{"id":26599,"date":"2024-07-19T01:44:52","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T01:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fairgrounds-speedway-weekend-races-to-honor-jd-minor-who-died-in-june-crash\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:41:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:41:57","slug":"fairgrounds-speedway-weekend-races-to-honor-jd-minor-who-died-in-june-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fairgrounds-speedway-weekend-races-to-honor-jd-minor-who-died-in-june-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"Fairgrounds Speedway weekend races to honor JD Minor, who died in June crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JD
JD Minor volunteered at the track with his father, Jesse Minor, before his death. (Shandra Minor\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Races Friday and Saturday at Fairgrounds Speedway in Cortez will be dedicated to JD Minor, the Dolores High School student who was killed<\/a> in a rollover crash on Colorado Highway 184 on June 25.<\/p>\n

According to Fairgrounds Speedway promoter Julian Garcia, Jr., JD Minor and his father, Jesse Minor volunteered at the track together before his death. JD\u2019s mother, Shandra Minor, is a track photographer.<\/p>\n

Before the start of the races, the track\u2019s staging lane will be named after JD Minor, a reminder that \u201cwill forever stay at the Fairgrounds Speedway.\u201d A sign will be put in place in memory of JD.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will always stay dedicated to him,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

\"JD
JD Minor volunteering at the track. (Shandra Minor\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Jesse Minor will race this weekend \u201cfor the first time in a while,\u201d and before the first heat kicks off, drivers will conduct a prerace ceremony to honor JD with missing man formation laps around the track. About 80 cars are expected to be racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a very emotional weekend for all of us, especially the Minor family,\u201d racetrack representatives said.<\/p>\n

Attendees are asked to wear purple, JD\u2019s favorite color, and racers are asked to adorn their cars in purple of some fashion.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody that comes to the track and watches the races are asked to wear purple, and we\u2019re asking drivers to put purple on their car because purple was JD\u2019s color,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

Stickers honoring JD will be for sale, and there will be opportunities to donate to the Minor family, the families of the other two students injured in the crash and for the Hurst<\/a> family.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, married couple Derick, Shay and their infant daughter, Skylar Hurst, were killed in a car crash outside of Moab, leaving five other children behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some other families that have been affected with accidents, and we will set up collections for all of them both nights and give whatever collection money we get for each family to a designated member,\u201d track organizers said.<\/p>\n

Garcia added that the track is also inviting all certified Montezuma County, Cortez, Mancos and Dolores law enforcement to attend the races this weekend for free. Those who attend with a law ID will get free admission for each night, as well as one free child ticket.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about honoring the Minor family and taking as many donations as we can for these other families that have been impacted by all of this stuff and just give them what we can. That\u2019s what matters and what counts,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

The track also posted on Facebook about honoring JD and his family at the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Fairgrounds Speedway\u2019s way of supporting our families and community and helping out where we can. This racetrack is about family and community bond over everything,\u201d the track said on Facebook. \u201cWe hope you all will join us in honoring JD and his memory, a wonderful young man and family member gone way too soon. We will all miss him dearly. Rest in peace, JD.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pit gate will open at 3:30 p.m., and grandstands will open at 5:30 p.m. The track is opening its doors early to make food for drivers before the races. They are smoking meat and making other sides, and other food vendors will be present for racers and attendees as well.<\/p>\n

Food vendors include Chuckwagon Eats and Treats, The Gettin\u2019 Place and Dos Locos Snack Shack.<\/p>\n

The track roll-in will take place at 6:30 p.m., followed by the demonstration with Jesse Minor in honor of JD.<\/p>\n

The first heats will commence at 6:45 p.m., followed by intermission and main event races.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

will raise money for teen\u2019s family and Hurst family<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,52,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-law-enforcement","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26599"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79406,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26599\/revisions\/79406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26599"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}