What started as a one-off event to celebrate the life of a local racer has quickly grown into the biggest race of the season for Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway.

Ed Laboon was a local cornerstone of the Pittsburgh/Western Pennsylvania racing community. When he passed in August 2012 from lung cancer, his son, Vince, quickly pulled together a memorial race for the following week. That's where the story was supposed to end, but through support from the sponsors and the community it came back for another year. And then another. Flash forward to now as local racers head to their garages to prepare for the sixth annual Ed Laboon Memorial race on Saturday, June 3, in Imperial, PA.

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"I just wanted to do a race in his memory more than anything," Vince said. "Then the response from the sponsors and the local racing community was so strong it ended up going into a second year because the demand was there and the sponsorship money was there. Then it grew and grew, and here we are doing the sixth annual one and it seems like I just started this yesterday."

Vince's first trip to PPMS happened during its inaugural season of 1979, when he was 4 and his father, Ed, had temporarily hung his helmet in order to focus his time raising his three sons and running his shop, J&J ATR. 



Now in its sixth year, the event has continued to grow from race to race and spread the memory of Ed. The success of the event isn't enough to take the away the pain of losing a father for Vince, but it does ease it by showing the lives people can touch even after their passing. 

"I think because of my dad's memory," Vince said. "He had a lot of friends at the track; he had a lot of friends from his business. He was a mechanic and painted cars and had a garage his whole life which is the J&J ATR. That was his business for 35 years. I would say the friends my dad made at the track, in business, and just in life, a lot of people really loved him. I think just because of him they continue to support this. ... I wish my dad was still around of course, but the race has really taken off and has allowed me to share his memory with everyone."



Another reason the event has been made successful is because of Vince and his understanding of what both racers and fans want to see out of a race.

"My experience in racing as a driver, a pit crew guy, and promoting, I think I have a pretty good finger on the pulse of what drivers want as far as payouts and rules. Not having entry fees, the length of the race, the format of the race," Vince said. "That's made it successful too, I think because I'm a racer I know what other guys prefer and I try to put my touch on that as well."

Drivers have continued to return to the event year after year because of good experiences at the event and the pull of the track on its own. PPMS is a larger track than the majority in the area at 5/8ths of a mile. The width and banking of the track lends itself to fast-pace four- and five-wide racing. 

"There's a lot speed, a lot of momentum, and a lot of fun racing," Vince said.

Most importantly, the size and scope of the event brings in a large amount of sponsorship money to create the largest purse in the Penn-Ohio series. As Vince explained it, the average purse for a weekend race in the area is around $2,500. The payout for the winner of the feature plus the winner of the non-qualifier race alone is north of that figure with an expected payout for the whole field of more than $15,000. 

Ed Laboon Memorial Coverage

Ed Laboon Memorial Preview
2016 Ed Laboon Memorial Results

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