We loaded up and headed to Michael’s Mercer Raceway twice this season. We’ve heard many great things about the track and when some changes to our schedule occurred in late July, we had a couple weekends to fill, track announcer and fellow photographer Jim Balentine was quick to invite us to Mercer, PA.
It’s a very quick hour and forty-minute drive from home to the track. Getting off of I-80 at PA State Route 19, it’s a short couple minutes until you arrive right in the middle of the town of Mercer, PA. It’s the kind of town that country songs are written about.
Just past the town square, a quick right-hand turn onto Fairgrounds Road takes you right to the track. It’s a ⅜ mile egg shaped track with 3, 4 or 5 turns depending on who you talk to. The pits are along the backstretch and the turns 3 & 4 end of the facility.
A brief driver’s meeting takes place at 5:30 with engine heat and hotlaps at 6PM. Final preparations are underway as the cars line up for engine heat in turn 2 and push off, exiting in turn 3, never touching the racing surface. Hotlaps begin right on time and announcer Jim Balentine runs through the night’s program, who’s in what car and a few facility rules. When we attended for the All Star Circuit of Champions on September 6th, they hotlapped and qualified before the program, all other classes hotlapped in a green-white-checkered format. To say the program moves quickly at Mercer is no joke.
A quick look at the track surface and a little track prep takes place if needed before the racing program begins with the invocation and playing of the Star Spangled Banner. On the September 20th show, the first green flag flew at 7:08PM for a scheduled 7:00 start time, well within the 15-minute grace period that most fans will tolerate. This wasn’t because they weren’t ready, the unreasonable drought conditions and high temperatures, still above 80 degrees at 7PM, was drying the track much quicker than anticipated.
Once the green flag flew, the race was on. Not only on the track, but from Race Control, where the track stayed busy throughout the night. Never did I get the feeling that track staff was wasting time or running unnecessary caution laps. Quite the contrary, some incidents would have been cautions at other tracks but the racing continued on green.
A short intermission, filled with Kid’s Bike Races filled about 10-15 minutes of track prep before the feature action rolled onto the track. Jim Balentine announces the starting field while the track is quiet, before the cars enter the track. And when the checkered flag falls, Balentine interviews the winner and podium finishers at the base of the grandstands, giving fans a good look at who the drivers are. The winner poses for a photo by their car and then it’s on to the next one.
On this night we left Mercer just after 10:30PM, that includes the time it takes for us to pack up our camera equipment and a quick chat with Balentine before we headed home.
The track infield is staffed by the safety crew, made up of firemen and EMT’s from the surrounding area. Their response time is quick and their clean up efforts are top notch. Track owner Earl Michaels even lends a hand from time to time, picking up pieces and parts from the crash scene. Michaels also greets the drivers in victory lane after the race.
On a fan related note, we took a few minutes to check out the track’s grandstands and fan area. We were greeted by very reasonable prices for concessions and a vendor at the track sold all the souvenirs one could wish for on race day, from die-cast cars to checkered flags and seat cushions; they had it.
Michael’s Mercer Raceway located in Mercer, PA is a must visit track. Set the Navigation to 555 Farigrounds Road in Mercer, PA and enjoy racing the way it was meant to be enjoyed!
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