{"id":2560,"date":"2022-08-29T21:25:20","date_gmt":"2022-08-30T04:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/?p=2560"},"modified":"2022-08-29T21:25:20","modified_gmt":"2022-08-30T04:25:20","slug":"ending-it-where-it-all-began-the-mcmahan-brothers-call-it-a-career-at-placerville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/08\/29\/ending-it-where-it-all-began-the-mcmahan-brothers-call-it-a-career-at-placerville\/","title":{"rendered":"Ending It Where It All Began: The Mcmahan Brothers Call It A Career At Placerville"},"content":{"rendered":"
JIM ALLEN, NARC 410<\/pre>\n
(PLACERVILLE, CALIFORNIA) Aug 29, 2022 \u2014 This past weekend a single night at a California quarter mile of red clay summoned decades of memories and the countless miles raced by a pair of Elk Grove brothers.<\/p>\n
Saturday at Placerville Speedway Paul and Bobby McMahan put the final punctuation marks on two remarkable sprint car careers. The El Dorado County bullring played an instrumental role in launching those careers, and in storybook fashion the duo returned to Placerville for one final race.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something I\u2019ve been planning for probably three years when I\u2019ve been kind of contemplating to quit racing,\u201d Paul McMahan explained on Saturday. \u201cI always knew I wanted to come back to Placerville. It\u2019s a very special place to me. It\u2019s where I got to race my first full season. I got my first sprint car win here. I\u2019ve got a lot of friends and family that are close to here, so it\u2019s a very special day for me to finish my career here in Placerville.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Placerville helped them get started in the 1980s, both went on to build excellent sprint car resum\u00e9s including becoming two of the best to ever compete with the NARC (Northern Auto Racing Club) sprint cars.<\/p>\n
Paul began by driving for his father and establishing a solid presence in California, and then he quickly became one of the state\u2019s strongest forces when he climbed aboard Clyde Lamar\u2019s iconic TRI-C Machine sprinter in the early 1990s, the same car he drove on Saturday. Wheeling Lamar\u2019s No. 3C the younger McMahan competed for multiple NARC titles, earning back-to-back runner-ups in the standings in 1994 and 1995. He collected his fair share of victories during that time frame as well.<\/p>\n
After making a name for himself on the West Coast, McMahan decided to expand his racing ventures and competed for World of Outlaws Rookie of the Year in 1997. He then constructed one of the best tenures with the Outlaws among California natives, racking up 27 victories over roughly the next two decades and finishing a best of third in points in both 2013 and 2014.<\/p>\n
Bobby earned 1982 Placerville Rookie of the Year honors and parlayed that success into the 1986 NARC Rookie of the Year award. Bobby competed alongside his brother on the NARC tour in the 90s, taking many trips to victory lane. He didn\u2019t race often with the series in the 2000s but returned in the 2010s, finishing in the top-10 in points five more times during the decade, bringing his total to 16 appearances among the top-10 against California\u2019s best.<\/p>\n
While the brothers both eventually moved to Tennessee, their friendly personalities led to them becoming beloved within the California racing community. And their reputations made Saturday all the more emotional as they came to their original home to say goodbye.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was good. It was a great night,\u201d Bobby said. \u201cIt was a lot of emotions all day. All day I\u2019d think about it and start to well up a little bit and try and compose myself. It was just an awesome night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnytime you can race with your brother it\u2019s great,\u201d Paul said. \u201cWe\u2019ve done that a lot over the years but hadn\u2019t done it in a long time, so this is pretty cool to both finish our careers here at Placerville. It all started for both of us here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family, friends, and fans occupying the packed stands welcomed the brothers with cheers each and every time they hit the track. Track promoters Scott Russell and Kami Arnold organized a special presentation for Paul early in the night, and after both of their evenings ended a little early in separate B-mains, each McMahan parked on the front stretch for some closing remarks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was good, and then they stopped me out there on the front straightaway and I lost it,\u201d Bobby said of the moments after completing his final laps in a sprint car. \u201cI really lost it. I had to stop, take some deep breaths, and try and power through that deal. That part was tough. It was really, really tough. Everything just kind of overwhelmed me at that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adding to the emotion was the extent of support. The local community came out in strong numbers to see the McMahans, but the outpouring of congratulatory words and encouragement stretched across the nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy phone\u2019s been blowing up,\u201d Paul said. \u201cI got a text from Donny Schatz today, and that meant a lot to me. Joey Saldana flew in from Indianapolis to watch my last race. I\u2019ve got friends from Nebraska that flew in, friends from Illinois, all these different people that came to see my last race is very cool and very special.\u201d<\/p>\n
The night also served as a welcome reminder that the same Golden State racing scene that helped shape them is alive and well and could potentially be working on forming the next Paul or Bobby McMahan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no slow cars in this field,\u201d Bobby said. \u201cThere\u2019s a bunch of really good racecars and a lot of good young drivers coming up through this deal. And it makes me feel good that we have these guys that can hopefully continue to make this sport as great as it is. Sprint car racing is by far the most exciting racing there is anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
As their time on the racetrack ended on Saturday, the night was only beginning. Once the final checkered flag of the evening flew the stands emptied into the pits where the McMahan brothers waited to greet everyone who wanted to talk.<\/p>\n
The massive gathering that surrounded their neighboring pit areas stands as a testament to the impact of these two men. The McMahans were known equally as fierce drivers on track and as two of the most approachable and genuine people to ever grace the sport.<\/p>\n
Tears were shed and smiles exchanged, photos were taken, and memories were shared as Saturday night at Placerville Speedway became Sunday morning. And in true McMahan fashion, both Paul and Bobby treated each person as a friend as the brothers called it a career at the place where it all began.<\/p>\n
SEE MORE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saturday at Placerville Speedway Paul and Bobby McMahan put the final punctuation marks on two remarkable sprint car careers. The El Dorado County bullring played an instrumental role in launching those careers, and in storybook fashion the duo returned to Placerville for one final race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2562,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2560\/revisions\/2562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}