The Pace Lap - September 2, 2010

- Well, we’re starting to hit what soccer fans call “added time.” For us the encore to the regular season is arguably the “month of money” at the local level. Season point championships are over, or nearly completed and special shows conclude the season. I like that. I’ve never really though much of the end of the points season being the final show at a track. For all but a few racers/fans with vested interest in the final standings, it’s always come off as anti-climactic to me.

- In contrast, the "second season" (or is it the third with the early spring shows) starts this weekend with some noteworthy events. The State Championship races, promoted by Johnny Saathoff kick off the weekend at Beatrice on Friday night, with $1000 to the modified winner and thousands in contingency prizes for racers and fans.

- Farther north, I-80 puts out a top-tier twin-bill with ASCS Sprints and MLRA Super Late Models. Figure 8 racing rounds out the program. Once popular decades ago, figure 8 racing is making a comeback, and more than just a novelty act. A recent article in Circle Track magazine highlights a series composed of reinforced late models, doing serious battle each week. They’ve also added a compact division to the mix as support.

- Speaking of compacts and support classes: WE GET IT, THEY NEED TO BE THERE TO HELP THE BACK GATE AND THE PROMOTER’S BOTTOM LINE! That’s not lost on anyone but the most myopic dolt, so if you think stating that publicly makes you come off as intelligent, well you come off as bragging about climbing a ditch - good for you. Now go pick up your Legos.

- But to that - one thing I think would help overcome some perception as compacts being on the lowest rung of a lengthening ladder of support classes would be to make it different. I’m not suggesting Figure 8’s, but maybe something that the other classes can’t do well - turning right. Hey, when I see compacts strap the two-wheel trailer to the back of the car it came in on and run the trailer race, then why not mix in a right turn?

Places like Eagle and JMS could easily create a pseudo-road course in the infield. Throw a chicane on the straightaway if you didn’t want to do that. Maybe, with a few additions to the safety lights, add a clockwise night to the track, or by race! It can be done and it doesn’t have to be a novelty act or comical.

To those that take offense to the compacts being derided consider that just like any other sport, one is compared to any group doing the same thing you are. Minor leagues vs. major leagues, Nationwide to Sprint Cup, pro vs. amateur, slowest to fastest. If you’re all running on the same track, turning left four times, you’ll always be on that pecking order.

Do something different, and you’re in a class by yourself.

- Derision - one team that doesn’t deserve any is the fire & rescue team at any race track. Mostly staffed by eager volunteers, they’re often asked to do much more than just tending to the injured. Many times they serve as brute force to turn over cars, clean up spills, and so on. I’ve been to some tracks whose safety crews have been...sketchy. The groups we see around these parts are first-class.

- Most places (but not all) are wisely taking Saturday night off. Come September the sea of red rules and running against Big Red is a big mistake, unless you want to give the grandstand workers the night off. Eagle is scheduling its Endless Summer event with invite-only races in all their weekly classes featuring former NASCAR star Ken Schrader and a concert by surf-rock veterans Al Jardine and Dean Torrence on Sunday.

Just because I like to nitpick and love verbal vinegar - this is not a makeup of the infamous Beach Boys concert that ended in a deluge nearly two decades ago. The Beach Boys were done with their set and Chicago was lining up to play prior to the rain.

But who am I to complain? I won’t be there anyway. I'm more interested in having 3 straight days where I don't have to be anywhere. Invite only races can be good - sometimes - and 50’s rock just isn’t my thing. Maybe when I realized The Fonz was really just a whiny dude from Manhattan it ruined my view of that decade and it affected my subconscious.

- In a little swipe at Eagle, I-80 promoted its season finale that same night with the line “forget the beach” on their Facebook page. It’s since been removed. Remember at the beginning of the year when there was a conflict between the two tracks over a sprint car date? Former track owner and promoter Craig Kelley mediated a deal between the two, one of the stipulations being that Eagle wouldn’t run a free ticket giveaway special on that night. Remember last year, Eagle’s free ticket giveaway brought an overflow crowd to the speedway right against I-80’s championship night.

Well, I guess Eagle didn’t do a free ticket giveaway....

I guess we all would like to see those famous words from Rodney King, “can’t we all just get along?” take form in the racing world, it seems the reality is more along the lines of Reginald Denny and “Football” Williams.

OK, enough of my half as smart and twice as snarky attempts to sound like Dennis Miller.

- The fact we’re back to jackets and the season’s winding down doesn’t mean we don’t have some fun shows coming. Along with this weekend’s racing, we have Nebraska Cup weekend Sept 11-12 at JMS with a $3K to win ASCS sprint show and the finale at Eagle paying $5K to win. Last year had over 50 sprint cars make the Eagle trip, concluding with a duel between Tony Bruce, Jr. and the late Jesse Hockett which in my opinion was not just the best race of the year, but one of the best I’d seen at Eagle ever as it was slice-and-dice throughout the field.

The Jake Ita memorial takes place Sept. 11&12 at Wavelink Raceway Park if you’d like to take a look at the future stars of the bigger tracks.

And we’re not done! I-80’s Cornhusker Classic has about anything you could want: Sprints, Super Late Models (MLRA, NCRA and SLMR), Modifieds, Motorcycles, stock cars of all varieties stretched over three days. Beatrice finishes off with Octoberfest and JMS concludes with the Cool McCool 100.

There’s plenty of racing left, folks. Bundle up!