The Pace Lap - June 4, 2010

- This week Rhonda Bryan announced that for personal reasons, she'll no longer be organizing the annual Kid's Day event at Eagle Raceway. The event, noted for the bike giveaway in which the track matches a portion of the donated total, has gained local and national renown and last year, set a record for most bikes given away with 354 total, despite a down economy.

This is not only a big event for the track, but a big one for Rhonda, Bernie and Nick Bryan personally. It must have taken a lot to let this go. Fortunately they have left this in very capable hands as Gary Dominguez will assume duties as event organizer this year. Gary is no stranger to getting racers together for a cause, as the founder of the annual Midwest Racers Autograph Day. Gary stepped back from organizing/managing duties a few years ago, but his close relationship with the track (he provides and drives the pace car) as well as his relationship with the racing community and local businesses is reassuring that this tradition's success will continue.

- Last week's ASCS Midwest races had a somber tone to them as fellow competitor Jesse Hockett died the previous Wednesday as the result of a freak accident while working on his trailer. Most drivers ran tribute stickers to Hockett, provided by I-80 track photographer Brandon Anderson. Some, including Brian Brown and Jack Dover, ran Hockett's #77 on their cars as a tribute.

But the most poignant moment came on Friday night at Junction Motor Speedway as Hockett's close friend Billy Alley led the A feature parade lap. Billy did Hockett's on-the-gas style of driving justice as he raced from 13th to finish fifth. Ryan Roberts scored his first career ASCS win with a dominating performance over Thursday night I-80 winner Shane Stewart.

- In contrast with the meat-locker-like temperatures the greeted the ASCS shows the last time they were here last week's shows saw beautiful clear skies and warm, upper 80's temperatures.

Each time I've been to Junction Motor Speedway, the track just seems like it will be a disaster initially as dust clouds during hotlaps usually besiege the racers. But in most cases, the track stays together pretty well as touches of water between events keep the surface racy. Friday night gave one of the better tracks I've seen this season and possibly the only real two-groove track I've seen this year. It was an excellent surface all night. Credit Delmar Friesen and crew.

Both nights featured plenty of passing, especially late in the race.

- From the food department, I will also give JMS credit. The $1.50 Fairbury Brand "big boy" hotdog is a heck of a deal. Some tracks are charging $2-2.50 for some human-flesh-colored, grade-S sausage. The JMS offering is a nice option to have for the budget-conscious fan.

- I only have one gripe: your posted start time is not a guideline, it's a deadline. I'll write more about that later.

The JMS show started nearly 45 minutes late. The nice track was probably the silver lining around that cloud, and I'm not sure but the delay may have been intentional to save the track but 45 minutes is 45 minutes. That's a lot of time. If you want to wait for the sun to go down, then start at 7:30. Yes, it was nice, it was Friday, but that show could've been finished by 10PM given the modest car counts in the support classes. But, it's the only issue I have and I really didn't notice it until after the checkers flew. The show was wrapped up by 11 and we were back in Lincoln before midnight.

- Trevor Grossenbacher is your current point leader in the NCRA Sprint Division. Trevor is expected to skip Saturday's show at Eagle and make the trip to the NCRA race in Mayetta, KS. I'll be curious to see how many other Eagle "regulars" make the relatively short trip south.

- Johnny Saathoff won the feature on the last lap last Saturday after coming from the B feature. Saathoff dazzled a crowd estimated at 8,000 as he dueled defending track champ Jordan Grabouski.

The huge crowd was thanks to a ticket giveaway promotion by Roger Hadan in which he distributed tickets to drivers (and not all of them). The experiment he tried last year seems to work.

- It's Fan & Driver Appreciation at I-80 this Sunday as the gates will be opened up for Free Admission. Last year's event saw a near capacity crowd and like Eagle, justified doing it again.

I'll talk more about free nights in an upcoming piece. I've covered it once...but this editorial will look at the value these promotions bring. Exposure is just one part.

That's enough for one sitting. Enjoy the races wherever you go this weekend!

Jason