All they did was burn lanes 1/2 at first. Most centers do it I believe. It's done just to let the machine warmup the first 2 passes in hopes that the shot put out will be equal and the first pair oiled won't be slightly different

Agreed with SVstar34.  I manage a center so let me elaborate further from my experience.

It's typical for a center to do that in order to let the oil get flowing more uniformly.  End result is the back ends were stripped (cleaned) extra good so they'll be extra lively.  With one single pass of cleaning (for a brief second) it's not quite getting 100% of the previous carry-down. etc.  (There's a tiny bit of "memory" left from the previous oil pattern and carry-down.)  It gets almost all, but not quite the same as making that extra pass with the machine.  Most centers put down the same oil pattern day after day, so the oil pattern seems to be okay, but the back-ends are "flying" on lanes 1 & 2...  Make sense?

Solution:  I have a good friend who used to work for Kegel and he suggested "burning" a different pair each day so that over time it helps alleviate that problem of that one one pair always playing different.  In other words, warm up the machine on 3-4 one day, then go to 1-2 and re-do 3-4 and the rest.  The next day "burn" 5-6 then go from 1-2 through all the lanes, etc.

Also, over time the cleaning mixture can be kinda' "harsh" on the lane surface itself, causing extra wear as aggressive balls continually get thrown.  Will most centers do that?  No.  Their mechanics are doing "what they always do" so they don't get yelled at by the boss...

     Both centers I bowl at burn a pair each day also. The end pairs at both centers are the highest scoring pairs also. Another thing both centers do is on odd days, they start oiling on lane 1 and on even days they start on 12 at the one house and 24 at the other. I think this helps in creating consistency across the house.

Thanks for your reply, Lane. 

Thank you for the great responses!  This is the first time I have seen this done, at any house.  They usually start from one end and single pass it all the way down, from one end to the other.  When the machine first started on lane 1 and 2, I was confused when it went back to lane 1.  The lane man started the machine and disappeared, and didn't come back until the machine did the double pass and was already on lane 4. 

Flying back ends, yes, it was flying!  Had to move so much trying to find something (they lay down sport shots on old wood, so it's already tough) and when I find it, by the next time up, it's gone.  But the guys on lane 3/4, 5/6, 7/8... they were killing it!  My pair, I don't think anyone shot their average for the night.  All we could do was laugh. it was so bad.

on the live streams from el paso they talked about an extra half lane some where in the building they used to warm up the machines.