Junior Animal main event winner Ava Rollins poses for a photo on Victory Lane, atop her racecar at Roy Hayer Memorial Speedway in Rio Linda on Oct. 11 for the fall festival and Auston McClernon Day.

 

RIO LINDA, CA (MPG) - As the smell of barbecue and gasoline fills the air at Roy Hayer Memorial Speedway in Rio Linda on Oct. 11 and 12, more than 40 cars go around California’s only dirt quarter midget track for an exhibition race. The race honored Capitol Quarter Midget Association graduate Auston McClernon, who unexpectedly died in May. 

Jim Paniagua, a 78-year-old Rio Linda resident of more than 35 years, said he started racing at Rio Linda’s quarter midget track in 1958 when he was 12 years. Paniagua said that he met McClernon’s father, Mitch McClernon, 57, about 20 years ago when their children raced each other. 

“Mitch was our track foreman. He was out here. 
He took care of the track, dug it up and made it raceable,” Paniagua said. “And then even after (the McClernon family) got out, for two years, he was still involved.”

Special plaques and trophies were made honoring Auston McClernon and also Denny Cochrane, a Capitol Quarter Midget Association graduate who died from a battle with cancer in 2006, Paniagua said. He said that Cochrane was his grandson and, according to his obituary, was 33 years old. 

At Roy Hayer Memorial Speedway for Auston McClernon Day on Oct. 11 racers circle the track for an exhibition race during the Fall Festival over Oct. 11 and 12 in Rio Linda, hosted by the Capitol Quarter Midget Association.

Paniagua said that he helped Mitch McClernon obtain parts to repair a car during a race and that they have been friends ever since. Everyone is like family at the track, according to Paniagua.

“Every day, there’s family. Rob (Becher) is one. He’s the president of the club,” Paniagua said, “and he does so much for this place. Him and his son, his son preps the track. They’re out here from Wednesday to Sunday night working all the time.”

Paniagua has sponsored multiple cars throughout the years and was sponsoring a 16-year-old quarter midget racer in her final year of the sport. He has been sponsoring this racer since she was 7 years old, Paniagua said.

Brian Wamsley, a 62-year-old Orangevale resident, said his children raced about 12 to 14 years ago and that it was nice to see family traditions still being built, as he reminisced about fond memories from the track. 

For three years, said Mitch McClernon, a Jackson resident, the Roy Hayer Memorial Speedway was poised to be closed down and redeveloped but multiple attempts to petition that motion allowed the track to remain. He said help from local NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon kept the track alive, paying legal fees with the revenue from donated sports memorabilia by the local legend.

Racer Chase Baldwin prepares for the final event of Saturday’s races on Oct. 11 in Rio Linda at Roy Hayer Memorial Speedway for the Fall Festival.

“I was one of the people that got together and held the fight to keep this track here,” Wamsley said. “So I feel honored to be a part of that group. That’s the legacy that I feel like that we’re leaving here and it’s going to be here long after I’m gone.” 

Mitch McClernon said he was originally from Sacramento and has had many fond memories at Roy Hayer Memorial Speedway, adding that community bonding was the key to what made weekends at the track fun for his family. 

“I’m very honored today,” Mitch McClernon said, “that (Capitol Quarter Midget Association) is giving this tribute to my son. It was more than racing. It was about that bond that we’d build. We’d have barbecues and family events out here. The racing was fun but the bond that we made between the families, those are memories that I’ll hold forever.”

Mitch McClernon said that he helped bring the Quarter Midget Dirt Grand Nationals to the West Coast for the first time in 2010, holding the national event in Rio Linda two more times; one in 2012 and another in 2015. He said 200 to 300 cars would compete throughout a week-long race.

Two weekends per month for nine years, Mitch McClernon said, he spent time racing with his family. He is the owner of McClernon Grading and Excavating, a frequent and impactful donor to the Capitol Quarter Midget Association. 

Wamsely said that he and Mitch McClernon, friends for about 30 years, was asked during a casual fishing expedition if he wanted to get into racing quarter midgets. He said that conversation turned into the purchase of two racecars and that the rest was history. 

Multiple volunteers stop a race to find some part that fell off a racecar midway through the event on Oct. 11. Roy Hayer Memorial Speedway was the location of the Fall Festival, the last exhibition event of the season, getting racers some extra seat time before February.

Wamsley said his son was 8 and his daughter was 14 when they started actively racing until 2012.

In some cases, racers are driving cars nearly three times as old as them, as Mitch McClernon said that some racecars are about 30 years old and they are still competing. 

Paniagua said that when Monster Jam was held at the Arco Arena before its demolition, the Capitol Quarter Midget Association would hold exhibition races in between events, bringing about 20 cars to race approximately 15 laps  more than once if time permitted. 

“Some people might not know this racetrack is still here,” Paniagua said.

Exhibition events were a great way to recruit new drivers, Paniagua said, but now the word is spread mostly through social media. 

“You don’t have to have brand new equipment to come out here and have fun and be competitive,” Mitch McClernon said. “The dirt’s forgiving.”

Racers and their families decorated their trailers or campers for Halloween and trick-or-treated with each other after racing. Paniagua said that youth would get to carve pumpkins, adding to the Halloween festivities. He said that the Capitol Quarter Midget Association would provide ribs for a family cookout and everyone else brings side dishes.

A racer sits in his car, propped up by the help of numerous volunteers, attaching a part that fell from the young racer’s car midway through an event at Roy Hayer Memorial Speedway on Oct. 11. The racer was able to finish the event.

With the quarter midget season officially over for the year, opportunities for seat time at the Capitol Quarter Midget Association’s Arrive and Drive events are expected to take place in the offseason. Two or more sessions might be made available, weather permitting Paniagua said. Arrive and Drive events allow participants to drive 20 laps for $20 in a real racecar that has a few minor modifications for safety, such as a kill switch to cut power to the motor. 

Mitch McClernon said there will also be a swap meet before or at the beginning of the quarter midget season in February. 

To learn more about the Capitol Quarter Midget Association, how to donate or volunteer, visit http://www.capitolqma.com or its Facebook page to follow along with events such as races and Arrive and Drives at https://www.facebook.com/capitolquartermidgetassociation.

To learn about the American Quarter Midget Association in Rancho Cordova, visit https://www.aqma.us/ or its Facebook page to follow along with events such as races and Arrive and Drives at https://www.facebook.com/aqma.org.