Grand debut: Valley raceway now part of NASCAR nation

BUTTE — The 49th state has officially become the newest member of NASCAR nation.

Alaska Raceway Park, which opened over 50 years ago as a drag racing facility, debuted a new, one-third mile paved oval Saturday night in front of a packed horsepower-hungry crowd.

It also signaled a bright future of motor racing in Alaska that could see heights previously unseen in the state, and that’s not including the 6,398-foot Pioneer Peak that looms large over the impressive facility.

“It’s exciting, it’s neat to bring the NASCAR brand to the track and increase our footprint,” said NASCAR Director of Weekly Racing Operations Kevin Nevalainen, who was on hand Saturday to witness the opening night of racing. “The power of the brand of NASCAR and Alaska, it creates a buzz, it creates an interest.”

Nevalainen works closely with short tracks at the regional level of NASCAR racing, which includes the Whelen All-American series that Alaska Raceway Park will be participating in.

Alaska Raceway Park is the 60th track across the nation — and the third this year — to become NASCAR-sanctioned in the Home Tracks program, giving it the right to host events under the NASCAR banner and to dole out points for series such as the Whelen All-American, which crowns track and state champions at the conclusion of the racing season each year. Some states have multiple tracks that combine to decide a state champion, but each venue awards its own track championship to the best driver who earns the most points at the end of the year.

Each venue decides which category or division of race cars will race for its official championship. Most tracks across the nation feature late models as their premier division, and so will Alaska Raceway Park.

Because Alaska Raceway Park is the only speedway in Alaska to compete under NASCAR sanction, it will serve to crown a track and state champion each year, and the winner will make a trip to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the season-ending banquet, where he will receive a check and the trophy. The additional exposure is another bonus.

With the inclusion of Alaska Raceway Park, Nevalainen said the number of U.S. states with NASCAR-certified tracks rises to 28. Additionally, four Canadian provinces — Alberta, Quebec, Ontario and Newfoundland — also host NASCAR events.

“It’s a good foundation,” Nevalainen said. “It can only go up from where it is.”

Although Alaska Raceway Park is the newest track to become NASCAR-sanctioned, it isn’t the first. The now defunct North Star Speedway, a shorter paved oval just off of Trunk Road in Wasilla, briefly held events under the NASCAR banner from its arrival in 1997 through 2001. The track closed in 2012.

The shuttering of North Star helped play an integral role in the creation of the new oval at Alaska Raceway Park.

The track is the brainchild of 76-year-old Earl Lackey and racing partner and friend Dana Pruhs, owner of Pruhs Construction. The two men realized local drivers from Anchorage and the Valley needed a place to race, and fans needed an outlet to unleash their passion.

“Dad’s been talking for years about this,” said Michelle Maynor, Lackey’s daughter. “It’s been a lot of everything wrapped up in it, and it’s really cool.”

Most of the Lackey family helps in the upkeep of the facility, and Maynor, who resides in Fairbanks as owner of Interior Graphics and Printing. Maynor makes regular trips south to lend a hand in the management of the place.

“When North Star closed, it left a demand for racing, and we have racers with the time and energy tied up in funds that didn’t have anywhere to go,” Maynor said. “For people to not race here, it was tough.”

More than 18 months ago, Lackey and Pruhs began designing the track, and with Pruhs providing infrastructure support, the idea became reality.

“Earl and everyone has really done a great job of putting it together,” Nevalainen said.

Originally from Wisconsin, the Lackey family moved up to the Last Frontier in 1983 and settled in the Valley, where they quickly discovered Alaska Raceway Park. Back then, it went by the name Polar Dragway. The drag strip was opened on Labor Day weekend 1964.

The Lackey family purchased the drag strip in 1994, and it has been sanctioned by the International Hot Rod Association since 1995.

However, Earl Lackey isn’t one to operate from the cozy confines of the scoring tower. He can often be seen pulling a turbine jet dryer around on his ATV during caution periods at the races to blow dirt and debris off the asphalt, and before the action starts, he trusts his yellow 2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlo to get him back and forth between the tower and pit area to keep things moving, and his wife Karen keeps traffic flowing in and out from her station at the parking entrance.

The new one-third mile oval, which features a laser-perfected paving job as smooth as a billiards table and corners that are progressively banked — meaning the steepness of the banking increases from the bottom to the top, from four to 12 degrees — has already earned its accolades after one weekend.

“It’s by far the best paved track I’ve run on,” said veteran racer Mike Thomas, who swept the Legends car races Saturday in his red and white No. 5 ride.

Thomas staged a thrilling duel with fellow local racer Willie Creech, driver of the No. 8 Legends car, throughout the night. In the 30-lap feature event, the two drivers twice collided while racing for the lead, with Creech getting spun out in both instances. In the end, Thomas held on for the victory.

Thomas has raced since 1997, and with multiple winning trophies to his name — including the Alaska State point championship in 1999, 2003 and 2007 — the Palmer resident knows a thing or two about racetracks. Thomas has also competed on the quarter-mile ovals at places such as Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Elko Speedway in Minnesota and Southern National Motorsports Park near Kenley, North Carolina.

“Bar none, this is the best,” Thomas said. “My hats off to them.”

Another winner Saturday night, Jason Jefferson of Naches, Washington, praised the facility, which now stands as one of the biggest tracks in the state with an infield of 4.1 acres.

“It’s one of the nicest local short tracks in the country,” Jefferson said.

Jefferson, who capped a sweep of the races in the Late Model division Saturday in Palmer racer Andy Workman’s blue No. 8 machine with a dominant victory in the 50-lap feature, is a regular racer in the Pacific Northwest and has captured track championships at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Washington. Jefferson was visiting Alaska for the first time and filled in for Workman, who is recovering from a shoulder injury.

Jefferson’s brother Jeff is a team owner in the NASCAR K&N Pro West series, a lower-level stock car division geared towards developing young talent for the big leagues. The series races primarily in West Coast states like California, Arizona, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. Jason is a race winner in the series as well, picking up a checkered flag in Washington state in 2003.

Jefferson said a series like the Pro West division could easily gain a following at Alaska Raceway Park, once the logistical hurdle of transporting racing equipment is cleared.

“Absolutely, I know some people in NASCAR, and we’ve just got to get them up here,” Jefferson said. “If this (track) were in the (lower 48) states, it would be way popular.”

In the Baby Grand division, Alex Schwochert piloted his No. 11 ride to the win in the opening heat, but Dave Elliott Jr. got the better of Schwochert in the four-lap trophy dash and the 30-lap feature. Elliott Jr., driving the No. 81, avoided a spinning Schwochert on the final lap of the trophy dash to win.

In order to bring a larger, more competitive series up to Alaska, the state points championship will have to be further developed to bring greater exposure to the facility, Nevalainen said.

“The focus and commitment is on the track level,” Nevalainen said. “The key for the track is to develop drivers and for the community to work with the track.”

One thing the track has working in its favor are the jaw-dropping views. Nevalainen pointed out the rather unique feature of the facility as a big draw.

“You see people tweet about it online and talk about it because of the scenery,” Nevalainen said, referring to several nationwide articles that highlight the attractiveness of the location. “It’s so unique.”

With the evening sunshine casting its warm glows on the magnificent Pioneer Peak, wrapped in green at the bottom and topped with white, misty clouds at the peak, the backdrop to the racetrack is like no other in the country.

“Where we’re situated here in Butte, we have the amazing facility and the recreation of the (Knik) River,” Maynor said. “We have the ability to be the motorsports capital of Alaska.”