Raceway promoter uses bus races, garbage truck jumps to attract new business.

BY TODD HENRICHS / Lincoln Journal Star

Roger Hadan knew he had to take some chances.

Attendance at Eagle Raceway had waned in some eyes over recent seasons, and the track’s owner said he would close the facility unless someone stepped forward to operate the track.

Hadan, Eagle’s offseason savior, had plenty of ideas of how to get fans to the racetrack on Saturday nights. Only, some of those ideas didn’t set well with long-time fans, folks he couldn’t necessarily afford to chase away while trying to drum up new business.

“They were dead set that Eagle was not to become a circus,” Hadan said this week. “But I think we’ve got to do whatever it takes to put people in the seats.”

As Eagle’s season winds down — only two points nights remain — there is no big top over the familiar dirt oval east of Lincoln. There have been some great feature races in the perennial sprint and modified divisions.

Yet 2006 might be remembered

locally as the year of the gimmick. Jumping garbage trucks, wacky trailer races and school buses driving three abreast with red lights flashing and stop arms extended are just some of the things promoters have tried to entertain those fans in attendance and draw others to the track for the first time.

“I think in our case, it does bring a new person into the stands,” Hadan said. “A lot of times, that’s a younger person just looking for excitement, something out of the norm.”

The bus races have proven to be the most popular of the gimmicks. The last bus races of the season are Saturday at Eagle Raceway with a new twist. The buses will follow a figure-eight formation for the first time, setting the stage for some interesting meetings in the middle of the track.

Getting ahold of school buses to race hasn’t been as difficult as Hadan thought. After first scanning the Internet and searching salvage yards for bright yellow rattletraps, Hadan has relied of word of mouth to find buses of late.

The drivers, he said, are the real key. Hadan’s son, Chevy, has lined up friends, many of whom are fellow racers, to put on a show for the fans.

“They are having so much fun doing it that they’ve stopped driving their other cars,” Roger Hadan said. “You’ve got to have the right people doing the driving.”

Hadan wouldn’t say that any of his gimmicks have flopped this season, but that some have been more popular than others.

Fans I witnessed after the garbage truck jump seemed to be shaking their heads at the idiocy of the travelling stuntman behind the wheel than mesmerized by the stunt itself.

Yet, Hadan said he’s been amazed to see drivers and crew members crowd up against the fence to watch events. Fans who otherwise race to get the jump on traffic out of Eagle on a normal race night stayed to the very end of the season’s first bus race.

And promoters are doing their best to promote their gimmicks. Hadan scheduled the garbage truck jump for the night that Eagle hosted the United States Modified Touring Series.

I-80 Speedway near Greenwood had trailer races the night of its Huskerland Non-Wing Nationals.

For Hadan, the concept stems from events he watched at Sunset Speedway in the 1970s.

“It kind of got lost in the shuffle through the years,” Hadan said.

Looking ahead, Hadan said Thursday that there is “a good chance” he’ll buy the track before next season, but even if he doesn’t, he is moving full-speed ahead with plans to operate the track again in 2007.

As far as racing divisions, Hadan says fans can expect the same lineup next year. In addition, he hopes to stage a concert and a comedy show at the track featuring well-known entertainers.

He’s even working with a national company — take a guess — that would promote a race of big brown trucks.

“It’s what it takes to get people in the seats,” Hadan said.

Reach Todd Henrichs at 473-7439 or thenrichs@journalstar.com.