Back on track

James Shepherd pulled up to the place his brother adored so much and simply said "wow."

There were the racers lining up for the checkered flag tribute lap. There were the paint jobs and decals paying respects. There were the ever-present fans wearing shirts in his brother's honor — white Ts with Merle Allen Shepherd Jr.'s picture emblazoned above the message "Race On!"

"This park … yeah," he said as his voice trailed off. "This was his love."

Dark for more than a month after the first fatality in its 42-year history, Marysville Raceway Park roared back Saturday night. The quarter-mile clay track off Simpson Lane in Linda reopened to the largest field of cars and the largest crowd of the year.

Three champions were crowned, 90 cars turned full-speed laps and one marriage proposal was accepted. Pro-4 sprint driver Joel Giusti kicked-off the evening by putting a ring on Megan Ronald's finger, then had one of the track's first "that's racing" moments in five weeks when he blew his motor in a heat race.

The event marked the first time the facility held a show since the death of Merle Allen Shepherd Jr. on Aug. 14. Shepherd, 56, was an official at the track and was competing in MRP's inaugural big rig race when his turquoise semi became tangled with another truck and flipped over in the infield.

After the wreck, track promoter Paul Hawes considered closing the track for good, but the sheer outpouring of the racing community helped motivate him to reopen the doors for two additional races this season, he said. So he went all out, including hauling in 40 truck loads of clay and spending two weeks grooming the racing surface.

And in the eyes of Shepherd's brother, who was visiting from Port Orford, Ore., it's exactly what Merle would like to see.

"(Closing down) is not what my brother would have wanted," James Shepherd said. "All we did was race."

So starting with hot laps at 6:45 p.m. and continuing on past the Appeal-Democrat's publication deadline, the exhaust notes from Pacific 360 Sprints, wingless sprints, super stocks, mini stocks and Pro-4 sprint cars filled the Yuba County sky.

PJ Petersen of Sacramento scorched the Pro-4 field and claimed the division's championship to cap a season where his black No. 5 was continually out front. Korey Lovell clinched his fifth overall Pacific 360 title with far less effort. With such a commanding lead, the Yuba City racer could not be caught in the final two races. Marysville Raceway Park will have one final event on Oct. 9.

Despite the truncated season, all five of MRP's regular classes are awarding titles.

That includes Misty Castleberry, who was easily the most dominant driver of the year in her No. 95 mini stock. The Brownsville-based driver won 10 races in-a-row over the spring and early summer and simply had to the start her division's main event to clinch her second-straight title. Naturally, the "greedy" driver "wanted to win," but instead was stricken with mechanical issues and didn't finish.

Still, she, like many others, was just happy to be back out at the races.

"I could not sleep last night," she said. "It's been five long weeks."