Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – KINGSTON, NY – It all started with an outing that Accord Speedway owner, Gary Palmer, took with the company that he works for. That sent him into motion.
And the result was a unique awards ceremony for the top runners at Accord Speedway in 2022. The Awards were distributed while on board the Hudson River Cruises boat, the Rip Van Winkle II.
“We had a bus garage thing on the boat,” Gary said. “I thought to myself, what a good idea.It was one way to get the people together. It’s a nice fall day. The foliage is really coming in. The weather today is perfect. We just wanted to do something different.”
Indeed, it was a perfect day/early evening for the twilight cruise. Temperatures were in the mid to upper 60’s under clear blue skies as the gangplank rolled away and the RVW II pulled away from the dock.
While the RVW II circled past the Roundout and Esopus Lighthouses, awards were handed out. Afterwards, Accord track photographer, Kevin Berryman, had an excellent backdrop of the Hudson River for his awards photos.
Danny Creeden, after a long event and ride home from Saturday’s Port Royal Speedway’s STSS event, was honored for his 2nd consecutive Accord Modified championship.
“It’s a cool thing for me, my team and my sponsors,” Danny said. “It’s been a busy year with many midweek races a good distance to travel to. By the weekend, we were sometimes just worn out, but we were able to hold it together and take the championship at Accord.”
Travis Green has had a great year in general with his racing. He was the 2022 Accord Sportsman champion.
“It was a dream year. It was good to get wins at different tracks and to win this championship,” Travis said. “The championship race here was close all year, back and forth. Add in the midweek shows that we raced and it was a busy season.”
John Hechinger won his 2nd career Accord Speedway Pure Stock Championship. It was a close race for John, who was grateful to a fellow competitor who helped him out at a critical time.
“This year, to win the championship was tough. Walt Henry, Jayden Sleight, Joe Narok. We had a battle to the end,” John said. “We did a good job and we won it. I want to thank Wayne Taylor. Two weekends before the final points race, my engine blew. And Wayne Taylor was there that night and he gave me his car to race. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here with the championship right now.”
Other champions that received their awards were Brandon Conklin, Fireball 4 Cylinder, Amber Baccaglini All Star Slingshots, Brayden Traver, Junior Slingshots and Charles Weslowski, NEWS Sprints.
The Palmer Family also awarded plaques to those who help put on the events at the Ulster County Bullring each week.
Congratulations to the champions and all award winners from Sunday.
And congratulations to Accord Speedway on having such a great event. You folks knocked it out of the park on this one. Very well done!!
Although the regular season awards have been distributed, there are still two great events remaining on Accord’s 2022 schedule.
On October 29th, the rescheduled Joe G’s Great Crate Race will be held in conjunction with the Halloween Havoc event.
And on Saturday, November 26th, the always popular Gobbler event will bring a close to the Northeast Dirt Modified season.
Support your local tracks!!