2022 Speedway New and Views

Broc Nicol

Life has its ups and downs but Broc Nicol trip to the US Open held challenges that made his racing look like a walk in the park.

The plan was good. Fly to Syracuse, New York, rent a car and drive to Owego, race, win, go home. Reservations made and confirmed, what could possibly go wrong.

We’re all familiar with that Murphy’s Law guy. You know the one with the adage - "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." Chaos is his stock and trade as you will see.

It started out harmless enough. Reservations on American Airlines, Broc Nicol and Emalee Pappalardo would fly LAX to Syracuse, grab a rent a car and drive to the race track about an hour from the airport.

I’m sorry we have no car to give you Hertz told Broc. Yes we see you have a confirmed reservation but unfortunately nothing can be done cause we do not have a single car on the lot.

Calls to other rent a car companies yielded the same results. There were no cars to rent.

Desperate they stepped into the loading - unloading zone if front of the terminal and started asking drivers if any wanted to make some money and drive them to Owego.

I’ll take you this nice black lady said. She and her boyfriend were driving an old mini van and beggars can’t be choosy so it was off to the races. Problem was the van was crap and soon overheated. Stuck again Broc called UBER and asked to be picked up.

Time was getting short if Broc was to make it to the track in time to race so a new plan was formed. Is there a Home Depot close he asked.

There was and yes they have trucks to rent. Unfortunately they charge by the hour as these trucks are supposed to be for moving stuff you buy at the store.

Rental agreement signed they were off and running. Peddle down hard the pair burned a trail and arrived at the track in the nick of time.

Great, let’s put on our race face and make this happen. Jason Bonsignore had a machine waiting and Gene Bonsignore would handle the pit duties personally. Finally, it was showtime.

What would life be without a problem or two. Broc had forgotten to bring his race drivers suit. Seems it was dirty after he used it at Industry so he took it out, washed it and hung it out to dry. Then in all the confusion of packing for the trip he mistakenly thought it was in the race bag with his helmet, boots and so on. Dam, would there be any more surprises?

Fellow California racer Jake Myers was there and offered Broc his suit. Myers is well know for his racing attire because they are always fancy and it seems like he gets a new one every couple of weeks. Problem was Jake’s a big guy and Broc was kind of swimming in it. Still it was a grand gesture and Broc really appreciated it.

Finally on the track things got better. Well kind of as Broc had a motor failure while he was leading in his second heat race. No worries father and son Bonsignore quickly provided another machine and Broc went on to win the night plus the overall US Open Championship the following evening.

I really want to thank Jason Bonsignore for all his hard work and everything he did for me Broc told me. Seems even with all his trials and tribulations Broc had a great time and looks forward to defending his title next year.
Event over, title won, it was time to go home. Easy, breezy, Broc returned the truck to Home Depot at 3am. They were closed but have a drop box to put the keys in. A call the next day confirmed all was in order. Sure they were a little miffed about the unconventional use of their truck but it was no worse off so other than being the most expensive rental ever it was all good.

The fight back to California was scheduled to leave at 6:30 am so a decision to get a hotel room and grab a couple of hours of shut-eye turned problematic. They missed the 6:30 am check in by 45 minutes and could not board the plane. American Airlines did work with them but the best they could offer was a standby flight to Chicago with a six hour layover. Needless to say Broc and Emalee were happy when the wheels finally touched down at LAX.
Just another day in the life of a Speedway Superstar. Congratulation on your US Open win Broc Nicol.

Thanks for listening
Howie Zechner