The Pace Lap - May 20, 2010

Another weekend out at Eagle (may be my last until June, but we'll see). This week the 10:30 barrier was cracked (with a few minutes head start), despite a longer intermission for the kid's candy grab, a nasty red wreck in the modified A feature and a red flag in the sprints.

- Standing with some Eagle officials before the show, Roger wheeled by on the "Big Wheel" water/pack truck and when the officials asked if there was anything they could do to help, Roger's response was "help me start on time." It seems that checkout processes are speeding up and things are getting a bit to normal. To aid in this, a hard time limit was put on for hot laps, and the hotlap sessions were started on time, but also closed promptly. After repeated announcements, teams started stepping up their pace, and a few late-skaters got left behind. Tracks are starting to get serious about this. I like it.

- The Sport Mods put on a better A feature, and Marty Steinbach rocketed out to two quick restarts to win the race handily. Some kvetching on the message boards ensued, but despite two persistent opinions to the contrary, the general tone was the starts were legal. For the record, having stood in turn three for that race, I agree with those who said the start was clean - it was legit and for as long as I've been at Eagle either sitting in the scorer's booth, or hearing the officials on the radio, that start will always be legit. I didn't hear a peep about that start over the radio.

If there's two things I know the officials watch for on restarts (and despite being the most visible official on the track, it's not just the flagman's call), it's this: brake-checking and guys getting out of line to get runs on the guy in front of them.

- In that vein, one thing I always take to the track for safety reasons and just to keep informed is a small, wide-band receiver radio. Yeah, it's a scanner...but a little different. Most scanners can only receive VHF signals and above. If all you're looking for is a NASCAR listening device you can take to the local track, go with a scanner. If you want to keep up on things but don't want to look like a total uber-nerd (just a minor one), I'd recommend one of these. What's nice is I can listen to not only the racetrack, but also the Raceceivers, the FM broadcast some tracks have and if I want, I can listen to the CB radios between push trucks and over-the-air radio broadcasts. They're pretty cool and in most cases no more expensive than a quality scanner, but fit in a pocket and are Mil-Spec rugged.

Sometimes a lot of the griping done on message boards could be alleviated if you heard what the officials talk about. There's usually more to the story.

- The Nebraska Auto Racing Hall of Fame announced its 2010 class, with lifetimes spanning the entire century. What made me feel old is that I remember when Wayne Lewis was very active on the local scene and Al Humphrey was at his peak.

- Combine this with the Eagle Raceway/Midwest Speedway reunion scheduled for June and people have a great opportunity to look at some interesting open-wheel racing history in this state. I think that these names get lost as the current crop of drivers seem to be hitting stride at younger ages and media platforms like the web, message boards, etc. make them more visible. But young drivers are nothing new - Mario Andretti raced the dirt tracks at 19 and raced in Italy at 13, AJ Foyt started his USAC Career at 21.

- One slightly related, borderline off-topic thing: in my April 19 piece I mentioned that I was really happy with the I-80 pit food, and some of that was as a result of being a little put off by Eagle's fare, at least the last time I was there. I have to say that lately I've been very content with Eagle's food in the pits - food was hot and fresh and the ladies at the counter are really nice. Granted - what does stuffing my maw have to do with racing? Well, it's part of the whole experience. For a lot of people, racing isn't all about what happens on the track.

That's really all I have for this week. Stay safe, everyone!