Payso Productions is BACK and this time Jay Payso partnered up with Lapeer International Dragway (LID). In his first event back in 2019 Payso put together a set of rules and labeled it a Street Car Showdown. Don’t get caught up in the words “Street Car” and what classifies a car as a street car. It’s a topic that has been beaten to death and honestly, there is no answer that will satisfy everyone. If you fit the rules, you can race the event and call your car whatever you want to….end of discussion. After the hype he created for this event, I was ready to see how it would turn out and if people would make the trip to Lapeer! It didn’t take long for a field of 24 cars to pre-register. I think Payso drew the first round pairings days in advance in an effort to continue the hype for the event, and for a couple reasons I’m not a big fan of this decision. First, I think it adds to the event when you can watch with the other racers as they get paired up. Second, when the racers know who they will race ahead of time, it’s a lot easier to prepare. Third, there were 3 or 4 cars who were pre-registered and were paired up that broke before the start of the event creating multiple byes which were painful to watch after baking in the 88 degree sun all day. Payso has been successful with promoting, running his events, and has been an innovator for racing in the North for years, so me questioning his decision really has no validation and it’s merely my opinion.
The first round of the event was the trickiest for the drivers as it was more of a tuning game instead of a power competition. The heat took its toll on the track and the LID crew was doing all they could to provide the best surface possible under the conditions. As I mentioned before, the pre-drawn matchups that were most anticipated never happened due to breakages before the event. I waited anxiously for the sun to go down so that the track would come around…(rewrite) I waited anxiously for the sun to go down because I’m fat, out of shape, couldn’t function, and thought I was about to die in the heat. The first round seemed to take forever with bye runs, track cleanups and anti-climatic pairings/races. In my opinion Rob Golobo was the favorite going in to the event and after 2 rounds of racing there was no reason to change my mind. Going in to the third round the field was now down to six (Rob Golobo vs Tom Swan(Scotty Goss), Jon Capizzi vs Rad Broaddus, John Burkett vs Sean Simpson). You can usually tell who the favorite is based on the betting at the starting line and there was no one betting against Golobo, Broaddus or Simpson who all advanced into the semis. Spectators had started to clear out as it was getting late from the cleanups that delayed the event numerous times. If you were among those that left, you missed two of the best races of the night. Simpson drew the bye in the semi finals while Broaddus had to race Golobo. From my view at the 1/8th mile, it appeared that Broaddus was out on Golobo the entire way and had a car on him at the finish. It looked to me that Golobo was down a bunch of mph compared to previous runs but since I pre-announced his victory before the event, I needed to come up with some sort of excuse! In the finals it was Rad Broaddus and Sean Simpson. Although it was late many had left, there were still a good amount of spectators lining the track’s wall and gambling at the starting line. You never know if the cheers come from friends, family and crew of the car who wins or those that might have had a $20, $50 or $100 on the race. Either way, they typically celebrate together! Everyone watched intently as Simpson and Broaddus both came up on boost after pre-staging, they bumped in and let go of their button on green they left fairly close but it didn’t take long for the big Hemi power of Simpson to drive away from Broaddus. Simpson has an impressive hotrod! As a new fan, I’d like to see a grudge race between Golobo and Simpson. Ohhhweeeeee! Who You Like!? Payso, let’s get this going!
There had been a lot of social media buzz about both LID and Payso over the last year or so. LID has a newer owner and he is definitely not afraid to spend money to improve the facility. Every penny that I can see was spent for the benefit of the racers and spectators. I’m not talking about pulling a couple weeds and smoothing out the ruts in the old dirt road entrance, I’m talking about major renovations which included paving the entrance and pit area, adding spectator parking, updating the track surface, concrete walls, scoreboards, lights, etc. There are concrete foundation pads for what I believe to be more grandstands in the near future. I did hear a lot of people discussing the width of the lanes being too narrow, but I didn’t see one person touch the wall after getting out of shape. I also heard people grumbling about the staging lanes being unorganized. This will improve over time as bigger events give the crew more experience and the know how to handle it better. A couple members of the staff were a little abrasive and not as friendly as you’d expect from a small town grassroots type track environment, but employees can be trained and replaced if needed. I chalk a little of it up to the heat and the rest of it to being overwhelmed by the spectators in the lanes and down the walls. They have probably never experienced anything like that and it can be challenging. The track surface was great and the LID crew worked their tails off to keep the track clean and sticky. I’d be curious to see if this same crew can provide a track surface capable of holding the fastest 315 and 275 No Time cars that Payso’s events have the ability to draw in. My biggest concern would be putting one of those same cars down the narrow lanes. This track has a lot of potential and it’s worth taking the time to check it out as a racer or spectator for one of their upcoming events (Lapeer International Dragway Schedule).
If you think I’m ending this article without mentioning the retirement of Payso after his break up with Milan Dragway…then you’d probably be right. I have a ton of questions that would most likely never be answered so there’s no point in bringing up any old drama. We ALL knew Payso would be back anyway. I write articles for the love of drag racing and for the promotion of the guys that deserve the publicity but don’t get it. Addressing a topic like that would not benefit either. I don’t know if Payso will ever be able to put on another event the size of some of his previous year’s events but I can tell you without a doubt, Jay Payso is great for No Time/Grudge racing here in Michigan. He has accomplished things that others have said would fail. He’s been successful by being the innovator while others have failed trying to be the duplicator. The only thing we really need to know is that Payso and Milan have parted ways and both have happily moved on to bigger and better things. Payso posted on Facebook that he will put on a monthly event in his new home at LID. That sounds like a good partnership in the making and we are happy for both! We’re glad you’re back Payso, we need you!
~Photo Credit: Payso Productions, Sean Simpson
