Pace: Family, friends to memorialize Edsol Sneva with race at Stateline Speedway
Appropriately, Edsol Sneva is being memorialized on a race track.
Sneva, the Spokane native who died on Dec. 1, will be part of Saturday evening’s events at Stateline Speedway. Many of Sneva’s family will be on hand to celebrate his life.
“He didn’t want a funeral service or any of that stuff so the plan was to honor him with this memorial race,” said Blaine Sneva, the brother of 1983 Indianapolis 500 champion, Tom, and one of five of Edsol’s sons to take up racing in some form over the years.
Jerry, Blaine and Jan Sneva will participate in a special ceremonial trophy dash to honor their father. The field also includes Jerry’s son, Trevor. Tom Sneva will lead the Sneva field in a specialized pace car.
Returning home to be part of the tributes to be paid to his father is a special opportunity, said Tom, who lives in Arizona.
“Because of my dad we had the opportunity to do the things we did in racing. He was the catalyst for all the boy’s careers. He was such an innovator.”
While Blaine continues to race on occasion, the Sneva racing genes are in the third and fourth generations with Tom’s grandchildren, Jerry’s son and others involved in the sport.
“Our sport is not exposed to the kids like stick and ball sports are in schools,” Tom said. “Getting exposed to it is something definitely we had that gave opportunities and exposure (to further their careers) so we tried to pass it along (to the younger Sneva generation). We don’t force it on them or anyone, but we’ll try to show them (the joys of the sport).”
Stateline Speedway has also put together an all open-wheel program that will feature the Northwest Modified Series, Northwest Early Stocks and the West Coast Vintage Racers.
Open-wheel racing begins tonight as the NSRA Winged Sprint Cars race the half-mile at Spokane County Raceway.
Behar in Sonoma
Nicole Behar continues her NASCAR K&N Pro Series season on Saturday, with a national audience at the Carneros 200 at Sonoma Raceway. It is a supporting race to the Toyota-Save Mart 350 Sprint Cup race.
Behar currently holds the eighth position in the chase for the series championship and is ranked among the top five in the 2015 Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings. Six of the top-10 championship contenders are rookies, including points leader Chris Eggleston.
“The road course is another challenge that we’re capable of taking on and conquering,” Behar said. “It’s my first start on a road course, but we’ll treat it like any other race and stay focused on the work we have to do to get a solid finishes and maintain our top 10 position.”
Behar returns to her home track at Stateline on July 11 when the oval hosts the K&N Pro Series.
Big payoff
The richest payoff for racing in the Northwest is the Summer Showdown this weekend at Evergreen Speedway, with the winner taking home $25,000. Qualifying and position heat races start today. The 200-lap main event is Saturday at 7 p.m.
Spokane’s Blake Williams finished second at Evergreen Speedway on May 23 in the Mark Galloway 150 for the Tri-Track Super Late Model Series. On June 6, he won the Idaho Tune-Up 150 at Stateline Speedway.
Daniel Moore, also from Spokane, is a past NASCAR Whelen All-American late model division champion. Saturday’s race will be his third start behind the wheel of a new race car he debuted in early May.