Marysville CA.  The quarter-mile clay oval on Simpson Lane has gone through a nearly complete overhaul this winter.

A new name, new promoter, new attractions and a newly reconfigured race track will greet race fans when the 2007 season kicks off on March 17.

The speedway is now called Marysville Raceway Park and Paul Hawes, 52, took over as the new promoter on Jan. 1. Raceway Park 2007 Schedule

Hawes, who owns and operates H&H Trenching, is a name with which most Yuba-Sutter race fans should be familiar. He raced for 35 years at the Marysville track and currently owns a three-car wingless sprint car team, one of which is driven by his son, Jeremy Hawes.

And though Paul Hawes is quite familiar with the operations of a race track, he said taking on the role of promoter will be a lot of work with some headaches involved.

“I’m too busy right now to be anything but apprehensive,” he said about the upcoming season. “It’s a huge load. My wife will manage the day-to-day operations and it’s going to be an interesting challenge. .... Having to deal with different people and their expectations is going to be a challenge.”

Hawes dug in right away when taking over as promoter and one of the first things he accomplished was changing the lay of the track.

“We widened the track, made the corners a single angle instead of a compound angle and added 100 loads of clay to the surface to deepen it,” Hawes said.

Early tests on the track have gone well for a variety of cars, including midgets and .410 sprint cars.

“Basically, it’s fast and it’s smooth and we’re hoping for a lot of side-by-side racing,” Hawes said.

Only one new class has been added to the schedule, and Hawes said the division should add excitement and even a little humor to break up the tension that builds on race night.

The Extreme Bombers, a class of inexpensive race cars that will make 12 appearances, and will have different kinds of tasks to complete every race night.

“We’ll have two people in the car, one using the steering wheel and the gas pedal and the other has the brakes,” Hawes said. “Each week they may have to bump another car to pass, race in reverse, race over a jump and we’ll have some surprise for them every week. It’s pretty popular back east as an entry level for racing. While it’s not pure like a sprint car race, it has broad appeal to a wider group of people. It’s more mayhem.”

Hawes said the division finale - the annual Marysville Bomber Regatta and RV Demo - will be held on Oct. 13. The cars will race 100 laps with a camp trailer or boat on a trailer attached to their vehicles.

“That’s a real mess,” Hawes said.

The March 17 opener - the Spring Taxi Cab Open - will feature late models/modifieds, stocks and mini-stocks. The Spring Open Wheel Open will be held March 24 featuring the .360 Pacific sprints, wingless sprints, dwarf cars and sprint 100s.

The BRCA Midget Lites make one appearance on June 2, and the Dwarf Car Nationals will be held Sept. 28-30. The popular California Sprint Car Civil War Series will make three appearances - on April 14, July 7 and Sept. 22.

The first points race will be held April 7.

Hawes said the track will also feature computerized scoring for the first time in an effort to end races earlier.
“Little kids can’t handle it if we run to 11 p.m. or midnight. They fall apart,” he said. “Our goal is to have everything done by 9:30 or 10. If people want to hang out with the racers in the pits, they have the opportunity, or if people want to go home, they have that opportunity.”

Every Thursday night throughout the season, the track will host a Test & Tune session for any car, regardless of what track they race at.

Friday nights will belong to the go-carts, a feature rain washed away last spring, but gets under way with gusto this year.
For more information, including race schedules, visit http://www.marysvilleracewaypark.com.

Appeal-Democrat reporter Justin Miller can be reached at 749-4796. You may e-mail him at jmiller@appealdemocrat.com