It doesn't pay him one red cent, but Chris Arronge loves his job in the Prince George Auto Racing Association.
Elected Wednesday to serve his fourth one-year term as local stock car racing's grand poobah, the main reason Arronge wanted to come back for more was to maintain continuity.
He liked the way the club ran this year.
In an adrenaline-charged sport known for attracting the kinds of personalities that tend to become overheated radiators of frustration when the proceedings on the track work against them, a general atmosphere of peace and harmony was pervasive at PGARA Speedway. Arronge simply wants that neighbour helping neighbour cohesiveness to continue.
"We have a good board of directors and a good executive right now and I didn't want to break that up," said the 36-year-old Arronge. "I'd say it's not just three or four people working hard, it's all nine people on the board who really want to make a difference and want to spend the time to make things better out there. Pretty much everybody there has been around the track for quite awhile and has good common sense in making decisions for the betterment of the club.
"Everybody's getting along like a family out there. If a car comes in the pits with something broken, pretty much somebody from every crew is over there helping and offering them parts. That's the way it used to be and we're getting back towards that more."
The PGARA board for 2011 remains pretty much as it was in 2010, with Arronge (president), Jamie Crawford (vice-president), Guy Lefevre (secretary), Corrine Turgeon (treasurer), and directors Aaron Conn, Brad Wallin and Shane Murphy. Jerry Gascon and Darrell Horwath decided not to run for re-election as directors and were replaced by Jim Chapman and Danny Arronge.
On the racing front, there were a few surprises in 2010, one that especially stood out for Chris Arronge. The street stock points battle came down to a hotly-contested horse race between Horwath and street stock rookie Jeff Murray, who came into the season having raced only in hit-to-pass events. Horwath ended up winning the championship with 252 points, just two points ahead of Murray.
"Jeff went from hit-to-pass to street stocks and missed the first race day but still almost got Darrell," said Arronge. "He learned fast and built the car properly and that was kind of a surprise because usually it takes a couple of years to get everything figured out."
Tyler Case wrapped up the mini stock title early, finishing with 315 points, 121 ahead of second-place Lawrence Barks. Breanna Pollard captured the rookie hornet class with 127 points, 23 ahead of Aaron Case.
Arronge, a former CASCAR and WESCAR late model series driver, got back behind the wheel this summer and ended up covering his entry fee with pocket change to spare in the street stock invitational when he won the Saturday main event.
"We broke the track record pretty much the second time out, and nobody's beaten it since -- just to remind them new guys who we are," laughed Arronge.
PGARA purposely avoided taking on any major infrastructure improvement projects at the three-eight mile oval track this year and shied away from special event promotions that run the risk of costing the club money. Instead, more money was funneled into the local race classes to make the street stock invitational and mini stock invitational meets more lucrative for out-of-town entries. As a result, all the bills got paid and the club was left with about $10,000 in the bank, with one more event to come this Saturday night -- the second annual Halloween Havoc hit-to-pass demolition derby.
Arronge promises there will be one major change coming to PGARA Speedway for the 2011 season -- a concrete wall will be built to line the inside edge of the track.
"Rolling Mix gave us a bunch of those 4 X 8 (foot) concrete blocks and we're getting more in the spring," said Arronge. "We tried to do the inside wall last year but the highway dividers would break if a big heavy hit-to-pass car hit them, so now we've got the proper blocks and we can go ahead and put those in as the inside wall.
"It will keep the cars out of the dirt, which brings gravel on the track and delays in the show when we have to clean it up. It will also make the track look a lot nicer."
