Raceway promoters: 'We're done for good' after driver's death

The race that killed a driver Saturday will be the final one this year at Marysville Raceway Park — and possibly the last ever.

Half a day after the death of Merle Allen Shepherd Jr. in a crash involving his racing semi-truck Saturday night, the Linda racetrack announced it would cancel the rest of its racing season, which was to continue through Oct. 23.

A message on the raceway's Facebook page Sunday said that due to the accident, "the track is closed for the rest of 2010."

"Our heart and prayers go out to Linda, Little Merle and the whole racing family who knew and loved Merle. He will be greatly missed, and never forgotten. RIP Merle Shepherd. You will be greatly missed," the message continued.

Earlier Sunday, race promoters Paul and Kathy Hawes said the racetrack would permanently close after 46 years.

"We're done for good," Paul Hawes said Sunday morning while discussing the death of Shepherd, a 56-year-old driver from Rio Linda who was competing in Marysville Raceway Park's inaugural semi-truck event.

"I lost a very close friend," he said of Shepherd, whom the couple had known for more than 20 years.

The Haweses said they made their decision to close the track after consulting with track owner Richard Sinnott. However, when reached later in the day Sunday, Sinnott would neither confirm nor deny the course's permanent shutdown.

The couple have directed Marysville Raceway Park since January 2007, when Paul Hawes signed a 20-year contract with Sinnott to become the venue's race promoter. Hawes, the owner of H&H Trenching, earlier raced for 35 years at the track formerly called Twin Cities Speedway.

The fatal crash occurred shortly before 10:15 p.m. Saturday during the penultimate event of the evening at the facility on Simpson Lane. During what had been billed as the first "IBRRA Big Rig Trucks" event, Shepherd's turquoise semi became tangled with another race truck.

"It got together with another truck and it flipped over with devastating results," said track announcer Bob Burbach, who added that it was the first fatality in the track's 46-year history.

Shepherd's semi landed upside-down in the middle of the infield, where it was subsequently surrounded by squad cars from the Yuba County Sheriff's Department.

Though scheduled and promoted on Saturday's bill, the big-rig event was not a formal, league-sanctioned race but an exhibition held in hopes of forming a new racing class at Marysville Raceway Park, according to Paul Hawes.

Prior to the truck race, the night had already been defined by pair of nasty wrecks on the quarter-mile clay oval.

There were two sprint car crashes that had one driver narrowly avoiding serious burns and another flipping so violently that his car left the track after flying over the retaining barrier in Turn 3.

Shepherd's deadly ride was one of two fatal racing accidents Saturday night in California.

At the California 200 off-road competition in Lucerne Valley, San Bernardino County, an off-road racing pickup went out of control coming off a jump and plowed into a crowd of spectators, killing eight people and injuring 12 others.