When Bob Bane sat down at his computer on the morning following the Hall of Fame Classic at Brownstown Speedway, it wasn’t quite business as usual when he performed his normal duties of updating the famed speedway’s website.
“It was a little unreal,” Bane said as he recalled typing his own name alongside his childhood racing heroes into the history pages of Brownstown Speedway as a Hall of Fame member.
Bane was selected as one of the four 2019 Hall of Fame inductees into the Brownstown Speedway Hall of Fame on Aug. 3 as part of the Hall of Fame Classic event featuring the MARS Super Late Models.
“Several of my racing heroes ever since I was a small kid are part of the Hall of Fame, and I never dreamed that I would be,” said Bane, who joins his father, Richard, on the list of members.
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Bane has been involved with the speedway off and on for more than 40 years with duties ranging from working in the concession stand through his early teens all the way up to his present-day duties of working in the tower scoring races.
At age 12, Bane lied to former track promoter Roger Williams, claiming he was 13, so he could work in the concession stands.
“I wanted the concessions because they were along the backstretch and I could see the races,” Bane said.
Progressing from the concession stand position, Bane later began watching the back gate of the facility near the scale house until he was injured when a car struck him.
Despite the injury, Bane’s passion never faded as he took a position in the scorers’ tower as a track official, a position he still holds to this day.
Bane spent several of his years at the track as not only an official but as a car owner and crew member on various racing teams.
“There was a brief stint where I didn’t work. Then I had some cars. I had a street stock with my buddy, Scott Butt. Hall of Famer Cooley Singer drove for us,” Bane said.
Singer was inducted into the Brownstown Speedway Hall of Fame in 2011.
“After that, I worked some more and then started helping Jay Deckard with his bomber and street stock," Bane said.
“There are quite a few stories there,” he joked.
Of the many experiences Bane has had over the past four decades at the speedway, he enjoys his view from the scorers’ tower high above the speedway the most.
“There’s not much you can’t see from up there," he said.
Bane congratulated another local racer and friend who was also inducted into the Hall of Fame, that being Brownstown’s Doug Ault.
“Scott and I both helped Doug with his late model, so it’s cool to see Doug get into the Hall of Fame,” Bane said.
Ault won the late model track championship in 1994 and was a longtime competitor at the speedway.
“I got to do this for 33 years, and I thought I’d only get to do it for one,” Ault said. “I feel so blessed that I got to do that.”
Ault disagrees with Bane’s stance on the best seat in the house.
“A lot of people ask me why I don’t come out here on Saturday nights and watch the races, and it’s not because I don’t like it. It’s just that there’s only one good seat out here, and that’s in the car,” he said.
Joe Johnson and Ray Hughes also were among the inductees for 2019.
Winfield, Tennessee, driver Mike Marlar picked up the Hall of Fame Classic feature win, collecting $10,000 for his efforts. Nick Hoffman, Mike Fields and Zachary Stalker won features in their respective divisions.
Brownstown Speedway is off this weekend and will return to racing action Aug.17 with Schaefer’s Photos and Custom Tees Night featuring pro late models, modifieds, super stocks, hornets and Ford crown vics.