track’s rules (Sec. K, #7). But last Saturday the sprints had their troubles, and they got their laps cut.

Things should straighten out soon though.

• It never occurred to me that Nick Bryan’s Eagle Raceway sprint B feature win was the first time the Lincoln, NE driver was the first across the finish line. It’s nice to see anyone get their first victory, be it a heat race, B feature or the A.

• While on the subject of first wins, Harry Nixon grabbed his first A feature victory in the B-Modified division Saturday night at I-80.

• The first two Hornet/Tuner/Sport Compact/4-Fun races held at Eagle Raceway (the 2005 Fall Jamboree and last Saturday’s race) have been won by women. Lacey Tuttle took last September’s victory with Adrian Dover winning one for the ladies on Saturday.

• Eagle Raceway is starting its specials early. As a show of thanks to the drivers, those who raced Saturday will get free pit admission, and fans get $2 off pit admission on April 29. Also, Roger Hadan told me that he’s sent free admission tickets to the race teams' primary sponsors.

• NASCAR Nextel Cup star Carl Edwards was seen milling about the I-80 pits Sunday in support of his brother Kenny, racing a Grand National Late Model at the Greenwood, NE track this season.

• Scott Wisdom made note that Dave Trauernicht of Beatrice has been racking up the wins. He has five A feature victories this season, including wins at US 30 and Butler County last week. With that in mind, Johnny Saathoff took wins at Beatrice and Thayer County as well. Some things never change...

• On the other hand…Scott Bivens and Bruce Divis have been missing from Eagle’s winner’s circle. It’s been nearly two years for Divis and longer for Bivens. On Saturday both ended the drought, with convincing wins in their A features.

• It was a rough night for the 96kx sprint of Adam Gullion. After the preseason team with Jamey Wiese broke up this month, they had troubles all night, pulling off before they could even take a green flag. Let’s hope Gullion gets the gremlins out soon.


Next week’s Pace Lap may be pretty slow going given the forecast for the weekend but until then, I’ll see you at the track!

-Jason